Back Workout in the Gym for Female Beginners
- Cherie Aria
- Nov 17
- 7 min read
Toned Back Female Workout—Back Muscles and Training Goals
The left photo below is a picture of my back flexed, showing back muscle definition; the right is the same photo overlaid with a muscle diagram. In the diagram, red represents muscles, off-white represents fascia. The blue areas are the parts we want to avoid training and compensating with, while bright pink are the parts we want to focus on training. You can compare the two images to see the position of the muscles.
Goal 1: Middle Trapezius and Rhomboids
The trapezius is the outermost layer of the upper back and is the main contributor of the defined lines we like. The mid traps go horizontally across the upper back. The rhomboids lie beneath the trapezius, connecting to the spine on one side and the shoulder blade on the other. The mid traps and rhomboids generally activate together, responsible for retracting the shoulder blades and pinching them toward the spine.
Goal 2: Lower Trapezius
The lower traps extend outward and upward from the spine to the shoulder blade. It controls the depression (downward movement) of the shoulder blades and helps stabilize the them when we lift our arms.
Goal 3: Avoid the Upper Trapezius
The trapezius stretches from the skull all the way down to the middle of the back. It is one single muscle, but because there is fascia in the between and the upper/middle/lower fibers run in different directions, they can be trained separately.
The upper traps run from the neck to the shoulders. Over-training it makes the neck look thicker and shorter, also causing the shoulders to rise. Upper traps are responsible for lifting and shrugging the shoulder blades, so during training we need to lift our chests and avoid shrugging.
Goal 4: Latissimus Dorsi
The lats extend inward and downward from the armpit and connects to the spine and pelvis. Training it helps straighten the back and pull the shoulders downward, counteracting the shrugged-forward posture caused by looking at our phones. It also creates a V-shape that makes the waist appear smaller while helping balance the core and pelvis. It controls the movement of pulling the shoulder in, such as in pulldowns or when pulling the elbow to the side of the body.
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Goal 5: Infraspinatus and Supraspinatu
These two small muscles are not exactly part of the “back”; they connect from the shoulder blade to the upper arm, beneath the trapezius and deltoids. The infraspinatus and supraspinatus are part of the rotator cuff and are respectively responsible for external rotation and abduction of the shoulder and arm. Strengthening them makes shoulder and back training smoother and also helps improve rounded shoulders.
Toned Back Female Workout—Back Workout Benefits
Posture and Pain
Strengthening the lats and lower traps naturally opens the shoulders and improves slouching. It reduces shoulder-neck tightness and forward-head posture caused by long hours of sitting. This not only improves posture but also relieves shoulder, neck, and lower-back pain caused by poor posture.
Personally, I feel this one the most. I used to suffer from back soreness all the time and need to charge my massage cushion 3 times a night, now, I can't remember the last time I needed it.
Aesthetics
Training the back makes the body upright. Besides improving posture, the V-shape visually defines the waist. Many women worry about thick upper arms or loose fat on the backside of the arms, which is often caused by slouching. After strengthening the back, the arms look firmer, and the corrected posture also helps hide “bat wings.”
Toned Back Female Workout—Back Workout for Women
For all exercises, I do 4–6 sets of 10–12 reps.
(The white object poking out of my mouth in the photos has nothing to do with training, that's the bluetooth controller of my selfie stick. Please ignore the fact that I controlled my camera with my teeth.)
Back Workout for Women in the Gym: Seated Row
Handlebar: Close-grip neutral row handle—the one shaped like a horn
Target muscles: middle trapezius, rhomboids
Description: Sit with feet resting on the platform, knees slightly bent. Pull at about navel height. Arms stay naturally at the sides—not forced tight against the body, but elbows should not flare outward.
Notes and techniques
Lift the chest, depress the shoulders slightly, do not shrug, to avoid activating the upper trapezius.
Barely hold on to the handle; do not grip hard to prevent arm muscles from compensating.
Treat the entire arm as a hook connected to the shoulder. Keep the elbow’s bend natural and unchanged throughout the movement. Open your chest and pinch the shoulder blades to pull the handle toward you. When the handle reaches roughly halfway up the thighs (varies by person), you’ll notice pulling farther requires bending the elbows more. Stop before that. Going farther activates the teres major on the sides of your back and the arms, not our target muscles.
