[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Impressive. Your lat anatomy is fantastic.
BBB[/quote]
Thanks BBB, means a ton coming from you.
I really ramped up my back training in the past year and it has really showed me the potential I have to grow there.[/quote]
can you give us an overview of what you did the past year for back?
[quote]nik133 wrote:
Try hitting the MM with one hand on the wrist, I think with your structure it may look better than the hands clasped. You’re looking hella lean, keep smashinger brah![/quote]
I have tried that before, actually have a pic of it done that way in this series, I’ll post it.
Thanks for the comments, appreciate the encouragement.
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Impressive. Your lat anatomy is fantastic.
BBB[/quote]
Thanks BBB, means a ton coming from you.
I really ramped up my back training in the past year and it has really showed me the potential I have to grow there.[/quote]
can you give us an overview of what you did the past year for back?
[/quote]
Definitely.
I’ll post a detailed writeup of it tomorrow morning when I wake up before I train.
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Impressive. Your lat anatomy is fantastic.
BBB[/quote]
Thanks BBB, means a ton coming from you.
I really ramped up my back training in the past year and it has really showed me the potential I have to grow there.[/quote]
can you give us an overview of what you did the past year for back?
[/quote]
Allright, here’s the scoop.
I have always trained heavy, since the beginning. When I trained for football or after my injury and for my first year and a half of college, I pretty much just trained bench, squat, deadlift, and other compound movements. Because of this, I built a pretty solid physique, but it wasn’t that balanced, just relatively dense. I started training more like a bodybuilder in the middle of my Sophomore year and included exercises like Kroc Rows and Hammer Strength row variations, but it wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year and the summer going into my junior year that I really switched entirely over to training like a bodybuilder.
I did a split that had me hitting back twice a week with pretty high volume. At this time, I was working with Layne Norton, and he had me doing a modified PHAT routine that had me hitting back heavy once a week and with higher reps the second time. The exercises I focused on branched out a bit, including pulldown variations, rows (dumbbell and barbell), Hammer Strength Rowing, Pull-ups (variations), and rack chins. These are still my staple exercises today, but I do things a bit differently with back now.
When I discovered John Meadows’ back training, this is when my training really changed. I adopted many of his exercises and techniques, specifically, Meadows rows, single arm barbell rows, dead-stop dumbbell rows, stretchers, single arm cable rows, and partial pulldowns. When I started including more exericses like these, this is when my back really started to get wider. I really only started training my back with the full spectrum of exercises (width and thickness) about 5 months ago, so I am excited to see how I can progress when this contest is over with the knowledge I have now.
Here is how I set up a back day now:
Pulldown variation (reverse grip, close grip): 5 sets, 8-20 reps, hard contraction on each rep
Barbell Row Variation (for weight, looser form): work up to 6-10 rep heavy set, then do one dropset of 10-15
Hammer Strength or Machine Row Variation: work up to 10-15 rep heavy set, then do 2-4 dropsets
Single Arm Pulldown, Single Arm Cable Row, SS w/Horizontal cable row…each exercise done with a 2-5 second hold at contraction: usually 2-4 sets of 8-20 reps
Barbell Deadlift or Rack Deadlift: work up to heaviest 2-10 rep set, then sometimes do a burnout at 385-405 x 15-20
I train back once a week and this routine really hits it hard from every angle. I sometimes like to employ techniques such as extended holds (up to 12-15 seconds each rep) where I will really focus on squeezing the lat as hard as possible. Using feel exercises are really important in my opinion because it helps teach me how to feel my back working on the heavier movements, something that is tough for some to do and something that I had a hard time doing at first as well.
If you want to see the specific workouts I was doing a year ago or so and compare them to those that I am doing now, you can check out my log here:
Any other questions, please feel free to ask.
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Impressive. Your lat anatomy is fantastic.
BBB[/quote]
Thanks BBB, means a ton coming from you.
I really ramped up my back training in the past year and it has really showed me the potential I have to grow there.[/quote]
can you give us an overview of what you did the past year for back?
[/quote]
Allright, here’s the scoop.
I have always trained heavy, since the beginning. When I trained for football or after my injury and for my first year and a half of college, I pretty much just trained bench, squat, deadlift, and other compound movements. Because of this, I built a pretty solid physique, but it wasn’t that balanced, just relatively dense. I started training more like a bodybuilder in the middle of my Sophomore year and included exercises like Kroc Rows and Hammer Strength row variations, but it wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year and the summer going into my junior year that I really switched entirely over to training like a bodybuilder.
I did a split that had me hitting back twice a week with pretty high volume. At this time, I was working with Layne Norton, and he had me doing a modified PHAT routine that had me hitting back heavy once a week and with higher reps the second time. The exercises I focused on branched out a bit, including pulldown variations, rows (dumbbell and barbell), Hammer Strength Rowing, Pull-ups (variations), and rack chins. These are still my staple exercises today, but I do things a bit differently with back now.
When I discovered John Meadows’ back training, this is when my training really changed. I adopted many of his exercises and techniques, specifically, Meadows rows, single arm barbell rows, dead-stop dumbbell rows, stretchers, single arm cable rows, and partial pulldowns. When I started including more exericses like these, this is when my back really started to get wider. I really only started training my back with the full spectrum of exercises (width and thickness) about 5 months ago, so I am excited to see how I can progress when this contest is over with the knowledge I have now.
