5 Best Back Exercises for Men to Build Sculpted V-Shaped Back

The best back exercises for men to sculpt a V-shaped back focus on broadening the upper back, tapered waist, and broad shoulders.

If this shape is not followed, you won’t be able to attain a v-shaped back regardless of whether you implement the best back exercises in your routine or not.

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Best Back Exercises for Men

The following are five of the best back exercises for men to build a v-shaped back.

1) Wide Grip Lat Pull-down

One of the most common back exercises for men is the wide grip lat pull-down.

It helps widen the outer lats and broaden the upper back. Additionally, the exercises are great for adding a full range of motion to your workout and allowing the muscle fibers to stretch as much as possible.

You can find a guide for lat pulldowns here.

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2) Wide Grip Pull-up

Another common exercise to build a v-shaped back is pull-ups. The wide grip enables you to keep pressure on the outer lats, which is what you want to broaden if you want a v-shaped back.

However, if you can’t do pull-ups, a great alternative is inverted rows. It replicates the same motion and allows you to work on your lat muscles.

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3) Bent-over Dumbbell Row

Bent-over dumbbell rows can be done with both hands or one hand at a time.

When you’re doing bent-over dumbbell rows, keep your back straigh,t and stretch your hand as much as possible to attain the full stretch. That helps activate the muscle fibers surrounding the outer lats and helps them become thicker and stronger with time.

You can find a guide for bent-over dumbbell rows here.

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4) Seated Cable Row

Seated cable rows are great for enabling the entire back to engage in one exercise. You can use the v-bar or a wider-grip for this exercise.

If you use a v-bar, the middle back will get more engaged, while a wider grip will engage the outer lats as well.

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5) T-bar Row

You should never underestimate the utlitiy of a good compound exercise. The T-bar row is one such compound movement.

You can do a T-bar row with a wide grip or a narrow grip depending on which part of the muscle group you want to focus on. Ideally, you should do a wider grip to broaden your upper back if you want a v-shaped back.

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Bottom Line

As mentioned earlier, the best back exercises for a v-shaped back will not bear fruit without a tapered waist. While you focus on broadening your upper back and shoulders, you should also do some core muscle and oblique muscle exercises to enable the muscles around the waist to take shape.

Moreover, you will need to lose belly fat for a tapered waist as well. Finally, your diet must have three macronutrients - carbohydrates, protein, and fat, especially protein. Proteins help in rebuilding the muscle fibers to make them thicker and stronger.