Anyway, the content of this article bears absolutely no relation to the content of those songs. I'm simply stating that the back, as in the muscles on the back of your torso, are the king in regards to physique and strength.
 |
| aaand the pictures of shapely women begin. |
Back training is neglected by many gym idiots because it's not a muscle group that is staring you in the face when you look in the mirror, but back training might be the most important of all. A thick back contributes to performance in most lifts as well as giving you the coveted V-taper look and upper body width, which of course are key to looking jacked. You see gym goers that focus purely on chest and arms, causing a huge front-to-back strength imbalance and as a result walk around with forward hunched, internally rotated shoulders leading to the knuckle dragging ape walk, usually along with a degree of upper back rounding and forward head posture. Having a strong upper and mid back lets you avoid the prototypical douchebag posture; strong back muscles will allow you to pull your shoulders back and down as well as keep thoracic extension for good, upright posture. Having the requisite strength maintain thoracic extension/stop your upper back rounding also means good things for the majority of other lifts, including all positions in the squat, the lockout of deadlifts and even (somewhat ironically) proper bench position. Big and strong lats also carry over to many lifts, even when they are not working directly to move the weight; big lats give you a big base of support and stability through the mid-section and across the shoulder girdle which allows you to transfer greater power in big compound exercises like the squat, bench and deadlift.
 |
| Work the back to look big... |
 |
| ...and lift big |
Like in the glute article, a smart first port of call is soft tissue work and activation, as due to poor posture many people have messed up lats and upper back muscles which aren't going to be able to contract to their full potential (luckily this is less of an issue than it is with glutes for most people).
Grab a foam roller, lay on it on your side with your lower arm extended overhead and and roll the over the entire length of the lat. Do this on both sides, then lay flat with your upper back across the roller, engage your abs and glutes then arch the
upper (not lower) back over the roller, to open up extension in the thoracic spine. After this, move back to a neutral spine position then hug your arms across your front to rotate your scapulae (shoulder blades) around your ribs and stretch out your mid back and slowly roll up and down, rocking side to side to work out any knots in the tissues of the smaller upper back muscles. It might also be an idea to grab a small medicine ball and roll your pecs to loosen up the chesticles, so your back muscles aren't fighting against a them when you are trying to squeeze your shoulder blades together.
 |
| This is what your back muscles look like, if you happen to care |
Next up is quick muscle activation as well as warming up the shoulder girdle and getting your scapula moving correctly.
First are
LYTs: Grab two very light dumbells (1-5kg), lay face down on a flat or slightly inclined bench with your arms hanging to the floor, pull your upper arms back so they are parallel to the floor, your elbows are level with your shoulder and your hands are hanging towards the ground. From here slowly rotate your upper arms so your hands are level with your head, your left arm should be making an
L shape, lower and repeat. Next, keeping your arms straight, raise them from a hang to above your head like you are doing the
Y in the YMCA dance, lower and repeat. Now perform a similar movement but raise your arms directly out the sides so your body and arms from a
T, squeeze your shoulder blades together, lower and repeat. Between 6 and 10 of each of these performed sequentially will serve to activate and warm the small muscles of the upper back including the entirety of the traps, the infraspinatus and the rhomboids.
Next are
shoulder retractions: grab an empty bar (Olympic for most trainees or an EZ bar for beginners/non-advanced females trainees), gripping the bar overhand and shoulder width, hip hinge forward and relax your upper body so your arms hang. Now squeeze your shoulder blades together and down, retracting the shoulders and contracting the lats and mid back, hold for a count of 3, relax and then repeat, 8-10 reps will do.
Finally
overhead shrugs: clean and press the bar overhead, alternately pull your scapula down and shrug your shoulders up as high as you can, elevating your scapula; hold each position for a 3 count for 8-10 reps.
 |
| This picture features a back, therefore it is justified |
That should do for warm ups and activation, if you prefer slightly different exercises or variants of the above, by all means use them instead. For example some may prefer a band pull apart series to LTPs or using cables for shoulder retractions, if that's the case go ahead, the aim is simply to get your scapulae moving properly and your back muscles contracting.
