The Back: Out of sight, Out of mind.

Posted by bodybuilder

Posted: November 23, 2008 - 5:24 pm

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Most people (bodybuilders included), tend to ignore the muscles that they cannot see while looking into a mirror. This becomes a problem with balance and symmetry and leaves your body more vulnerable to injury. If you are a physique competitor, when you turn your back to the audience to pose, you either hear crickets or you hear loud cheering. The judges are in tune with the reaction of the crowd, so to make sure you leave a lasting impression when you hit a back double biceps pose, keep reading.

Don't forget the back of your body.

When performing any back exercise, most people have problems with their biceps (arm muscles) wearing out before the large muscles of the back even get worked.
All the cool kids have back muscles
This is obviously undesirable. The way to fix this issue is to stay focused while you are lifting. This goes for every body part, but especially the back. Be quiet and concentrate on moving the weight with your Lats, Traps, rhomboids and/or spinal erectors (low back) depending on your objective and think of your arms simply as hooks holding the weight. It is also normal for the rear deltoids (back of the shoulders) to come in to help and this is fine as long as the entire back musculature is doing the majority of the work and the biceps are mosty out of the equation.

A well developed back should be wide as well as muscular.

The best exercises for back from personal experience are as follows:

1) Pull ups and/or Lat Pulldowns (machine)
2) T-Bar Row (Old-School version is my favorite).
3) 1-Arm Dumbbell Row
4) Bent-Over Barbell Row

Pull ups are a favorite because of the incredible stretch I get at the bottom. I usually start my back workout with them just to get them out of the way since they are usually the most challenging thing I do. I will throw a number out there, like 20 and sometimes upwards of 50 reps (depending on my energy level that day) and give myself as much time as I need to finish that set number. I don't rush through them, instead I take my time and feel my back pulling me up and lowering me back down slowly, ending with a dead hang.
The mother of all back exercies: The Pull up!

The next exercise in line is the T-Bar Row which I perform the old fashioned way. I take an Olympic sized barbell and fix a Chinning Triangle under it (usually attached to cables in the gym), then straddle the bar. Bend down, pick up the barbell and row your boat all the way to a strong, well developed back. The position of your body also stresses your core to a much larger degree than the traditional T-Bar Row setup found in most gyms which allow you to rest your body on a pad (lame).
Barbell and Chinning Triangle for real T-Bar Rows

Old School T-Bar rows: Bend over, flatten your back, keep your abs in tight and pull the bar up, squeeze your shoulder blades together and then lower the weight slowly.

I like the 1-Arm Dumbbell Row because it's a Unilateral exercise, meaning it works one side of the body independently of the other side. This is ideal for singling out a weak body part, specifically the lats in this case. This is also another exercise where you are forced to keep your core muscles tight, thus getting a bit of an ab workout as well.

1-arm db row brings out the smiles!

To ensure that all muscle fibers are thoroughly fatigued, I will end the workout with Bent-Over Barbell Rows. They can be done with a wide overhand grip or a closer underhand grip. Going underhand puts emphasis on the fibers of the lower lats and lifting overhand will hit the fibers of the upper lats. Of course, the entire back comes in to help lift, so it's impossible to isolate any one part of the body, but it's useful to experiment with different grips to help develop the entire back equally.

Bent-Over barbell rows: Keep your back flat and abs in tight.

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