Back Training: How To Do (And Not Do) It

Working with someone earlier this week on their back training casually reminded me that many people are lost when it comes to this muscle group. One of the most prevailing issues with people is activation, or the lack of it. Rather than performing a back routine, their shit becomes a biceps workout. The arms getting more of the work than the back muscles is common.

The biggest reason among several for poor activation has to do with the simple fact that the muscles comprising the back aren’t exactly visible. That’s because the back muscles are…ummmmmm…in back of you, like the word “back” implies! So because the latissimus dorsi, teres minor and major, lower traps, and rhomboids aren’t as easily viewable as “mirror” muscles like the chest and shoulders are, it’s hard for some to connect their mind to the back and activate its respective muscles. As a result, they don’t grow as much muscle as they should on their back. When this goes on long enough, their back development pales in comparison to virtually everything else but their legs because WHO THE FUCK TRAINS LEGS?!?!

But fuck, you yourself can’t visually see your back so why should you care that it’s pathetic?

Well, I’ll tell you why!!!

If you’re a guy, then guess what the answer is to your dreams of a much stronger bench or shoulder press? Yup, it’s the back. You see, packing slabs of muscle on your back will help you with your strength pursuits through the development of stable scapulae (i.e. shoulder blades), allowing you to move more weight with the beloved “mirror” muscles. But not only should you be concerned with making your back thicker for strength purposes, but you should also be interested in making it wider as well. From an aesthetics standpoint, a wider back helps with the creation of the much coveted V-taper that your physique is by no means close to resembling.

Ladies, don’t feel left out. There’s something of benefit to you, too! A more defined back will help you look better in low and open back dresses and tops. And much like with guys, making the back wider also helps give the illusion of having a smaller waist, which is generally of interest to women.

So now that you’re sold on why you should improve your back training, let’s get into the how!

 

TAKE THE ARMS OUT OF IT

Regardless what the back exercise is, the universal constant is that if it involves weight then the person doing it is going to use waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy toooooooo much.

The heavier the weight, the more likely your arms are to dominate the movement rather than your back. Not only that but too heavy of a weight negatively impacts range of motion, with it not allowing the back to get enough of a stretch on the eccentric phase of the motion and/or you not able to drive the weight to its completion point during the concentric phase so you can reach peak contraction by pausing and squeezing the back for 1-2 seconds before the next rep.

The solution?

Yeah, lighten the load!

Other than putting your ego aside, another way to take the arms out of the movement is to use a suicide (i.e. thumbless) grip around the handle or attachment as you think of your hands as nothing more than hooks. The only job they serve is to hold the equipment. With that in mind, actively concentrate on using your elbow(s) to pull the weight towards you rather than not thinking of anything at all, which invites the arms to take over.

So move the weight without the hands?

Yup, that’s exactly what I’m saying!

Confused?

Ladies, pretend you’re in a nightclub and some strange dude pulls up behind your dumper and starts grinding on it. So you grind back because you’re not a fucking killjoy…until you turn your head and notice the fella’s not that attractive. That being the case that your standards are based on looks, you all of a sudden remember that you have dignity and try to elbow the jerk behind you to leave you alone.

I don’t know the analogue of the above scenario for dudes, but that’s exactly how you should train your back. You grip the equipment handle and focus on moving your elbows behind your body like you’re trying to elbow somebody, which happens by you thinking about moving that joint — NOT your hand and arm!

Generating the force to move the weight with your elbows rather than your arms goes for all back movements, from rows to pulldowns. The only difference with vertical pulling movements like pull-ups and wide-grip pulldowns is that you’ll try to pull your elbows down to your sides rather than behind you. So imagine that you’re trying to elbow yourself because even you recognize how much of a dick you are!

PAUSE AND SQUEEZE

As touched on briefly, one reason for poor back activation and development has to do with people not pausing and squeezing, whether because they’re using too much weight and momentum for that to happen or they just don’t know how to contract the muscles.

Returning to vertical pulling movements like pull-ups and wide-grip pulldowns, trying to elbow yourself is also how you squeeze the back at the bottom position. After starting from a dead hang, or with your arms fully extended, bring your shoulders down and back and pull the weight down with your elbows, as discussed above. Then as you pause at the bottom position, try to make the left elbow touch the right elbow through your body. It’s not physically possibly because solid objects can’t pass through other solid objects, but that’s the cue!¹Rather than pulling straight up and down, pull like you’re creating the lower half of a circle.

When performing reverse-grip pulldowns, V-bar pulldowns, close-grip seated cable rows, bent-over barbell rows, and other movements where your arms are tucked by your side or slightly flared, start with your shoulders rounded. From there, pull the shoulder blades back (i.e. retract the scapula) and begin driving the weight with your elbows. Once the concentric phase of the lift is done, that’s when you pause and squeeze the back by bringing the shoulder blades together. The cue is to imagine an egg or soda can between your shoulder blades and you trying to crush it. That’s what you’re doing when you pause at the bottom before beginning the eccentric phase to return the weight to the starting position.