Now comes the big moves, there are 3 main categories of movement which are used to hit the back: Rows, Pull ups/Pull downs and Deadlifts/Pulls. These are generally programmed in their standard vanilla forms (if they are performed at all) and are effective back builders, however all can be tweaked for maximum effectiveness to hit the muscles hard from multiple angles and get that barn door back. Let's get at it.
 |
| In the interests of equality and such |
Rows
The problem with the bent over barbell row is not the concept, rather the average trainee's execution of the move. What you will see from most when claiming to perform a barbell row is some sort of deadlift/belly thrust combo; this achieves the aim of moving the bar from the floor and touching it to the torso, but unfortunately achieves precisely dick all apart from this. We are looking to work the back muscles and get our swole on, so clearly we need to do things a little different.
First we have what the internet has taken to calling the
Pendlay row (a.k.a. a barbell row performed properly), people in the know were doing these far before Glenn Pendlay schooled fools, but either way the name has stuck. Load a barbell, preferably with full diameter plates, but resist the urge to go super heavy. With feet shoulder width apart and a soft bend in the knees, hip hinge forward keeping a flat back and grip the bar overhand, slightly wider than your shoulders. Your torso should be roughly parallel to the ground or slightly above, now create tension through your midsection and without moving your torso, pull the shoulder blades together and focus on pulling the elbows back until the bar touches just below your sternum. Lower the bar to the floor and let your scapula come forward then repeat. Performing these in a strict manner will give your upper back a hell of a workout from the scapula retraction, hit the lats hard by focussing on pulling with the elbows and work the lower back in an isometric manner by maintaining a firm torso position throughout.
 |
| The floor is really interesting |
Second we have the
Yates row; whereas the Pendlay hits the whole back, especially working the upper back muscles, the Yates row is a full on lat assault. Form here can be a little looser than the Pendlay row allowing for a decent amount of weight, but don't turn this into a weird deadlift-shrug-calf raise-curl combo, keep the tension on the target muscles for full training effect. Grab a barbell with an underhand grip that is about as wide as your hips or slightly narrower. Hip hinge so your torso is at around 45 degrees between vertical and parallel to the ground and from here pull the bar to your belly button, focussing on pulling with your elbows. Contract hard, like you are trying to hit a lat spread at the top of each rep. Now put the bar down and admire dem wings.
 |
| The row. |
 |
| The result. |
Third is the
single arm dumbell row, a great mid-back and lat builder if performed correctly and nothing but a bit of ego masturbation if cheated. Grab a dumbell and bend forward at the waist until just above parallel with the ground, brace yourself with your free hand on something solid like a box or a bench and slightly bend your knees so you are solidly planted. Brace your abs and pull the dumbell to your hip by retracting the scapula and pulling the elbow back, keeping your upper arm tight to your side a throughout. Resist any urge to rotate the torso like you are starting a lawnmower, to try curl the weight up, to drop your torso to reduce range of motion or any of the other silly fuckery you see most people trying to get away with. Just stay tight, keep the torso rigid and pull with the back, squeezing the contraction at the top of the rep. Obviously repeat on the other side once the required reps are complete, unless you are going for the 'lonely male' look.
 |
| Matt Kroc is known for going heavy as hell on DB rows. He is bigger and stronger than you. |
Pull ups/Pull downs
The main problem with these is that few people do them, and even fewer do them properly. First a quick note on the newly popular, CrossFit inspired 'kipping pull up'. If you are unaware as to what 'kipping' is, it consists of using a leg kick and body swing technique to generate upwards momentum in a pull up; in the BCF era (that is 'Before CrossFit'), this technique was generally just known as 'cheating' or 'shitty pull ups'. Kipping is a good means to get your head above the bar for a requisite number of reps in a given time frame, however the practice of kipping pull ups, as you see many perform in the ACF era, is not a great idea for most trainees from a few perspectives. Kipping pull ups will not work the back muscles as completely as strict pull ups due to the reliance on momentum and swinging, not contraction of the target muscles, to get you moving, furthermore there is far greater chance of shoulder/back injury or grip slippage, especially with the poor form most people exhibit. If you are a CrossFit competitor, practice of kipping is necessary, for everyone else, it is pointless and you look like a tool.