Back Workout for Women in the Gym: Standing High Row
Handlebar: Angled rotating lat bar—the one that looks like a wavy W
Target muscles: lower trapezius, rhomboids (synergistic)
Description: Set the pulley at head height. Hold the W-bar at the V-shaped sections, elbows flared about 75°. Pull from around nipple height or slightly higher and finish at the lower-chest level.
Notes and techniques
When the pulley is fixed at head height, the handle naturally hangs around chest level; you are not supposed to start from overhead.
Lift the chest, depress the shoulders slightly, do not shrug, to avoid activating the upper trapezius.
The 75° elbow angle is only a reference—keep it natural. No need to raise the arms until they’re parallel to the ground; doing so makes it harder not to shrug and leads to upper-trapezius compensation.
Simply hook onto the bar with your four fingers instead of holding onto it; this prevents gripping too hard and arm compensation.
As with the seated row, treat the arm as a hook. Keep the elbow’s bend natural and unchanged. Pull by depressing and slightly retracting the shoulder blades, not by using the arms.
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Back Workout for Women in the Gym: Lat Pulldown
Handlebar: Standard Pulldown Bar—super long bar shaped like this-> [
Target muscles: latissimus dorsi
Description: Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder width with arms raised naturally. Sit upright and lean back about 5°. Pull the bar from overhead down to chest height.
Notes and techniques
When sitting, you won’t reach the bar. Stand up to grab it, then sit; the bar comes down with you. Pull to around head height or the top of the forehead. Both hands should look like the Japanese beckoning cat gesture—that is the correct starting position.
Lift the chest, depress the shoulders slightly, to avoid upper-trapezius activation. So don't start with your hands too high, that makes it harder to avoid shrugging.
The slight backward lean is only to prevent the bar from hitting your nose. Maintain as upright as possible; don’t lean all the way back.
As with the high row, simply hook your four fingers around the bar lightly to avoid arm compensation.
As with the previous two movements, treat the arm as a hook and move the elbows down to the sides with the shoulders as the pivot. The elbow angle will naturally change in this movement—do not force it to stay constant or deliberately bend harder, which causes arm compensation.
This exercise can also be performed with an underhand grip. Everything else remains the same; only in the starting “beckoning cat” position, rotate the hands outward so your palms face yourself and hook from the opposite side of the bar. This strengthens the lower and armpit-side fibers of the latissimus dorsi even more, making the V-shape more defined.
Back Workout for Women in the Gym: External Rotation
Machine: Multi Butterfly Machine
Target muscles: infraspinatus, supraspinatus (synergistic)
Description: Set the multi butterfly machine to rear-delt position 3. Stand in front of one handle and train one side at a time. Keep the upper arm vertically against the side of the body, elbow bent 90° with the forearm parallel to the floor and palm facing upward. Use the side of the hand—from index finger to the base of the thumb—to press against the handle and externally rotate the arm 90°, until the forearm is aligned in a straight line with the torso.
Notes and techniques
Push the handle with the side of the hand; do not grip the handle because the height is wrong unless you are super freaking tall. Also, pushing like this prevents arm compensation.
Keep the elbow tucked at the side, with the bend unchanged.
The infraspinatus is a small muscle, so keep the weight light. We don't want to get injured and heavy weights make it difficult to maintain correct form.
Keep the chest lifted and stand upright. Let the other arm relax.
If you cannot rotate a full 90° at first, don't force it. Rotate to your own limit. But it's a sign that you need more back and external-rotation training.
When doing these exercises, you may notice that the movement range is small — that is completely correct! The shoulder blades cannot move very far in each direction, so training these back muscles depends on repeated small-range movements. Large movements may look impressive but almost always involve arm compensation.
A small note on why this back-training routine does not include the common (assisted) pull-up: it can be an effective exercise, but it requires better shoulder-blade control, back activation, and forearm stability. It is not easy for beginners.
Like many heavy phone and computer users, I have had tennis elbow. Pull-ups put elbows under relatively high stress, after about one set, mine would be in pain. So I do pulldowns instead—it's just as effective, safer for modern heavy phone/computer users, and more beginner-friendly.
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