Machine Back Extension

A seated machine isolation exercise for the lower back: with the hips and legs held in place, the torso is driven backwards against a padded lever to extend the spine against a weight stack.

How to do it

1. Sit in the back extension machine with your feet flat on the foot platform and the roller pad set behind your upper back, just below the shoulder blades.
2. Grip the handles at your sides and let your torso come forward into a slight flexion — this is the starting position.
3. Push back against the pad by extending your spine until your torso is leaning back and your lower back is fully contracted.
4. Pause briefly at full extension, then return to the starting position under control, resisting the weight stack on the way back.
5. Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Tips

• Set the pad across your upper back just below the shoulder blades — too high and it presses on your neck, too low and you lose range of motion.
• Extend with your lower back rather than throwing your head and shoulders backwards, and keep both directions slow.
• Stop at a neutral, fully extended trunk instead of forcing the spine past it, and start light — the lower back responds better to controlled reps than to heavy loads.

Muscles

Primary: Erector spinae

Secondary: Glutes (max), Hamstrings