I Have NO Back

Training Bodybuilding
41

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:
elusive wrote:
BONEZ217 wrote:
This is a back routine I like to use.

Rack Pulls (2 inches below the knee, but I have long limbs and a short torso) - 5 sets 4-8 reps

Weighted Pullups - 4 sets of 8-15 reps

Seated wide grip cable row - 4 sets 10+ reps

Supinated shoulder width pulldowns - 3 sets 8 reps

Sometimes Ill do pullovers

How do you like pullovers? I’ve never tried them and just felt they weren’t needed. Do you feel they’re helping out?

Theyre ok. I get a good stretch from them and you can never have too much back width. A lot of the work I do emphasizes thickness but I have a really narrow waist so any width I accquire looks especially pronounced. If I ever split my back up into a width day and a thicnkness day I’d do them more often. [/quote]

I was actually considering spliting my back like that and adding pullovers on my width day. Good to know.

42

[quote]jCaesar88 wrote:

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough: I didn’t expect to have a back at my height/weight. I was just stating the obvious so I can get some input. I was ALWAYS skinny. Since I was born.
And if you think 6’1" and 165lbs is bad, you should see me last year when I “cut down” to 147. Sickness[/quote]

Word.

Don’t make this too difficult, though, searching for the perfect back workout and exercises. Try a few, find the ones which target your back the way you like, and once you find those, focus on gaining weight and gaining strength while doing those and 50lbs later you’ll have a sweet back.

43

[quote]NewDamage wrote:
jCaesar88 wrote:

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough: I didn’t expect to have a back at my height/weight. I was just stating the obvious so I can get some input. I was ALWAYS skinny. Since I was born.
And if you think 6’1" and 165lbs is bad, you should see me last year when I “cut down” to 147. Sickness

Word.

Don’t make this too difficult, though, searching for the perfect back workout and exercises. Try a few, find the ones which target your back the way you like, and once you find those, focus on gaining weight and gaining strength while doing those and 50lbs later you’ll have a sweet back.[/quote]

Eh, wasn’t really looking for a “magic back workout”. Just wanted to hear what exercises helped others develop their backs. Yes I know nutrition is important, but I’ve started eating normally now, so that’s why I asked about the exercises.
Just didn’t want to waste my time on something that wouldn’t bring results I guess.
Thanks for the input! MUCH appreciated

44

[quote]jCaesar88 wrote:

matsm21 and wfifer- yeah I know I have no everything, but I feel like taking care of the posterior chain will help me put on mass better and quicker. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.[/quote]

I think for most people, taking care of the back just means giving it as much attention as the front. If you like pulling and you easily keep up your intensity, this will never be a problem. Just do a pull for every push and you’ll be fine.

45

Jumpin’ Jesus 6’1 165lbs! Sounds like you have to bring everything up mate. For back you really have to focus on feeling the contraction, hitting it from every angle with rowing movements, and hard and heavy. I’m sure everyone has already said this.

46

[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
Jumpin’ Jesus 6’1 165lbs! Sounds like you have to bring everything up mate. For back you really have to focus on feeling the contraction, hitting it from every angle with rowing movements, and hard and heavy. I’m sure everyone has already said this. [/quote]

Yeah I was gonna have a “dipshit response” to pointing out my weight(or there lack of), but then I realized you didnt read what others wrote. Thank you for your input! I’ll really start paying attention to how and where I feel the contractions, looks pretty important by the number of responses referencing it.

Just for the record, I was always “the skinny kid”. It wasn’t fun back then, and it’s not fun now.

47

Pullups, pullups and more pullups. Wide grip, chest up and start heaving. Every rep from a dead hang and none of that half-rep bullshit until you can bust out 10+ reps a set.

As good as pullups are for short guys (i.e. me) they’re even better for tall guys. They’re like Red Bull; they’ll give you WIIIIIINNGS.

Also, dips. Dips are wonderful.

