Weak lower back muscles often result in pain and discomfort after standing or carrying objects. Dumbbells are generally used to work the muscles of your arms and legs, but also to strengthen the lower back.

Deadlifts work your upper and lower back, hips and legs. In addition to improving posture and strengthening your muscles, deadlifts improve your strength and power. Different styles of deadlift exist, so if you have trouble with one style of deadlift, you can experiment with another style.

Rack pulls are a strength-building exercise that targets the so-called posterior chain muscles that are responsible for hip and back extension.

Whether you're looking forward to competing in next month's 5K or viewing your favorite movie marathon from the couch, tight muscles in the lower back and hip can interfere with your plans.

There are a number of variations of the deadlift exercise, including stiff legged, sumo, Romanian and standard. Each exercise is slightly different and will stress your body in different ways.

When it comes to body-weight exercises, they don't come much tougher than the wide-grip pullup. Even if you're a competent chin-up master, you'll find the wide-grip much more taxing. This can be a good thing, though, as switching to a wider hand spacing recruits different muscles and gives your training new purpose.

Nerve tension in your spine can occur in any part of your back. Bulging or degenerative discs that affect the spinal canal are the most common causes of nerve tension, and can cause significant discomfort, numbness and loss of function.

Difference between bent-over barbell rows and t-bar rows, how to do each of the exercises and the benefits and variations of each.

T-bar rows -- and almost all row variations, in fact -- work all the major muscles in your back. This includes your lats, teres major or "little lat," trapezius and erector spinae. T-bar rows also work your shoulders and the pulling muscles in your arms -- biceps, brachialis and brachioradialis.

The lumbar region of your back is the lower area just above your sacrum. This portion of your back makes up part of the S-shape your spine creates naturally. The lumbar vertebrae consist of five individual vertebrae known as L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5. The size of these vertebrae increases as the number increases.

If you have ever experienced muscle spasms in your back, you know it can be a debilitating experience. A muscle spasm is an involuntary contraction of muscle fibers. Spasms in the back can occur for various reasons, including tight back or hamstring muscles, weak back muscles, weak abdominal muscles or muscle strains.

Whether you're working up to your first real pull-up or cranking them out in sets of 10, few back exercises are more efficient.