programming a back session

Muscles worked:

• Back

General Overview when making your exercise selection:

When training back we can choose exercises to target weaknesses. For example, pulldown movements primarily work latt width whereas rowing movements primarily work latt thickness. This means you can choose exercises according to whether your back lacks width or thickness. It is important to have a mix of both rows and pulldowns in a session and not completely neglect one however you may favor one more than the other (eg 3 rows and 2 pulldowns or visa versa). Furthermore, people often forget/ignore their lower back (erectors) and upper back (traps), although these are both indirectly worked on most movements it is important to work them directly with one movement such as a deadlift for lower erectors and a shrug variation for traps.

Back (thickness/density) exercises to select from:

• Chest supported plate loaded rows (single or dual arm)

• Barbell rows (can be performed on barbell or smith machine)

• Tbar row

• DB rows (variations would be single arm, bent over dual arm,

• Cable row variations (narrow grip, wide grip)

*take home notes... keep your focus on the muscle you're working here, if your body isn't able to keep positioned during your set then the weight is too heavy for you... you shouldn't be swinging, leaning back and using momentum to complete the rep... towards the end for the last couple your form may slip a touch to force those final few but don't let this get stupid.

Back (width) exercises to select from:

Any Pull down variation such as:

• Underhand plate loaded pull down (performed single arm or dual)

• Cable pull downs (reverse grip, wide grip, vbar, prime grip

• Straight arm push downs

• Seated cable pull overs (cable above head, pulled bar down into sternum)

*take home notes... keep your back arched and chest lifted, form is key when performing width based movements for your back, don't be that person who sits swinging back n fourth using your momentum to get the bar down

Upper back (Traps) loading exercises to select from:

• Shrug variation (DB, barbell, hex bar ect)

Blueprint:

• 5-6 exercises with 1-2 working sets, reps ranging from 6-10 for back thickness/width exercises.

• 1 exercise each with 3 working sets, reps ranging from 8-15 for upper back (traps)

• 1 exercise each with 3 working sets, reps ranging from 6-10 for lower back (erectors)

Lower back loading exercises to select from:

• Deadlift variations (ground pull, block pulls, dead stop or constant movement through the set etc)

• Stiff legged deadlift (ensure form is correct otherwise high chance of injury)

• Rack pulls (knee level or below knee depending on how much requirement you want to place on other muscle like glutes & hamstrings....)

*take-home notes... I strongly believe a hip hinge is essential for building a complete back, however, they are extremely taxing on the central nervous system and because of this, you shouldn't do this more than once a week. For example, if you have two back days within a week, only have a hip hinge such as a deadlift in one of them, otherwise, your body won't be able to recover in between sessions and this will lead to slow progress or even a complete plateau.

FORM IS KING

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