48

[quote]ddinante wrote:

I second the pullup>pulldown thing. It’s obviously advice for smaller and lighter guys, but I swear by it. In combination with deadlifts, they are guaranteed back-builders.[/quote]

Hey now, I know people that are well over 250 that can do mad pull-ups. It ain’t just for the smaller and lighter. It’s just harder to get better at them when starting from scratch if you’re big. Unless you’re lineman size, you should be able to knock off at least 6-8 in one set.

As far as the rest of it, I only got this far in the thread so I dunno if I’m behind the curve or not, but follow Stu’s advice.

Exercises for me-- heavy db rows, pull ups, T-bar rows, deadlifts, rack pulls, seated rows, high pulls and power cleans, snatch, overhead squats.

deadlifts, rack pulls, and olympic lifts, and overhead squats are done on leg days, not back days. I save back days for rows and chins.

Best thing I’ve found is frequency of work. You hit your back heavy with deads and rack pulls or squats on leg day. These all work on overload and supporting strength. Then a couple days later when you do bench/back or whatever, you hit the back hard with rows and chins. Then when you do your second leg day you get a second round of supporting/overload work, and your last training day of the week gets more rows and chins. That’s an Upper/Lower split I just described btw.

That’s 4x a week you hit your back in some regard. It has no choice but to grow, unless you pansy out on the exercises or overall volume.

49

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
jCaesar88 wrote:
I’m also confused about why is everyone telling me to drop the cleans. I know that they’re an explosive exercise, but I thought that was a good thing?

I think the general consensus here is that there are better exercises for BB purposes. Plus, the learning curve for a clean is pretty slow.

[/quote]

I disagree. This goes in the “I believe but can’t prove” category. My traps respond so much better to cleans and snatches than they do shrugs it’s scary.

Besides, cleans are GREAT for so many other things that it’s worthwhile to leave them in. I’ve never, ever seen a guy who could clean a ton who didn’t have a great big back for his size. Ever.

Cleans are great. In fact, I really, really like the back day you posted earlier. I don’t follow a body part split but if I did I’d probably use something like that for my back day. Only thing is I’d make sure you’re fresh for it from leg day, so you don’t wear yourself out too early from still being sore or tired from squats on leg day.

That and I’d change the bent over row to dumbbell rows on a bench. Too much for the lower back. Good job on placing the cleans first. You always want to put the most explosive movement first before fatigue sets in. Then you follow with heavy strength exercises (ie–your deadlift), then other compound exercises, then isolation or endurance work last.

Explosive/plyo > heavy/slow speed strength > hypertrophy compounds> isolation or endurance (if desired. Optional). You pretty much follow this pattern.

RE: what somebody else said about just doing 2-3 exercises–The back has too many angles and can take too much punishment to just use 2 or 3 exercises for it, UNLESS you’re hitting it more than 1 time a week directly (ie–with chins/rows etc, NOT via whole body/leg movements like DLs and cleans), IMVHO. I used to just use 2-3 exercises for my back when I was doing a strict Upper/Lower split, but I hit my back 2x a week so I could just pick different angles or exercises to work each time.

If you’re going to have a dedicated back day there is no way in hell you’ll do it justice with only 2 or 3 exercises.

My current back day–

chins 3-4x8 ish
db rows Kroc style or T-bar rows 5x10
seated rows (different handles) 4-6x10
shrugs 4x10 (just because I know I should support some heavy weight w/hands)
rear delt work
abs

The day before back day is leg day, so I get plenty of work on my back then. I do more back work later in the week. Usually a few sets of lat work in the form of pulldowns or something. Just a bit of extra work with my bench days.

50

What’s the word on getting more back width? Mine is lagging, even for my rather small size. This is an older pic of me (if that helps in terms of advice) - this was around the time when I started figuring out what works for me as far as back THICKNESS. Since then, I don’t think my width has improved, maybe even regressed a bit. This makes me sad, because I feel that my shoulders, arms and thickness have all improved since… But what I really want is a wiiiiide back. What are good exercises for building a mind-muscle connection in the lats? Good rep ranges?

