If you walk into many of the modern fancy gyms—even the ones with free weights—you’ll likely notice that benches, equipment and machines to train the chest outnumber equipment to train the back by at least four-to-one.  Part of the reason for this is that many guys today are obsessed with working their chests but pay little attention to everything else, especially the back.

And yet, these same guys complain and wonder why they don’t have the bodies they want. The answer of course is simple—if you want to have a powerful, muscular body, you have to work for it, and that means training all body parts with equal commitment, especially the back.

Properly training the back is well worth the investment. A thick, powerful, well-defined back is a real head-turner. Sadly, a lot of today’s training routines stick with a few perennial favorite back exercises—the pull-up, bent over rows, lat pull-downs and a few others.

But now, thanks to a man named Nick Nilsson, you have the opportunity to drive your back training to an entirely new level and in the process, build a back that will turn heads and make jaws drop. His program is called ‘The best back exercises you’ve never heard of.’

Nick has a degree in physical education and psychology, is a personal trainer and a prolific fitness author. He’s also an innovator.  Never satisfied with the status quo, Nick says that he has been inventing new training techniques and exercises for more than 17 years.

Right from the start I’ll tell you that you won’t run out of exercise options and you’ll never get bored with Nick—this volume has 561 pages, packed with nothing but innovative exercises and routines for building a big, muscular, powerful back. Let’s take a closer look and see what it’s all about.

Even though the book is huge, it only includes two sections—Exercise Indexes and Back Training Tips. One look at the index page and it’s clear that Nick is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He doesn’t waste time with drawn-out introductions, but just dives right into the exercises. They are however, nicely categorized, covering the upper back, middle back, lower back, traps and neck.

The Best Back Exercises book is very well organized. For each section, the exercises are listed alphabetically and include a brief description. To learn more about a particular movement, you just click the bright red “Go!” button to the left.

This takes you to the specific page that discusses the movement in detail. The exercise descriptions are well-done, providing just the right level of detail. First, he tells you on which muscles the movement focuses, and then follows up with some personal thoughts about what stands out about the exercise.

Each exercise description includes multiple photos that clearly detail the start, mid-way and end positions. Each photo is accompanied by a clear description on what you should be doing at that particular point in the movement. If you want to see a video of the movement, just click on the camera icon to go to streaming video page where you can see the exercise performed in detail.

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate or professional bodybuilder, you will find plenty of exercises that are right for you. Nick presents a sort of ‘cafeteria-style’ plan that allows you to pick and choose the movements that meet your needs. And of course, you can adjust the weights to suit your training goals—whether it’s getting toned, building strength or gaining mass.

A section in the back of the book provides back training tips as well as an overview of the equipment that Nick likes to use to train his back. With Nick’s approach, you need not worry about investing in fancy, expensive equipment. Sandbags are the only non-standard piece of equipment that I ran across in the book. Just about everything else will be standard fare at any reasonably-equipped free weight gym.

In going through Nick’s book and reviewing the exercises I’m happy to say that he has compiled an outstanding group of highly unique—yet highly functional—back exercises. You may have run across a few of the techniques presented in this book but I can just about guarantee that unless you’re a follower of his, Nick’s routines are going to be brand new to you.

I’m also glad to report that the logic behind these movements is solid. Follow his instructions, perform the movements properly, and I have no doubt that with time and consistency, you’ll be amazed with your new muscular, powerful back.

Go check out 145 of Nick’s Best Back Exercises by clicking here.