The most important task for a bodybuilder is to pump up a massive back to achieve a V-shaped body. In this guide, you will learn how to pump up your back muscles for maximum width and depth, how to choose the right exercises and build a weight training program for your back.
Luxurious shoulders, bulging biceps, triceps are worthy rewards after training. But what about a powerful back? How about broad ones that eclipse the sun? If you don't have them, now is the time to pump them up. A strong and well-developed back is the main thing for a physically balanced and functional athletic body.
As they say, in bodybuilding, “The show is won from behind.” Judges evaluate bodybuilders' sculpted chests and arms, which must stand out from the crowd when paired with the right curves. Size also matters for success. Sure, from certain angles, a thin waist and well-developed back muscles look great, but if the back lacks power, the mouse can lose valuable points on stage due to insufficient width and depth, and not look as impressive in real life.
But if you look at it from another perspective, a strong back can prevent or speed up recovery from injury, as well as showcase the brilliance of your core. And in sports, a powerful back will help: in football it is better to block, in wrestling there is a powerful grip and more dynamic strikes in all combat sports.
In this guide, you will get a general understanding of the back muscles and understand which exercises are best to perform to relieve or prevent back pain, as well as which ones are used when performing certain movements.
If you've been putting back training on the back burner, don't worry, you can improve your lats with Calum's tips and back training program.
Anatomical structure of the back muscles
The back is made up of bones, joints, nerves, muscles and connective tissue. They all help keep the vertebrae in the spinal column straight. Actually, the spine is divided into three parts: the cervical region, the thoracic region, and the lumbar region. Incorrect bending or turning when lifting heavy objects can damage the discs between the vertebrae. To keep your back healthy and strong, you need to maintain an upright posture all day long, not just when lifting heavy objects.
The back muscles include the following groups: trapezius - (this is the upper part of the back), rhomboids - (located immediately below the trapezius), latissimus (the largest group of the lower back), teres major and minor (located under the latissimus) and muscles - spinal extensors (those that straighten the lower back, the longest, divided into many subtypes).
The chest and abdominal muscles play a key role in the physical development and strengthening of the muscles of the back of the body. The rectus abdominis (six pack abs) and obliques (located on the side of the torso) stabilize the spine and help with heavy lifting. Typically, each back exercise involves all or several specific groups.
Load for the spinal region of the back
To reduce or permanently get rid of pain in the spine, you need a good halo of muscles around it.
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By doing the following exercises you can achieve this:
- Lie face down, close your legs, place your left hand on the back of your head, and move your right hand to the side. Without lifting your feet off the floor and lifting your torso up, stretch the back of your head. Repeat 15-20 times, take a break, change hands and do it again.
- This exercise is similar to the first, only two hands are placed on the back of the head. They try to raise the torso higher. For beginners, 10 times is enough.
- Get down on all fours, exhaling, connect your right knee to the elbow of your left hand and arch your back. As you inhale, be sure to extend your arm forward and leg back, and arch your back. Perform alternating arms and legs 10 times.
- Lie with your torso on a bench, and hang your lower part down. Holding onto the bench, slowly lift your legs up until they are parallel to your torso. Hold for 4-5 seconds. Slowly lower your legs. Do 8 times.
What is the best exercise to choose to train your back muscles?
After intensive training, there comes a time when it becomes much easier to control the shape of the back muscles, for example, when posing. This mainly happens when significant success is achieved in gaining weight.
The king of all back exercises
Many experts believe that the deadlift is king, as it adds strength and stimulates growth of all muscle groups in the back.
Thus, when trying to gain back muscle mass, the deadlift is an integral and most important exercise to achieve your goal.
Also, the deadlift can be a good training tool for beginners, as long as the correct technique is followed. Beginners increase their strength not only solely due to systematic deadlift training, but also due to the improved nervous system endurance that comes as the body adapts to such a load. This is achieved when the nervous system learns to use every part of every muscle when performing a deadlift, then muscle and strength growth will begin to increase.
