Bodyweight Back Exercises
Back training with no equipment comes down to two patterns: pulling your body up to a bar, and pulling your body toward a bar you are hanging under. Pull-ups, chin-ups, neutral-grip and wide-grip variations cover the vertical pull and build the lats; the inverted row covers the horizontal pull and builds the mid-back and rear delts that pull-ups miss.
Grip changes more than it looks. A chin-up with palms toward you brings the biceps in and lets most people do more reps; a wide-grip pull-up takes the biceps out and puts the work squarely on the lats. Once bodyweight pull-ups get easy, weighted pull-ups are the natural continuation rather than chasing higher and higher rep counts.
Beginner Bodyweight Back Exercises1
Intermediate Bodyweight Back Exercises8
Advanced Bodyweight Back Exercises3
Other equipment for Back
Frequently asked questions
What if I cannot do a pull-up yet?
Start with inverted rows, which use a fraction of your bodyweight and can be made easier just by walking your feet in. Add slow negatives from the top of a pull-up: jump up, then take five seconds to lower. Most people get their first pull-up from those two alone.
Pull-ups or chin-ups for back?
Pull-ups, with palms facing away, bias the lats more because the biceps contribute less. Chin-ups let you do more reps and more total work, and still train the lats heavily. Running both across a week is the simple answer.
Can you train your whole back with bodyweight only?
Mostly. Pull-ups and inverted rows cover the lats, rhomboids and rear delts well. What is hard to hit without load is the lower back and the heavy spinal-erector work that deadlifts provide, so pair bodyweight pulling with hinge patterns if that is all you have.