Scrolling through your feed, you’ve probably seen a few videos or posts talking about the posterior chain. Anatomically posterior means back or behind, therefore the posterior chain is referring to all the muscles on the backside of your body, which includes everything from your upper back to your hamstrings and glutes. Build your muscles by including the best posterior chain exercises, significantly increasing your explosiveness and power.

What Is the Posterior Chain and Why It Matters in Strength Training

The posterior chain refers to the powerful group of muscles along the backside of your body — and training it properly is essential if you want to build real strength, improve performance, and reduce your risk of injury. From sprinting and jumping to deadlifting and squatting, these muscles drive nearly every major athletic movement.

In this section, we’ll break down exactly what the posterior chain is, why it’s so important, and which movements target it best.

What Is the Posterior Chain?

The posterior chain is a collection of muscles that runs along the back of your body, including the glutes, hamstrings, calves, erector spinae, and lower and upper back. These muscles work together in a chain-like pattern to support and stabilize your entire body, especially during compound movements like deadlifts, squats, cleans, and good mornings.

Key Posterior Chain Muscles Include:

• Gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus

• Hamstrings

• Calves (gastrocnemius and soleus)

• Erector spinae

• Lats and traps

• Rear deltoids

Why the Posterior Chain Is Important

1. Builds Strength, Size, and Power

The posterior chain is responsible for hip extension, spinal stability, and explosive movement — all critical for strength training and athletic performance. Whether you're pulling a deadlift PR or sprinting downfield, your posterior chain drives the motion and provides the force output you need.

Research shows that posterior-chain training can significantly increase lower-body power and reduce injury risk in athletes (Comfort et al., 2011).

2. Enhances Functional Movement and Athleticism

Movements like squats and deadlifts are compound exercises, meaning they recruit multiple muscle groups simultaneously — especially those in the posterior chain. Training these muscles improves functional strength, enabling you to move better in real life and during sport-specific tasks.

Posterior chain exercises also promote better balance between the front and back sides of the body, which is key for joint stability and long-term injury prevention.

3. Improves Posture, Mobility, and Injury Resilience

Modern lifestyles often lead to weak glutes, tight hamstrings, and poor posture due to prolonged sitting. Strengthening the posterior chain helps counteract these imbalances, promoting better spinal alignment, core stability, and flexibility.

Incorporating posterior chain exercises into your routine helps support joint integrity and reduces strain on the lower back, knees, and hips, making your lifts more efficient and safer in the long run.

Common Posterior Chain Exercises

These movements are staples for building posterior strength, improving movement mechanics, and unlocking better performance:

• Deadlifts (conventional, Romanian, sumo)

• Squats (back, front, landmine)

• Hip thrusts and glute bridges

• Good mornings

• Kettlebell swings

• Reverse lunges

• Hamstring curls

• Back extensions

• Cable pull-throughs

If your training doesn’t include dedicated posterior chain work, you're likely leaving strength, performance, and longevity on the table. These muscles are the engine behind almost every major athletic movement — and prioritizing them will help you lift heavier, move better, and stay injury-free.

Want expert guidance on building posterior power into your routine? Check out the custom coaching plans at The Swole Kitchen or read more performance-driven training tips at Swolverine’s Blog.

Best Exercises for the Posterior Chain (Plus How to Do Them)

Building a strong posterior chain means incorporating compound lifts that engage the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, and more. Below are four of the most effective posterior chain exercises — along with step-by-step instructions on how to perform each one with proper form.

1. Barbell Backsquats 

One of the best exercises to strengthen your posterior chain, are squats. Several different variations of the squat such as the front squat, barbell back squats, overhead squats, and pistol squats can all be utilized to recruit and build major muscles involved in the posterior chain such as the quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius, and the gluteus maximus. Squats can also help you build a stronger core, which are activated for stabilization as well as improve wrist mobility hip mobility and ankle mobility.  

Muscles Worked: Gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, erector spinae, and core.