After a long training program, muscle growth stops after 1-5 sets of deadlifts, which means it's time to start working on aesthetics: the ideal number of sets in muscle-building exercises is from 8 to 12 repetitions with increasing working weight. And doing exercises for 15-20 sets, which means using lighter weights, improves muscle endurance, but not mass.
Free Weight Exercises
You can increase the mass of your back using the following exercises: bent-over barbell rows, one-arm bent-over dumbbell rows, shrugs with dumbbells and a barbell, dumbbell rows to load the rear deltoid.
Performing bent-over barbell rows puts a load on the latissimus dorsi, teres major, middle trapezius, rhomboid, and posterior deltoids. Such movements cannot be combined with deadlifts. One-arm bent-over dumbbell rows load the same groups as bent-over barbell rows, and also strain the lateral back muscles as the weight increases. Shrugs that develop the trapezius and rear deltoids make your upper back look more powerful. Bent-over dumbbell swings, when using a lighter weight for these exercises, can significantly improve upper back definition.
Exercises on simulators
After exercises with free weights, you need to move on to training on simulators: lat pull-downs, lat pull-downs, arm swings in the simulator (reverse fly, peck-deck, butterfly). They work the latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, and rear deltoids. Using a long bar and wide grip for lat pulldowns can help increase overall lat mass. And lat pulldowns with a reverse grip can increase the volume and range of mobility of vertical movements, which helps add mass to all abdominal muscles.
Using lever machines and overhead grip machines (which have single-arm variations) will help you focus as much as possible on increasing muscle size in specific areas at the same time. A little-known technique for single-arm machines is the concept of strength training or eccentric exercises, where the training time or weight lifted during the final series of sets is increased.
For example, when working the latissimus muscle using a D-bar on weight machines, to perform a one-arm lat pull-down, you need to set the load to 20 pounds and then lower the handle down with your right hand. And then with your left hand you need to set the load to 18.144 kg and return the block to its original position. The first half of the exercise is aimed at concentric muscle contraction, the second - at eccentric muscle contraction (when lifting the weight back up). By focusing attention on performing the second half of the exercise, muscle growth is stimulated in a way that is unusual for muscles, and as a result, the growth process is accelerated.
Bodyweight exercises
When performing a separate part of the program to build back muscles, only the visual effectiveness and definition of the torso improves. In this case, there is no point in lifting weights if it is impossible to lift your own weight. Pull-ups, reverse rows, back stretches, and TRX loop workouts are exercises designed to build strength and size in the back in a way that works all the muscles in the body at once instead of targeting one muscle or muscle group. And you don’t have to be limited by your actual body weight when you exercise with your “own body weight.”
For example, as soon as doing 10 pull-ups on the bar in three sets becomes habitual, you need to increase the load by attaching a belt to your waist with additional weight on it.
If it is physically impossible to do pull-ups, you should start with reverse rows and training with TRX loops - this teaches you to stabilize the torso corset while improving the performance of body-pulling exercises.
Bodyweight exercises such as gundog, superman, dead bug and plank will help prevent or speed up recovery from lower back pain. They can also help restore strength and strengthen the core muscles after injury to improve athletic performance in terms of endurance and strength. Do 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions of all four exercises at the beginning or middle of your back workout. Do them at home in your free time to increase the longevity of your weightlifting (or bodybuilding) career.
How to pump up a wide back[edit | edit code]
Yuzhakov Anton BEST EXERCISES FOR LATISM MUSCLES
The best exercises for the back
Source Muscle and Fitness Magazine 2012 No. 1
Main article
: Back - exercises and training features
While science still hasn't figured out how and why our muscles grow in response to resistance training, the root cause of muscle growth has been established. To build a wide back, you need to take into account the function of genes. Usually genes "sleep". They can be compared to inactivated computer programs, but they cannot be turned on by simply pressing a button.
