The Best Exercises for the Back, Legs & Abs

The back, legs and abs are the most important areas of your body for functional strength. Functional strength shows itself when your truck dies and you push the vehicle to the gas station a block away, rather than calling a tow truck -- and when your child wants you to make them fly like superman. The legs, back and abs are the muscle groups that make these abilities possible; the following exercises are among the best for strengthening these important areas.

  1. Built-In Shoulder Pads

    • Back workouts require great variety. You have your lower back, upper back, and even the width and depth of your back. To hit the upper back, you will be primarily doing rowing motion exercises. These movements will build your lats, rear deltoids, rhomboids, traps, and even the obliques. Pull-ups, chin-ups, high pulls, shrugs, muscle-ups, rope climbs and snatches build the width of your back -- while single arm dumbbell rows, chest supported rows, and bent over rows build the thickness of your back.

    Insulate Your Spine with Muscle

    • Lower back exercises will involve movements where the primary goal is to hinge forward at the waist and return up to a standing position with as much weight as safely possible. Variation is determined by where and how you support the weight. For instance, holding the bar in your hands for a deadlift elicits a different response than supporting the bar on your shoulders for good mornings. These exercises will build the thickness and width in your lower back: deadlifts, clean pulls, snatch pulls, hip/back extensions on Roman chair, good mornings, cleans/power cleans, and kettlebell swings.

    The Foundation of a Strong Body

    • The legs are a much simpler body part to attack thoroughly. Simple does not mean easy; in fact, legs are potentially the most demanding body part. The best exercises for legs are back squats, front squats, lunges, step-ups, and glute ham raises. Legs are so demanding to train because the exercises require balance, coordination and attention to detail. Squats test your mental capacity, because to get the results you want, you have to get underneath some heavy weights -- that are trying to crush you -- and fight your way back up.

    The Glue to Your Bulletproof Body

    • Abs are important to every exercise or athletic movement you ever perform. Your body works as a symbiotic unit, not as a bunch of individual parts. Training the abs helps ensure that the top and bottom of your body are tied together by a strong, durable connection. Train abs daily and change up the movements for constant results. Here are the best exercises for your abs: lying leg raises, hanging leg raises, toes to bar, knees to elbows, L-Pull-ups, L- Rope climbs, hollow rocks, plank holds, plank touches, Russian twists, Turkish getups, OH sit-ups, suitcase carries, and sidebends.