We know what you’re thinking. If you can’t see the effects of a workout in the mirror, what’s the point? And that’s understandable — you want gain as well as pain. But this short-sighted ideal could be slowing down your gym progress. If you want a beach-ready physique that’ll also protect you from injury and fix your posture, you need to put your back into it. Literally.

Sure, those chest exercises might look good in changing room, but effective exercise selection for your flipside has myriad benefits. For a start, it will add an inch to your height – finally bringing six foot within reach, no Cuban heel necessary. It’s weak upper back muscles that allow your shoulders to hunch forwards after hours at your desk. Strengthen your back, and you’ll inadvertently pull your shoulders back and down to both broaden and straighten your silhouette and make yourself stand taller.

Weak middle and lower back muscles also make you more likely to experience low back pain, a condition that leads to more than 10 million sick days being taken each year in the UK alone. Target these muscles with heavy metal, and it’s also a condition that can be solved in the gym, rather than with pain medication.

Strengthen the muscles in your upper and middle back, and you stabilise your shoulder joints, which has transferable benefit to every other upper body exercise, allowing you to lift more on chest day. Not only that, your arms will get bigger. Each back exercise centres on a pulling movement and your back works in unison with your biceps to complete each rep and, therefore, will help fill out your T-shirt sleeves. Win-win.

Finally, you may be chasing a pump in the gym, but back exercises will aid you in cutting fat, too. The reason behind this slimming side benefit is that your back muscles are some of the biggest in the body and the more muscle fibres you use, the more calories you burn. Plus, the bigger muscles you have – like the ones you’ll have after four weeks of using the exercises below, say – the faster your metabolism will be. You’ll then burn through belly fat and man boobs while sat on the sofa, basically. Which is well worth gritting your teeth through another set of pull-ups for.