 |
| None of this silly bollocks. |
Pull ups are, in my opinion and the opinion of many who carry more weight than I, the ultimate back builder. The only real problem with pull ups is the relatively steep learning curve as many trainees (especially females) can't do any. There are 3 ways around this: you can use an assisted pull up machine if your gym has one, you can tie a resistance band to the bar and loop it under your knees or you can use the pull down machine. I prefer the assisted pull up as they give a consistent amount of help throughout, whereas bands give a lot of help at the bottom where the pull is easiest and none at the the top range where it is hardest. Pull downs are looked down on by many, including myself, all the time, because I enjoy mocking people; however in truth, well performed pull downs will exhibit a greater training effect than shitty pull ups. If you can perform good quality pull ups, they do still come up trumps as the need to stabilise the torso taxes the back muscles to a greater degree, resulting in a more efficacious back training movement.
When performing pull ups, a mistake many make is overextending the lumbar spine area, this may feel like it makes the movement slightly easier but it puts you in a compromised position which is less than ideal. You should try to maintain neutral spine by bracing the abs and contracting the glutes. To really feel how hard pull ups can be, try to do all your reps with your body completely straight, as if you were performing a plank throughout and fully extend your arms at the bottom of each rep; you will quickly realise how much help you were getting from body motion and the next day you will realise just how hard strict pull ups hit the entire mid back.
 |
| Making bad form look damn good. |
If I had to pick the best pull up movement, it would be the
ring pull up followed closely by a
neutral grip pull up (or pull down). The use of gymnastic rings allows for free rotation of the hands so the arms can move into their most comfortable groove during the movement and minimise elbow stress. The use of rings also allows for a greater range of motion and a more 'natural' feeling pull as you can pull yourself up between your hands, as well as a strong lat contraction by pulling the upper arm back along the side of the torso. Finally, the extra stabilisation necessary for ring work and the ability to pull your hands in laterally as well as vertically allows for a greater lat contraction. The position that most people's hands will drift to in a ring pull up will be one closely resembling a neutral grip pull up, as such these carry the majority of the same benefits as ring chins, allowing for a strong lat contraction and low joint stresses.
The other type of pull I recommend is a classic
wide overhand pull up. I do feel that some go too wide on these, as you end up just robbing yourself of range of motion and making the movement feel more awkward without really increasing lat recruitment; I recommend setting your grip so your arms are around 30 degrees from the vertical when you are at a dead hang. To really get the strongest contraction out of these, at the top of the movement, lean back and pull the bar towards your sternum. this little tweak can be the difference between an easy set of pull ups and the strongest mid-back contraction you have ever felt.
 |
| Taking jacked and tan to new levels. |
Deadlifts/Pulls
A properly performed conventional deadlift works the vast majority of your body, your hands and forearms work hard to grip the weight, your entire upper and mid back stabilises your shoulders and stops you rounding forward like the hunchback of Notre Dame, your lower back and abs strongly contract to keep a rigid mid-section and effectively transfer force from the legs (especially the hamstrings and glutes) which act as the prime movers. Many like to put conventional deadlifts on 'back day' as it allows them to start with a heavy strength movement and doing both squats and deadlifts on 'leg day' leads to a shitty following few days once an appreciable amount of weight is being used for both exercises. That is absolutely a valid way to approach programming, however if we are looking to hit the back hard (which we are, read the damn title), with a few variants and borrowed ideas from Olympic weightlifters we can shift the focus to really tax the mid and upper back and be less stressful on the lower back and legs.
