BACK TRAINING

by IFPA Pro Natural Bodybuilder Doug Miller

Use varying grips to target desired areas, Wider grip - upper lats, Narrower grip - lower lats

The back is a large muscle group made up of many individual muscles such as the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, spinal erectors, teres major and minor, and rhomboids, just to name a few. Because of this, the back should be trained from many different angles and with moderate to high volume. Training back once a week is recommended (adequate recovery time is just as important as the training itself).

A basic workout consists of 5 different exercises for back; 3 focusing primarily on thickness, and 2 focusing primarily on width. Recommended rep range is 6 to 15. Exercise selection and order of exercises should be changed each week to avoid stagnation.

Exercises that focus on thickness also help develop width.

Exercise 1: Barbell Bent-Over Row
Thickness-building exercise

Keep a slight bend in the knees and bend over to approximately a 45° angle (bending all the way over to 90° (back parallel to floor) increases chances of injury). Grip the bar using the desired grip and pull up to between the waist and belly button.

I prefer the underhand grip to an over hand grip because I feel like I can get a much better contraction in my back muscles and am able to squeeze at the top better.

Do 4 sets, starting with 20 reps of a light to moderate weight (warm-up set), really focusing on squeezing the back. Pyramid up in weight with the remaining sets being to failure at 15 reps, 10-12 reps, and 6-8 reps. Form can be loosened up a little (controlled cheating) on the last few sets. This can reduce the chance of injury while maximizing muscle growth.

Try including a drop set after completing 6-8 heavy reps once in a while. Drop back down to the first set’s weight and squeeze out as many as reps as possible.

Another variation of this exercise that can be used is barbell-in-corner rows. Wedge a barbell in the corner of a room and attach a v-bar (used for close grip pulldowns) to the other end. It is essentially like a t-bar row with free weights. Instead of loading the bar with 45’s, try using 35’s or 25’s to allow for an increased range of motion and squeeze at the top of the movement.

I prefer either of these two methods to the t-bar machine where your chest is resting on you stomach and chest because that machine takes away the use of a lot of the stabilizers needed to perform rows correctly.

Exercise 2: Close Grip Pulldown
Width-building exercise

These are designed to hit the lower portion of the lats.

Although lat insertion is genetic, if you have high-lats I would recommend focusing on close-grip back work over wider-grip work.

Do 4 sets with the first set being an acclimation set and the remaining 3 being to failure. The rep range is similar to the first exercise and a drop set on the last set applies here as well. The key to this exercise is to keep the chest “barreled out” and really concentrate on driving the elbows down to the ground and squeezing when the hands get to the chest.


Exercise 3: Seated Cable Row
Thickness-building exercise

Do 4 sets, pyramiding up in weight and going to failure on the last 3. Do not sit straight up. Round the chest in order to squeeze the shoulder blades together, and lean back slightly to allow for a more natural pull. The low row machine made by Cybex or a Hammer Strength plate loaded low row machine can be used as substitutes for this exercise. Try throwing in heavy dumbbell rows sometimes here as well.

Exercise 4: Wide Grip Pull-ups
Pull-ups are an extremely important exercise for developing a v-taper.

I prefer to do these later in the workout to make them more challenging and to lessen the need to add a lot of weight.

The set and rep scheme on this exercise is the same as the other exercises. Be sure to get a full range of motion and add weight using a dip built if able to do more than the target reps without failing. Most gyms have a wide-grip pulldown bar where when used, palms will face each other. This machine is a nice alternative to use.

Exercise 5: Deadlifts Supersetted with Dumbbell Shrugs.
Deadlifts are absolutely essential to developing a complete back.

I like to do these at the end of the workout when I know I am completely warm and loose to prevent injury. I also like to do them at the end because it makes them that much harder.

Use an alternate grip and wrist wraps. This grip and the wraps will enable use of more weight. The goal here is to train the back, not the forearms. Back work would suffer if sets ended due to forearms giving out.

For this last exercise, do 2 moderate sets short of failure for around 10-20 reps each, and then pack on the weight and do 2 heavy sets for around 4-8 reps.

Although I often incorporate shrugs with shoulders, if you want to really get your upper back screaming in addition to your lower back, try supersetting deadlifts with dumbbell shrugs.

In the offseason when bodyweight is higher and more cushioning is present, do deadlifts from the floor. However, during contest prep, when bodyfat begins to get low, doing rack deadlifts may be a better option. This is where the pins of a power cage are set just below the knees and the deadlift is performed from there. This eliminates the most dangerous part of the lift (from your lower back’s standpoint) from the exercise. It also reduces use of legs and allows more focus on the back.

Sample Workouts
 

One last note… specific grips can be used to target desired areas, but a variety of grips should be used interchangeably to achieve more complete development overall.