Here is how I set up a back day now:
Pulldown variation (reverse grip, close grip): 5 sets, 8-20 reps, hard contraction on each rep
Barbell Row Variation (for weight, looser form): work up to 6-10 rep heavy set, then do one dropset of 10-15
Hammer Strength or Machine Row Variation: work up to 10-15 rep heavy set, then do 2-4 dropsets
Single Arm Pulldown, Single Arm Cable Row, SS w/Horizontal cable row…each exercise done with a 2-5 second hold at contraction: usually 2-4 sets of 8-20 reps
Barbell Deadlift or Rack Deadlift: work up to heaviest 2-10 rep set, then sometimes do a burnout at 385-405 x 15-20
I train back once a week and this routine really hits it hard from every angle. I sometimes like to employ techniques such as extended holds (up to 12-15 seconds each rep) where I will really focus on squeezing the lat as hard as possible. Using feel exercises are really important in my opinion because it helps teach me how to feel my back working on the heavier movements, something that is tough for some to do and something that I had a hard time doing at first as well.
If you want to see the specific workouts I was doing a year ago or so and compare them to those that I am doing now, you can check out my log here:
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/blog_sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_log/evans_training_2
Any other questions, please feel free to ask. [/quote]
wow what a long informative write up!!! thank you for that, back is a muscle group that i have trouble with sometimes…i can never seem to work it hard enough, im going to put in rack pulls at the end of my workout now and see how ill respond
[
wow what a long informative write up!!! thank you for that, back is a muscle group that i have trouble with sometimes…i can never seem to work it hard enough, im going to put in rack pulls at the end of my workout now and see how ill respond[/quote]
Haha, ya I just started writing and it came out to be a bit longer than I thought.
What do your numbers look like currently?
If you don’t feel your back enough, it might be a good idea to really focus on the mind-muscle connection on all exercises. This is something I do every single back session and think it is really tough to build your back without doing this.
Evan, is your belt on backwards in your avatar pic?
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[
wow what a long informative write up!!! thank you for that, back is a muscle group that i have trouble with sometimes…i can never seem to work it hard enough, im going to put in rack pulls at the end of my workout now and see how ill respond[/quote]
Haha, ya I just started writing and it came out to be a bit longer than I thought.
What do your numbers look like currently?
If you don’t feel your back enough, it might be a good idea to really focus on the mind-muscle connection on all exercises. This is something I do every single back session and think it is really tough to build your back without doing this. [/quote]
my numbers are like roughly like 315/225/405- i can rep 315 for squat and 225 for bench, 405 is my max deadlift- which is pulled sumo.
i actually feel my back working fairly well- at least on excersizes such as pullups, and pulldowns. I can just never seem to work it hard enough to feel any soreness the next day.
What can I say? Looking fantastic even this far out.
I think you are going to do VERY well in the show. : )
Looking great as always, Evan. Gonna be great following along in here.
Question- have you tried out a side-chest pose like what Stu does (legs bent, body lowered)? Your legs are definitely one of your strongest points, so anything you can do to showcase them can’t hurt IMO.
[quote]hlss09 wrote:
Evan, is your belt on backwards in your avatar pic?
[/quote]
Haha, it is not actually, but it looks that way, doesn’t it?
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[
wow what a long informative write up!!! thank you for that, back is a muscle group that i have trouble with sometimes…i can never seem to work it hard enough, im going to put in rack pulls at the end of my workout now and see how ill respond[/quote]
Haha, ya I just started writing and it came out to be a bit longer than I thought.
What do your numbers look like currently?
If you don’t feel your back enough, it might be a good idea to really focus on the mind-muscle connection on all exercises. This is something I do every single back session and think it is really tough to build your back without doing this. [/quote]
my numbers are like roughly like 315/225/405- i can rep 315 for squat and 225 for bench, 405 is my max deadlift- which is pulled sumo.
i actually feel my back working fairly well- at least on excersizes such as pullups, and pulldowns. I can just never seem to work it hard enough to feel any soreness the next day.
[/quote]
Well, once I started adding in a good deal of volume and emphasizing form and the contraction on pulldowns, single arm pulldowns, and single arm rows, I really was able to feel my back the next day…this also allowed me to feel it more doing heavy rows and deads.
[quote]SkyNett wrote:
What can I say? Looking fantastic even this far out.
I think you are going to do VERY well in the show. : )[/quote]
Thanks sky, always appreciate your comments and support : ).
Your going to kill it. As lean as they get this far out, keep it up and I reckon you’ll shock a lot of people!
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
Your going to kill it. As lean as they get this far out, keep it up and I reckon you’ll shock a lot of people![/quote]
Thanks Jake, that’s the hope!
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
Your going to kill it. As lean as they get this far out, keep it up and I reckon you’ll shock a lot of people![/quote]
This! Good luck, and keep updating this thread!
[quote]plateau wrote:
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
Your going to kill it. As lean as they get this far out, keep it up and I reckon you’ll shock a lot of people![/quote]
This! Good luck, and keep updating this thread![/quote]
I’ll definitely update more often now…I’ll post pics every week.
Is there anything else you guys would like to see more of in here?
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
[quote]plateau wrote:
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
Your going to kill it. As lean as they get this far out, keep it up and I reckon you’ll shock a lot of people![/quote]
This! Good luck, and keep updating this thread![/quote]
I’ll definitely update more often now…I’ll post pics every week.
Is there anything else you guys would like to see more of in here? [/quote]
could you post a pic of you coming into a shower?
[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
could you post a pic of you coming into a shower?[/quote]
You know what dude? I’m going to ask you nicely not to come in and fuck up this thread with stupid bullshit like that. Ok? Thanks.