How to Do Barbell Back Squats:

1. Set a barbell at shoulder height on a squat rack.

2. Step under the bar and rest it across your upper traps.

3. Unrack the bar, take a step back, and stand with feet shoulder-width apart.

4. Inhale, brace your core, and lower your body by bending your knees and hips simultaneously.

5. Descend until your thighs are parallel (or slightly below parallel) to the ground.

6. Drive through your heels and extend your hips to return to the starting position.

7. Exhale at the top and repeat for the desired reps.

Deadlifts

The deadlift recruits major muscle groups of the posterior chain such as the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, and the lats. It’s a full-body-exercise that builds total body strength. Deadlifts offer several different benefits are one of the best strength movements you can include in your training split or programming. In addition to building more strength, deadlifts can improve muscular imbalances and posture, build core stability, increase grip strength, burn body fat, and improve overall power and athletic performance.  

Muscles Worked: Gluteus maximus, hamstrings, erector spinae, trapezius, lats, and forearms.

How to Do a Conventional Deadlift:

1. Stand with feet hip-width apart and the barbell over your midfoot.

2. Hinge at the hips and bend your knees to grip the bar just outside your legs.

3. Keep your spine neutral, shoulders over the bar, and chest lifted.

4. Engage your lats and drive through your heels to lift the bar off the ground.

5. Extend the hips and knees simultaneously until you’re standing upright.

6. Lower the bar by reversing the motion with control.

7. Repeat for the desired reps.

🧠 Tip: Keep the bar close to your body throughout the movement to protect your lower back.

Good Mornings

Often misunderstood, the good morning exercise is a neglected yet effective strength movement functioning as a mix between the squat and the deadlift. Also called a hip-hinge the good morning has earned a somewhat infamous reputation for being a bit on the dangerous side. When done correctly however, good mornings are an effective strength exercise that benefit the muscles in your posterior chain including the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.   

Similar to other posterior chain exercises, good mornings are a compound functional movement, which can help improve strength and mobility.

Muscles Worked: Hamstrings, gluteus maximus, erector spinae, and core.

How to Do Good Mornings:

1. Position a barbell across your upper traps, similar to a back squat.

2. Stand with feet hip-width apart and knees slightly bent.

3. Brace your core and hinge at the hips, sending your glutes backward.

4. Lower your torso until it’s nearly parallel to the ground, keeping a flat back.

5. Engage your hamstrings and glutes to return to a standing position.

6. Avoid rounding your back and control the movement throughout.

⚠️ Caution: Use lighter weights until proper form and control are mastered.

Lunges

The lunge is a traditional staple leg exercise, that is very beneficial to the posterior chain. Lunge variations such as single arm overhead lunge, and plate lunges can add in variability, to improve strength, mobility, and core stability. Including lunges into your leg day training will improve quadricep, hamstring, and glute strength. 

Muscles Worked: Gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, and core.

How to Do a Standard Lunge:

1. Stand tall with feet hip-width apart.

2. Take a big step forward with one foot, lowering your body until both knees form 90-degree angles.

3. Keep your front knee over your ankle and your back knee just above the ground.

4. Push through your front heel to return to the starting position.

5. Alternate legs or complete all reps on one side before switching.

Variations to Try:

• Walking lunges for dynamic movement.

• Overhead lunges to increase core and shoulder stability.

• Reverse lunges for less knee strain.

• Plate or dumbbell lunges for added resistance.

If your goal is full-body strength, better performance, or injury prevention, training the posterior chain is non-negotiable. Compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, good mornings, and lunges will not only help you build serious muscle but also improve mobility, posture, and power output.

Looking for expert programming or a personalized training split to target your posterior chain? Check out coaching options at The Swole Kitchen and explore strength-focused content on Swolverine's Blog.

Posterior Chain Exercises: Takeaway

If you want that posterior chain to pop, then start including these posterior chain exercises in your training program. The posterior chain is comprised of several powerhouse muscles that can dramatically improve explosiveness and strength. Muscles in the posterior chain play a significant role in functional strength and human movement, thus making them extremely important for everyday activities. Perhaps even more important, a strong posterior chain will help prevent injury, reduce pain, improve posture and mobility.

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