If you feel like shifting a shit lot of weight give
rack/block snatch grip deadlifts a go. Set the bar up in a rack or on blocks (preferred), set your feet feet around shoulder width or a little narrower, keep your back flat, hinge at the hips, bend the knees and grab the bar with a wide grip. If you are working in a rack you obviously will have to go a bit narrower than the rack so you don't smash your fingers, if you are working on blocks go for a grip as wide as you are comfortable, index fingers on the outer rings is a good starting point for most. From here extend at the hips and knees and strongly contract the lats to pull the bar into your hips, reverse and repeat. From the explanation this may not seem like a big back builder but the wide grip puts some serious demands on the whole of the upper and mid back, if you still doubt, give multiple heavy sets of these a go and call me in the morning so I can laugh at your pain. Performing these from slightly above the floor allows for the use of more weight and stops any ugly back rounding which can arise when snatch grip pulling from the floor, if mobility is lacking.
 |
| Tell Lu Xiaojun that snatch pulls aren't an effective back builder |
In a similar vein to the above but with more of an upper body emphasis is the
snatch grip high pull. Set up exactly as above, either on blocks or from the floor but with less weight. Extend at the hip and knee explosively to lockout at which point you shrug your shoulders up hard and pull the elbows up and back to launch the bar up to around nipple height. You won't be able to lower the weight under control so don't try as you'll end up hurting yourself, either let it fall to the floor and repeat or catch it in the hang position and rep away from the hang (which I prefer). In my opinion these are a hugely underused back builder amongst most trainees and you should feel privileged that I am sharing this secret to crazy gains with you peons. For all heavy snatch grip movements you will almost certainly have to use straps unless you have insane grip strength or are happy to use hook grip and mash your thumbs to a pulp.
Other Movements
I'm still not done, but feel free to leave. You've clicked on the page and I have the view so at this point I literally do not care.
An exercise that would not occur to most as a back builder but can put a serious beating (in a good way) on the mid back is the
front squat. While obviously predominately a leg exercise and as such maybe not a good fit for 'back day', regular front squatting will build the volume of back work you are performing leaving you with a stronger mid back. Luckily I have talked about the technique involved in the front squat at length
here. The key part of the move that hits the mid back is the need to force the elbows up and stay in thoracic extension to avoid dropping the weight, which necessitates a strong mid back contraction. The heavier the weight gets, the harder your mid back will have to work to keep your upper body from folding like a deck chair. Thus we can use heavier weights to elicit more of a back training effect, an effective method for focussing on the muscles responsible for thoracic extension is the
front squat iso-hold. This is incredibly simple, but deceptively demanding on all the muscles surrounding the scapula. To perform, simply un-rack a heavy weight in the front rack position, hold it for a 10-15 count, making sure to strongly force thoracic extension (push your chest up/out and shoulders back) and then re-rack/dump the bar. It is probably a smart idea to set the safety bars just below front rack height. To others, you may look like you are just pussying out on a set of front squats, but fuck 'em, they'll know who's boss when you have to turn sideways to walk through door ways.
 |
The Rock requires double doors throughout his house*
(*I made this up... but probably) |
The final (I swear) exercise which I recommend for back is the
reverse/rear delt fly. This is one that you actually see performed fairly often, however here I am going to recommend something you will pretty much never hear me say otherwise: use more weight and looser form. I tried this out after a recommendation from the gigantic John Meadows and found it to hit the rear delts and entire upper back far harder than strict, light raises. To perform these, lay face down on a slightly inclined bench with fairly heavy dumbells in your hands, in one motion, pull your shoulder blades together and elbows back, keeping the arms fairly straight. It is essentially an explosive performance of the T movement from the warm up detailed way up top; don't expect to bring the weights all the way up to in line with your body and certainly don't expect to be able to pause at the contraction, just rip the weights back explosively until your whole upper back is on fire, aiming for fairly high (15-20) reps. Finally, quickly look in the mirror and feel good about life.
 |
| Now get crazy-eyed and crush stuff. |
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete