15 Upper Back Exercises With Bands And Dumbbells

Reduce back pain and get stronger with these upper back exercises! This group of muscles is often overlooked but no less important in improving daily tasks and managing pain.

Learn how to strengthen back muscles with resistance bands and dumbbells to relieve tension and improve performance. Then, at the end of this blog post grab the 6-minute upper back strength workout and get started!

"The bentover dumbbell row is one of my favorite exercises for building strength and stability in my upper back. I feel stronger and more resilient with each workout. It's challenging but so rewarding! Thanks for the helpful guide!" - Layla

Exercise 1: Bentover Dumbbell Row

1. Start in a bentover position (from a hip hinge), with feet flat on the floor, a flat back, knees bent slightly and the dumbbells hanging down at your sides. Abdominal muscles engaged.
2. Maintain the bentover position as you row the dumbbells up towards your chest, pinch the shoulder blades together at the top and pause briefly.
3. Reverse the movement and return the dumbbells to the starting position.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 2: Band Pull Apart

1. Stand tall with your feet flat on the floor and hold a red strength band in your hands with palms facing down. Keep the elbows slightly bent as you open up the arms driving the side of your hands backward and feeling your shoulder blades together behind your back.
2. Make sure not to row the elbows backward but instead, open up the arms. Do not lock out the elbows.

Perform 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

Exercise 3: TRX Low Row

• Begin standing upright. Extend the arms straight as you walk your feet closer towards the anchor point to your desired level of difficulty.
• Maintaining a plank position with the abdominal muscles tight, knees bent slightly, body in a straight line, and row your body up towards the anchor point by driving your elbows backward.
• Make sure not to overarch the low back or shrug the shoulders. Instead, pinch the shoulder blades together behind your back.
• Pause and slowly lower your body back to the starting position.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 4: Resistance Band High Row

1. Sit on the ground with your feet out in front of you. Wrap a strength band around your feet and hold the other end in each hand. Sit up tall.
2. Raise the elbows up so that they’re just slightly below your shoulders as you row the elbows backward and bring your hands towards your chest.
3. Pause briefly and return to the starting position.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 5: Rear Delt Fly

1. With two very light dumbbells, begin in a bentover position initiating from a hip hinge with feet shoulder-width apart. Knees bent slightly, abdominal muscles engaged, arms down by your sides, and feet flat on the floor. Keep a slight bend in the elbows as you open up the arms as if you were “hugging” someone.
2. Do not lock out the elbows, instead, move the shoulder blades together on your back and try to pause briefly at the top of the movement while maintaining a bent-over position.
3. Return the dumbbells back towards the thighs.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 6: Single Arm Kettlebell Row

1. Holding a kettlebell in your right arm step the right leg back so that you are in a lunge position (back leg straight). Hinge from the hips and keep the back flat (a straight line from ears to shoulders to hips) as you bent forward, arm straight down. Core muscles will need to brace.
2. Maintain the bent over lunge position as you row the right arm up towards the chest driving the elbow back and up.
3. Return to the starting position slowly.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions (per arm).

Exercise 7: Resistance Band Face Pull

Sit on the ground with your feet out in front of you. Wrap a strength band around your feet and hold the other end in each hand. Sit up tall.

Raise the elbows up above the shoulders and rotate the hands so that the knuckles are face inward.

Keep the elbows up as you pull the hands back towards the chest. Pause and return to the start.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 8: Lat Pulldown

Sit at a lat pulldown machine (this can be done using a resistance band as well) with the knees bent and grab the bar overhead.

Lean back slightly and pull the bar down toward the best while “tucking the elbows into the back pockets”. Do not shrug the shoulders.

Pause and return the bar to the starting position.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 9: Bow & Arrow Row

1. Grab a green mini loop and stand in a staggard archer stance (right foot back, left foot forward). Knees bent slightly, standing upright. One leg straight and the other on the ball of the foot and bent slightly.
2. Hold the mini loop in your hands and straighten the left hand in front of you.
3. Thinking of pulling back a bow as you pull the mini loop back with the right arm and bring the hand towards the chest. Make sure the shoulder is down and in. return to the starting position.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions (per arm).

Exercise 10: Single Arm Mini Loop Pulldown

1. Stand tall and hold a strength band or mini loop above your head in your hands. Keep your right arm up to keep tension on the band as you pull the left arm down towards the chest driving your elbow down into your back pocket.
2. Reverse the movement and perform all repetitions on one arm before moving on to the next.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions (per arm).

Exercise 11: Superman With Mini Loop Pull

1. Begin on your belly with a mini loop wrapped around your wrists.
2. Squeeze the glutes and raise your legs and arms off the floor. At the top of the position, drive out against the mini loop and pull your arms towards your chest. Release the pull and then release the raise position.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions.

Exercise 12: Scapular Push Ups

• Begin in plank position (regress the movement to do this in tabletop position if the stomach muscles can't keep up). Keep a tight core and engaged arms (do not lock out the elbows) as your round your upper back toward the ceiling. Then drop the upper back down as your pinch your shoulder blades together on your back all while holding a plank position.
• Do not bend and flex the elbows. Move through the back instead.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 5-8 repetitions.

Exercise 13: TRX External Rotation

1. Begin standing upright. Extend the arms straight as you walk your feet closer towards the anchor point to your desired level of difficulty, keep the feet together.
2. Maintaining a plank position/engaging the stomach muscles, keep your elbows up and row your body towards the anchor point.
3. From here, externally rotate your shoulders so that your knuckles come from in line with your shoulders to above your shoulders and in line with your ear.
4. Reverse the movement so that the knuckles are back in line with the shoulders but the row is still engaged and repeat.

If you need more stability in the exercise, take the feet shoulder-width apart.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions.

Exercise 14: I-Y-T

1. Lay on your belly on the floor with your arms straight above your head. Close your fists and point your thumb to the ceiling. Take a deep breath and raise your thumbs toward the ceiling. Perform five reps of the “I position”.
2. Move into the “Y” position by taking your arms wider and making a “y” with your body. Repeat the process of driving the thumbs up toward the ceiling five times.
3. Move into a “T” position with the arms straight out from your sides and raise the thumbs five times from there.

As a beginner, perform 3 sets of 5 repetitions for each letter.

Exercise 15: Inverted Row

This can be done on a barbell or TRX straps.

1. Lay on the floor and grab the suspension straps with arms straight up from your chest. Raise your body into a plank position engaging the core muscles and keep straight arms.
2. Squeeze the glutes, take a breath, and slowly lift your body up towards your hands pinching the shoulder blades together behind your back.
3. Pause and then slowly lower back down towards the starting position.

As a beginner, bend the knees and perform 3 sets of 6-8 repetitions.

How To Progress The Exercises

Sometimes, it’s just not possible to add more weight to an exercise.

However, you can make the exercise harder without it! Learn more about how to increase the intensity of your exercises when you’re working out from home.

Some examples are:

• Using pause rep training
• Focusing on the eccentric part of an exercise
• Trying a unilateral version (check out the best unilateral exercises!)
• Changing your stance

Frequently Asked Questions