Fitness workouts for your back: the payoff

These workout routines target your lats, the largest muscles in your upper body. By strengthening your spinal extensors, rear shoulders, triceps and upper and middle back, you'll accentuate the back's natural V shape, which offsets a thick waistline or big hips to make you look better proportioned.

Fitness tips about the right way to do your back exercise

> Attach a single handle to a cable pulley and adjust cable to waist height.
> Grasp handle in left hand and stand facing machine, slightly more than arm's distance away, knees bent.
> Hinge forward from hips until torso is parallel to floor and left arm is extended in front of you and in line with your torso, palm facing down, abs tight [A].
> Maintain torso position and keep arm straight as you press arm down and back, ending with arm alongside your body, palm up [B].
> Pause and return to starting position. Repeat back exercise for reps, then switch arms.

Where you feel your fitness workouts during your back exercise routine

> In upper and middle back, between shoulder blades and rear shoulders -- not your lower back.
> On sides of torso, in your belly, butt and hamstrings.

Guidelines for back workout routines

Do this move twice a week as part of a regular strength program. Set weight stack at 15-25 pounds. Do 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps, resting 60 seconds between sets. After 4-6 weeks, or when you feel ready, progress to the Advanced tip.

Advanced fitness tips and expert advice

• Increase the weight, or do the exercise with a medium resistance tube attached to a sturdy object at chest height instead of a cable machine and use both arms at the same time.
• "Taking the lats through a fuller range of motion than you can normally achieve with a traditional row or lat pull-down is the true value of this exercise," says Adam Figueroa, a New York City-based certified personal trainer and owner of Adams-AppleNY. "You'll not only develop a great-looking back, but this exercise also teaches you how to stabilize your shoulders when your arms are moving," which helps you keep the work focused in your back, not in your arms.