Dwayne Johnson reveals his favourite back building exercise that you can do at home

Dwayne Johnson has been doing what he does best, working up a sweat in the iron paradise (his home gym, for those who aren’t aware). Previously, he’s shared the bicep exercise that he loves to build bigger arms and his favourite core exercise, but this time the 51-year-old has revealed how he gets his strong ‘V-shaped’ back. And, although performed using a cable machine, you can do this exact exercise at home with a long pull-up resistance band or tube ones.

As well as wanting a muscular back like The Rock for aesthetic purposes, having a strong back is also essential for a good posture and spinal stability. The exercise that he does, not only helps with this, but it’s also a compound exercise that works your upper back, including the lats, traps, rear delts and rhomboids, as well as your core and biceps. 

The exercise the former WWE wrestler is doing is a cable row. But instead of focusing on heavy weight, Dwayne prioritises volume — so doing high reps — and the movement of the exercise: “Really stretch and get full range of motion at the bottom with a squeeze pause at the top,” he told his Instagram followers. “Makes a huge difference and you don’t have to kill yourself using heavy weight to get positive results.”

To perform this exercise at home with a pull-up band you'll want to loop it around something sturdy — like either the stair's banister or a fence. You can either do it seated on the floor or standing up, but this ultimately depends where you attach the band to. If you have tube bands these often come with an attachment so that you can secure them to a door. Once attached, grab your band (or its handles) with both hands and slowly pull it towards your chest, squeezing your lats and shoulder blades  together, while keeping your elbows tucked in. Slowly return the cable back to the starting position, leaning forwards slightly as you do so, as The Rock says, you get the full range of motion. Aim for 12 to 15 reps and repeat three times.