 

WARM THINGS UP

Much like women do clamshells and other glute activation drills before their workout to help them better feel their glutes working during squats, hip thrusts, and other major lifts, the same can be done with lats.

The seated pullover machine is perfect for priming the lats. The pullover itself is the only movement that completely isolates the lats with very minimal involvement of the other back muscles, with the machine allowing one to perform the movement through a complete range of motion from maximal stretch to contraction under constant tension. Unfortunately, these machines aren’t as prevalent as they once were. If you have the misfortune of going to such a gym without this superior piece of equipment, then dumbbell pullovers and straight-arm pulldowns are some popular alternatives that you can try that also isolate the lats so you can work on establishing the mind-muscle connection to them. The drawback with any machine-free pullover is that the range of motion isn’t as complete, though.

With regard to dumbbell pullovers, whether or not it’s a back or chest exercise is a question that’s caused much heated controversy throughout the ages — even a few wars, like the Crusades, WWII, and the East/West Coast beef!²That’s your secret history lesson for the day, folks!

The answer is that it works both muscle groups. How you make it work the muscle group that you want it to work depends on exactly how you perform it.

Because our concern here is with the lats, once your arms are lowered behind you so your hands are at least parallel to the bench, if not lower depending on your shoulder mobility, you should only raise the dumbbell so it’s in line with the top of your forehead. Terminating the range of motion there is how you keep tension on the lats, rather than continuing to pull the dumbbell past the recommended stopping point, which recruits more and more of the pecs as the dumbbell travels over your chest and towards your navel.

Just like seeing a seated pullover machine is rare, so too is seeing someone perform dumbbell pullovers. You’re more likely to see straight-arm pulldowns, which you probably already do or have some previous experience with. Now, most people perform this movement with a straight or cambered bar. Instead, I recommend the use of a rope. For one, the rope enables you to draw your elbows back a little bit further because you’re not stopped by a metal bar that can’t pass through solid matter.³Yeah, physics again! Second, if need be, you can hold the rope together in one hand and perform the movement while placing the index finger of your free hand on the lats on the side of the working arm so you can start sensing the muscle.⁴Touching yourself is something you can do on all iso-lateral lifts, like one-armed dumbbell rows, as well as in the privacy of your own home.

Another tip with straight-arm pulldowns has to do with squeezing the lats. At the bottom position when your hands are by your thighs, imagine that you have oranges in your armpits that you’re trying to squeeze to make delicious armpit orange juice, a delicacy in certain parts of the world you’re not cultured enough to know about.⁵Place your arms down along your sides and press them into your body right now. DO IT!!! Well, what do you feel? Yeah, your lats activating! The oranges in the armpit cue also works for deadlifts and rack pulls for better lat activation during those lifts, as well as several other exercises.

Machine pullovers, dumbbell pullovers, and straight-arm pulldowns are only discussed here, but there are many other lat-blasting options. Some include Dante rows, “J” Rope Pull-Ins, and Gironda 45° rows. Whatever exercise you settle on as your first movement to wake the lats up, do it for high reps in the 12-20 range then go do your routine.

Trust me, driving blood into your lats and following the given form corrections will have you feeling your back in ways that you’ve never felt before!

PLAY THE ANGLES

The back is the second largest muscle group behind the glutes. Because it consists of so many muscles with various functions, the back needs to be trained from a variety of angles by way of different exercises and grips.

The muscles in the back are interconnected and it’s hard to really isolate them but as a general rule, vertical pulling movements mostly target the lats, making them responsible for back width. Horizontal pulls are mostly responsible for thickness because while also involving use of the lats, the muscles in the mid-back are the primary movers. To this end, a back day workout should consist of a warmup, at least two vertical pulling movements, two horizontal pulls, and one exercise for the lower back, like good mornings or deadlifts.⁶If you’re new to working out or have preexisting back issues that make good mornings or deadlifts risky, then rack pulls are a safer and less technical alternative. If doing rack pulls, just be sure not to set the safety pins too high, which turns the movement into a glorified shrug like virtually every video of this exercise that’s posted on social media. Instead, set the pins below the patella so you overload the fucking erector spinae rather than having the pins at or above the knees so the traps do most of the work and you bore everyone to death with a boring ass video of you doing boring ass shrugs!

 

NOTE: The suggested workout structure is subject to change based on your needs. For example, if your back is thicker than it is wide, then the bulk of your back routine should consist of movements in the vertical plane.

 

 

What, you want more?

While there is indeed more information, I’m not writing a fucking encyclopedia. What’s given are the simple tweaks you can make today to take your back training to the next level. Implement all, some, or none of them. WHAT THE FUCK DO I CARE?!?!

*deuces*

Glossary: aesthetic, arms, bench, biceps, chest, clamshells, deadlift, dumbbell, exercise, glutes, gym, hip thrusts, lats, muscle, muscle group, physique, routine, squats, traps, work out, workout

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