-shrugs for traps
-deadlifts for lowe r back
-pullups/pulldowns with a close neutral grip as well as yates rows for lats
-wide grip pullups for the teres muscles
-rear delt raises, chest supported db rows, and some rotator cuff stuff for the upper back
am I missing anything? I guess I should do some rows to my belly button or higher for thickness[/quote]
What kind of shrugs? I never really stuck with training shrugs, but kelso shrugs look pretty legit.
These days, all my traps training is from mat pulls.
This is like the third place on this site that I’ve whored this picture. I don’t care though, because as long as it took me to get this damn picture I may as well share it. Huge respect to all you guys who managed to take self back shots lol. It took me fucking forever to get a halfway decent angle.
-shrugs for traps
-deadlifts for lowe r back
-pullups/pulldowns with a close neutral grip as well as yates rows for lats
-wide grip pullups for the teres muscles
-rear delt raises, chest supported db rows, and some rotator cuff stuff for the upper back
am I missing anything? I guess I should do some rows to my belly button or higher for thickness[/quote]
What kind of shrugs? I never really stuck with training shrugs, but kelso shrugs look pretty legit.
These days, all my traps training is from mat pulls.
[/quote]
I always had pain shrugging for some reason up until recently. They’ve gone from nothing to decent quickly. I like doing DB shrugs so that I can shrug up as well as back, I feel like the contraction is way better. What would you recommend for Kelso shrugs? Youtube says his book had a lot of versions. I’ll give these a try next back session:
My fav back exercise is a high angled T-bar row. The stretch on my lats at the bottom of the position is immense. And like many have agreed upon here, heavyass weight and high reps is the way to go for some back mass.
Chin-up is also another favorite exercise of mine though. I understand everyone is built differently and some may not feel much lats at all when performing this exercise. However, for me, I realized that if I let myself relax completely at the bottom (COMPLETELY relaxed, as if trying to perform an extreme lat stretch), and begin each rep from this position, I hit the lats pretty hard. The number of reps I can do per set at bw like this reduced but overall I felt the effect should be substantial. I’ll be doing this for the next few months leading into summer and see if the results are satisfactory.
Deadlift, once a week at 10 sets of heavy singles, is the third exercise that I perform that hits my back somewhat.
That’s all I do for my back and I’m pretty satisfied with it so far.
Any back exercise is good, it depends on the person though. Whatever works for you is good, me personally I prefer heavy ass cable rows with old school form, great exercise. My problem with the slow form is I can not get a good contraction and feel of the lats and upper back and I feel the contraction best with old school form.
since i stopped strength training and now focus on “bodybuilding” , i have noticed quite an improvement in the appearance of most of my body EXCEPT my back. i see no real difference.
the biggest improvement as was in my arms, which nobody ever noticed before, now seem to get comments from strangers and friends, but I do not think my back has changed that much at all.
the foundation of my back training for years and years was Olympic weightlifting and power-lifting, not sure i a making any sort of point at all, just my personal experience.
i will say though i the majority of my back training over the last 25 years was not direct back training in the traditional sense, ie lat pulldowns, chins, rows, machines, etc, i did do a lot of frequency and volume, with my back getting work on average 3-6 times a week.
I think heavy rack pulls have done the most for my upper back bigness. I haven’t done them in a long time cuz I don’t think they were really helping my deadlift numbers, but I remember when I used to do them the thing that would be most sore was my upper back. And it actually made it more sore than it gets from rows and chins and such direct upper back work.
i will say though i the majority of my back training over the last 25 years was not direct back training in the traditional sense, ie lat pulldowns, chins, rows, machines, etc, i did do a lot of frequency and volume, with my back getting work on average 3-6 times a week.
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Hey man sorry if I’m reading you wrong but do you mean you didn’t use those exercises for the majority of your time lifting ? I remember reading that you used to do shotputting so did you just do a shit load of high pulling and cleaning instead?
i will say though i the majority of my back training over the last 25 years was not direct back training in the traditional sense, ie lat pulldowns, chins, rows, machines, etc, i did do a lot of frequency and volume, with my back getting work on average 3-6 times a week.
[/quote]
Hey man sorry if I’m reading you wrong but do you mean you didn’t use those exercises for the majority of your time lifting ? I remember reading that you used to do shotputting so did you just do a shit load of high pulling and cleaning instead?[/quote]
ya. not until the last few years have i been doing a lot of rows chins and machine “direct” lat work.
most of my back training involved front squats, standing overhead pressing(which works a lot more upper back than most people realize, especially if you hold the weight at the top for a second or two!), high pulls, cleans, etc.
this somewhat famous pic of 1970s gold medalist and world record holder Pisarenko doing high pulls and it demonstrates the amount of upper back muscle activation with high pulls, as well as adding to the homo of this thread.
i will say though i the majority of my back training over the last 25 years was not direct back training in the traditional sense, ie lat pulldowns, chins, rows, machines, etc, i did do a lot of frequency and volume, with my back getting work on average 3-6 times a week.
[/quote]
Hey man sorry if I’m reading you wrong but do you mean you didn’t use those exercises for the majority of your time lifting ? I remember reading that you used to do shotputting so did you just do a shit load of high pulling and cleaning instead?[/quote]
ya. not until the last few years have i been doing a lot of rows chins and machine “direct” lat work.
most of my back training involved front squats, standing overhead pressing(which works a lot more upper back than most people realize, especially if you hold the weight at the top for a second or two!), high pulls, cleans, etc.
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They clearly worked for you. Any olympic lifter I see is pretty yoked up.That Pisarenko pic is so cool. Here is another that shows how big his back is.