In fact, genes are awakened by powerful force loads. However, as research has shown, for the average amateur, any training program “works” for only 2-2.5 weeks. Then you go to the gym empty-handed.
Science offered a revolutionary solution. It turns out that to build a wide back you need to train in short cycles. This is reminiscent of the well-known cyclic training, only before the bodybuilder first tried to pump up mass, and then fought for muscle “relief”... From now on, the athlete had to alternate polarly different training modes: pumping and low-repetition strength work with basic exercises. The method was pioneered by multiple Olympia champion Ronnie Coleman.
The application of a new method in the practice of amateur sports has brought phenomenal results! The muscle growth of amateur athletes has accelerated fabulously! However, a real breakthrough occurred when contrast training began to be used as part of a weekly microcycle!
Today, this training system is dominant in bodybuilding. Try it on your back and you will see: the system is phenomenally effective!
How to properly pump up your back muscles
1Focus on multi-joint exercises
Calum's best advice is to start with multi-joint exercises.
This is the best route for beginners. That's how he started out. Calum believes that core exercises will not only help develop your back, but will also help with coordination and strengthen your core. Choose movements like deadlifts—which work your back, legs, and glutes—as opposed to isolation exercises like straight-arm cable rows. Another rule is never sacrifice technique for more weight. Throwing a bunch of iron onto a barbell to increase the size of your back on a barbell deadlift is a recipe for diminishing results, not adding mass.
Calum has been taught by many years of experience to monitor the technique of performing exercises. He says he's tried and used heavy weights before, both for deadlifts and bent-over rows, but it's not good for muscle building.
2Create a brain-muscle connection (neuromuscular connection)
To tone up his massive back, Calum focused on neuromuscular connections and the muscles began to grow.
Although he has always had a well-defined and prominent back, Calum hasn't always enjoyed training this specific body part. He would rather bench press or squat to strengthen his quads. But last year he noticed a difference in the width and thickness of his back, which prompted him to take action.
Calum has also recently created a strong mental connection with his back. He says the best thing about back training now is the brain-muscle connection that I have. He usually tries his best to activate his back muscles. Calum says he didn't know how to stretch before, but now he can do multiple stretches, which makes the workout much more effective.
3Pull, Pull, Pull
When it comes to your back, barbell rows and wide-grip pull-ups should come to mind. Calum believes that for a good, wide back, the bent over row is ideal because it initially targets the middle of the trapezius muscle, which lowers the center of your back.
Combine it with a lat pulldown to develop width. Think about your back during every workout to maximize the involvement of all fibers.
4Stretch and contraction
To build a powerful back, the key is that you stretch and contract every muscle at the peak of each set. Isometric exercises—such as stretching, counting to 5, and relaxation—help activate and fatigue this muscle.
Any isometric exercise increases the time the muscle is under load and strengthens the neuromuscular connection with each movement. The result is more than just a great mass!
The correct technique for performing the exercise and involving the maximum number of muscle groups and muscle fibers in the work will help pump up a massive back.
Are you ready to put these tips into action? Start working on your back using Calum's advice. Push yourself to lift heavy weights the way you need to, but stick to proper form and rest periods.
Spinal stretching exercises
At the beginning of any workout, it is necessary to do a warm-up to warm up the muscles and stretch the spine, in order to avoid pinched nerve endings or other health problems.
This exercise will help relieve muscle tension in your back: you need to try to touch the knees of your bent legs with your chin.
Stand facing the wall at a distance of 20 cm, raise your arms to the ceiling, stretch, looking at your fingertips and gradually stretching your spine. Then place your outstretched arms on the surface of the wall, with your chest and chin in contact with it.
Do you feel a stretch in your vertebrae? No, then move further away from the wall and repeat the action. Stay in this position for a few minutes. Then turn to the right so that your cheek touches the wall. Repeat this movement again only to the left.
To stretch the shoulder area, here's an exercise: touching the wall with your right side, stretch your arm back along it and slowly turn to the right, feeling the tension. Hold for a moment, and then repeat on the other side.
A simple horizontal bar or wall bars will help to stretch the spine well; 1-2 minutes is enough.
In a sitting position, hug your bent legs under your knees and stretch upward with your shoulder blades.
Rest a little and move on to the next exercise. Perform a hang with bent legs on the bar, pull yourself up and bend at the waist. The exercise is performed smoothly.
Back training program
Rest 30-60 seconds between warm-up sets
Rest 60-90 seconds for working sets
Reverse grip pull-ups6 sets of 10 reps (body weight) |
Bent-over barbell row2 warm-up sets of 6-10 repetitions; 3 working sets of 6-10 reps |
Vertical pull-down to the chest2 warm-up sets of 8-12 repetitions; 3 working sets of 8-12 reps |
Horizontal block row to the stomach3 sets to failure; approximately 6-8 reps |
Using a barbell in exercises
When starting to train with a barbell, you shouldn’t take on too much. Light weight is what you need. Although in the future the load will still have to be increased.
At the beginning of classes, be sure to do a warm-up to stretch and warm up your muscles: hang on the horizontal bar, squat and go for a short jog.
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This exercise is considered basic. The back is straight, legs are bent. Raise the barbell to the abdominal area, bring your shoulder blades together. Put the barbell back. Repeat 10 to 15 times.
Performing forward bends. Stand straight, place the barbell over your shoulders. Bend forward, keeping your back straight, and smoothly return back. Don't round your lumbar spine.
A set of back exercises for both women and men at home should be performed three times every 7 days. The class ends with relaxation exercises. For example, rolling back and forth on a fitball.
Conscientious and regular exercise is the key to strong back muscles and your grace!
Gymnastics for the upper back and spine at home
- Clasp your hands behind your head. Bend over. Try to look up. Then return to the starting position. Repeat 10 times.
- Approach the doorway. Rest a few centimeters above your head. Bend over until you feel tension in your muscles. Hold for 30 seconds. Return to the starting position. Do 4 sets.
- Relax your hands. Begin to squeeze your shoulder blades tightly together. Feel the tension, endure it for a few seconds. Relax. Perform 10 times in 3 approaches.
- Breathe correctly when doing exercises.
- Exercise regularly: three times a week. Give your hands time to recover.
- Complete the complex with muscle stretching. Do exercises regularly.
- Adjust your sleep patterns. Try to sleep at least 8 hours a night.
- Change your workout program after a month of training to effectively train your upper back muscles.
Proper nutrition will ensure muscle growth. Consume foods containing protein: dairy products, eggs, fish, poultry, beans and rice. Honey, carrots, prunes and apricots will provide you with the required amount of carbohydrates. Don't starve or overeat. Eat often, but in small portions. Drink as much water as possible, consume fiber.
You can train your back on the same day as the muscles of your chest, legs or shoulders. However, it is best to set aside a separate day for pumping your back. One complex must include exercises with a load on the back at different angles.
If your back is subject to daily strain, perform no more than 4 sets of exercises. In another case, the sum of all approaches should be reduced to 8 (and higher, depending on the level of training).
In bodybuilding, spinal injuries are common: osteochondrosis, herniated intervertebral discs. This happens when an athlete overloads the spinal column. In your first sessions, use light weights to strengthen the muscle ligaments that protect the spine from unwanted damage. Warm up before the main complex. While performing strength exercises, maintain an arch in your lower back. Don't round your back.
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Almost every man who goes to the gym dreams of a big and wide back. But training this muscle group must be approached consciously and very carefully in order, firstly, to get the desired results, and secondly, to avoid injury. What parts does the back consist of? What exercises for the upper back are the most effective? Is it possible to pump up your back at home? You will find answers to all these questions in our article!
