Mariposas
Best Upper Back Exercises
By Zachary, builder of Mariposas · Reviewed against published exercise-science sources (references)
· Last updated June 2026
The upper back is one of the most undertrained regions in the gym, not because people skip it intentionally, but because it's easy to fake the work. Pull the weight with your biceps instead of your scapular muscles, rush the concentric, skip the squeeze, and you can grind through dozens of sets without ever meaningfully loading the rhomboids, mid-trapezius, or rear deltoids that give your posture and shoulder health their foundation. Effective upper back training comes down to one discipline: feeling the right muscles do the pulling, which usually means slowing down, reducing ego weight, and prioritizing scapular retraction over how much the bar moves. The nine exercises on this page are chosen because they each train the upper back through distinct angles and loading patterns, giving you real variety rather than redundant volume. Track every session for free in Mariposas and you'll collect pets along the way, a small reward that turns consistent logging into something you actually look forward to.
How to train your upper back
Upper back musculature responds well to moderate-to-higher rep ranges, largely because the smaller muscles of the mid and upper back fatigue quickly under heavy load and the mind-muscle connection is easier to establish when the weight isn't overwhelming. Many coaches program horizontal pulling (rows) and vertical pulling (pulldowns, pull-ups) in the same week to cover the full range of scapular and shoulder motion, hitting the traps and rhomboids from different fiber angles. Frequency matters here more than in some other muscle groups, since the upper back recovers relatively fast and benefits from seeing pulling patterns two or even three times per week. A slow eccentric, a brief pause at peak contraction, and genuine scapular retraction on every rep tend to separate productive sets from sets that just fatigue your grip and arms.
FAQ
- Why does my upper back never feel sore even after rows and pulldowns?
- Almost always it means the biceps and forearms are dominating the pull. A useful fix is the "elbow as a hook" cue: imagine your hands are hooks and your elbows are what's driving the movement, so the arms bend only as a consequence, not as the prime mover. Dropping the weight by 20 to 30 percent and pausing for one second at full retraction often produces more soreness after a session than the heavier sets ever did. Fatigue accessories like lifting straps can also help here, because once grip is removed from the equation, you can actually concentrate on the back.
- How much volume does the upper back actually need per week?
- Research and practical programming both point to the upper back tolerating and often benefiting from relatively high weekly set counts, commonly in the 12 to 20 working sets per week range for lifters focused on hypertrophy. The key nuance is that not all sets are equal: a sloppy cable row done with body momentum counts for much less than a controlled, paused dumbbell row. Many experienced lifters run lower total set counts with stricter form and still outpace those doing twice the volume with poor technique. Starting on the lower end and adding sets only when recovery feels easy is the smarter approach than jumping straight to maximum volume.
- Should I train upper back before or after shoulders?
- Most lifters get better upper back results when it's trained fresh, meaning earlier in a session rather than after overhead pressing has already pre-fatigued the rear deltoids and rotator cuff. If you're combining the two on the same day, prioritizing upper back work first tends to preserve the quality of scapular retraction and external rotation you need for productive rowing. The exception is if your main goal for the day is shoulder pressing, in which case it makes sense to keep that movement first and use upper back work as your secondary focus.
- What's the difference between training upper traps versus mid traps, and why does it matter?
- The upper trapezius elevates the scapula, which is what shrugs target, while the mid and lower trapezius retract and depress the scapula, which is what rows and face pulls emphasize. Most people who sit at desks all day already have overactive, shortened upper traps from forward head posture, so piling on more shrug volume rarely addresses the real imbalance. The exercises that tend to matter most for posture and shoulder health are the ones that strengthen retraction and depression, pulling the shoulder blades back and down rather than up. That distinction is one reason a well-designed upper back routine will almost always include more horizontal rowing than shrug variations.