Everyone knows how to train chest, arms and shoulders. I seriously wonder how gym members don't even train back at all!! Pullup's just work your Biceps right?!
Firstly i just want to clarify that if your wanting a body that looks good to women, strong to other men or your just wanting a balanced physique you will need to train your back!!
The back can be split into 2 main area's, upper back and lower back. In this article i will concentrate on the upper back. This includes the Lat's and Rhomboids, the Lat's mainly providing the width and the Rhomboids providing the depth.
Lets move swiftly on to how we can go about training the upper back. There are 2 main movements that i would never leave out of a back routine, a wide grip pullup and the bent over row. These to me are the bread and butter exercises that you will get the most results from. You may well benefit from doing single arm dumbell rows or Hammer Strength machine rows, but these are simply imitating the Bent over row and Pullup.
You'll notice that lots if not every gym has a lat pull down bar, these may seem a great option instead of doing pullups, as you can select the weight. If you cant even do one pullup you may see them as the only option to training your Lat's. Well if you can't perform even one pullup then what you need to do is get yourself to a asssisted pullup machine and perform them on there, progressing until you can do them with little to no assistance. Or simply just up to the pullup bar and then slowly lower yourself down, performing negatives of the pullup. This would be done until you can no longer slow the lowering phase.
Putting it simply the Lat Pull down does have its place for finishing the Lat's with a drop set near the end of the work out etc, but for a muscle building exercise it has far less effect than the pullup.
The same can be said for the variety of cable rows, machine rows etc. They also have a place in the later stages of a back workout, for a drop set to get the final pump in and achieve that last level of fatigue.
So how would I set up my back routine, lets look now;
Rest 2 minutes between sets.
Pullups (wide grip)
3 sets to failure aiming for max of 10 reps per set. When 10 reps can be achieved in all 3 sets, weight needs to be ASAP. Imagine doing a pullup to doing a pressup, if you can bench press 100kg for 5 reps, how easy is doing a pressup? Now imagine doing a pullup with 10kg around your waste, then doing it with no weight added on, see my thought process there?!
Bent Over Barbell Rows (just wider than a shoulder width grip, palms facing down)
1 warm up set and then 2 working sets, aiming for between 6 and 10 reps. As soon as 10 reps can be achieved then the weight needs to be increased.
For the next 2 exercises a strict rest period of 1 minutes between sets should be kept to.
Close Grip Pull Down (palms facing up, but with a shoulder width grip)
2 sets, aiming for 8-12 reps on both sets. When 10-12 reps is reached the weight should be increased.
Close Grip cable row
1 working set, aiming for 8-10 reps than a drop set of 40% less weight on the second set (e.g 100kg first set, 60kg second set), than what was used on the first set. No rest inbetween sets. The second set is performed until it cannot be performed using safe and correct form.
There it is then, you've read what i think is a good way to train back. It worked for me and I hope you get good results. Just make sure you do this once a week for at least 6-8 weeks and im sure you'll see a difference and be lifting more weight.
This was the easy part just sitting in your room and reading what other people do, now actually get up and get yourself into the gym. Remember guys you even have to be willing to give up sleep to be successful.
Thanks for reading:
JONNO ROBERTS
If you have any other questions or queries email me;
jonno@completely-anabolic.com
Firstly i just want to clarify that if your wanting a body that looks good to women, strong to other men or your just wanting a balanced physique you will need to train your back!!
The back can be split into 2 main area's, upper back and lower back. In this article i will concentrate on the upper back. This includes the Lat's and Rhomboids, the Lat's mainly providing the width and the Rhomboids providing the depth.
Lets move swiftly on to how we can go about training the upper back. There are 2 main movements that i would never leave out of a back routine, a wide grip pullup and the bent over row. These to me are the bread and butter exercises that you will get the most results from. You may well benefit from doing single arm dumbell rows or Hammer Strength machine rows, but these are simply imitating the Bent over row and Pullup.
You'll notice that lots if not every gym has a lat pull down bar, these may seem a great option instead of doing pullups, as you can select the weight. If you cant even do one pullup you may see them as the only option to training your Lat's. Well if you can't perform even one pullup then what you need to do is get yourself to a asssisted pullup machine and perform them on there, progressing until you can do them with little to no assistance. Or simply just up to the pullup bar and then slowly lower yourself down, performing negatives of the pullup. This would be done until you can no longer slow the lowering phase.
Putting it simply the Lat Pull down does have its place for finishing the Lat's with a drop set near the end of the work out etc, but for a muscle building exercise it has far less effect than the pullup.
The same can be said for the variety of cable rows, machine rows etc. They also have a place in the later stages of a back workout, for a drop set to get the final pump in and achieve that last level of fatigue.
So how would I set up my back routine, lets look now;
Rest 2 minutes between sets.
Pullups (wide grip)
3 sets to failure aiming for max of 10 reps per set. When 10 reps can be achieved in all 3 sets, weight needs to be ASAP. Imagine doing a pullup to doing a pressup, if you can bench press 100kg for 5 reps, how easy is doing a pressup? Now imagine doing a pullup with 10kg around your waste, then doing it with no weight added on, see my thought process there?!
Bent Over Barbell Rows (just wider than a shoulder width grip, palms facing down)
1 warm up set and then 2 working sets, aiming for between 6 and 10 reps. As soon as 10 reps can be achieved then the weight needs to be increased.
For the next 2 exercises a strict rest period of 1 minutes between sets should be kept to.
Close Grip Pull Down (palms facing up, but with a shoulder width grip)
2 sets, aiming for 8-12 reps on both sets. When 10-12 reps is reached the weight should be increased.
Close Grip cable row
1 working set, aiming for 8-10 reps than a drop set of 40% less weight on the second set (e.g 100kg first set, 60kg second set), than what was used on the first set. No rest inbetween sets. The second set is performed until it cannot be performed using safe and correct form.
There it is then, you've read what i think is a good way to train back. It worked for me and I hope you get good results. Just make sure you do this once a week for at least 6-8 weeks and im sure you'll see a difference and be lifting more weight.
This was the easy part just sitting in your room and reading what other people do, now actually get up and get yourself into the gym. Remember guys you even have to be willing to give up sleep to be successful.
Thanks for reading:
JONNO ROBERTS
If you have any other questions or queries email me;
jonno@completely-anabolic.com
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