I remember the variations for width that Cephalic Carnage (I think) mentioned recently - pull-ups to the forehead, and a variation where you put your legs in front and a weight in your lap. I’m gonna try these on my next bulk, but any other ideas would be f’ing awesome.

G.

51

I would suggest:

Get to 220 at least, and then watch your back.

52

[quote]jCaesar88 wrote:
NewDamage wrote:
Itchy wrote:
Your back is small because you weigh 165 lbs. Gain 40 lbs. Problem solved.

Oh, and x2 on the nude pics of your girlfriend.

Quoted for TRUTH!!!

Jesus you weigh 165. Do the common exercises and gain a bunch of weight over a few years and your back won’t suck.

at 165 and 6’1" you won’t have a good back.

Again at 165 - what do you expect?

Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough: I didn’t expect to have a back at my height/weight. I was just stating the obvious so I can get some input. I was ALWAYS skinny. Since I was born.
And if you think 6’1" and 165lbs is bad, you should see me last year when I “cut down” to 147. Sickness[/quote]

Input is what you got and you were perfectly clear. Your back is small because there isn’t any muscle on it.

53

i guess having a picture of a cute girl gets some responses…maybe i should have MY girlfriend as my avatar… Then people would listen!

eat more and do dead lifts man. it’ll come.

54

[quote]B rocK wrote:
i guess having a picture of a cute girl gets some responses…maybe i should have MY girlfriend as my avatar… Then people would listen!

eat more and do dead lifts man. it’ll come.[/quote]

You should. I would listen to you more.

55

I dont care about OP’s back.

Im only here for nudes.

56

[quote]B rocK wrote:
i guess having a picture of a cute girl gets some responses…maybe i should have MY girlfriend as my avatar… Then people would listen!

eat more and do dead lifts man. it’ll come.[/quote]

Dude, it’s the cat, I’m telling you

57

Lol Lueshi… I like that… Pullups give you wwwwwiinnnnggggggsssssss!!!

58

Thumbless wide grip pulldowns, kroc rows, machine rows, rack deads or deads.

59

Mt back day at the moment:
Deadlift 10 8 6 4 2
Bent over BB row 8 6 4
Lat pulldown 10 8 6
One arm row 10 8 6
Pulley 10 8 6
Middle back shrugs 10 8 6
Lower back machine 3 x 15

60

[quote]G87 wrote:
What’s the word on getting more back width? Mine is lagging, even for my rather small size. This is an older pic of me (if that helps in terms of advice) - this was around the time when I started figuring out what works for me as far as back THICKNESS. Since then, I don’t think my width has improved, maybe even regressed a bit. This makes me sad, because I feel that my shoulders, arms and thickness have all improved since… But what I really want is a wiiiiide back. What are good exercises for building a mind-muscle connection in the lats? Good rep ranges?

I remember the variations for width that Cephalic Carnage (I think) mentioned recently - pull-ups to the forehead, and a variation where you put your legs in front and a weight in your lap. I’m gonna try these on my next bulk, but any other ideas would be f’ing awesome.

G.[/quote]

Width is really all about the lats, as you know. If you’re going for mind/muscle connection, what I might try is do a pre-fatigue or post-fatigue method with chins and some isolation variation that hits your lats well. I find this helps for finding that “feeling” for the muscle, and from there you can modify it for straight sets, or whatever.

The other thing you can do is just do some light warm ups with an isolation movement, not really fatiguing the muscle at all, just getting to feel it working. Then rest a bit and start your chins.

The stretch is really important for lats. I have started to use the Hammer Strength high pulldown machine for this, because I can get a better stretch on it and feel it more than the regular cable pulldowns.

I will of course get off the HS machine in the near future and back to “regular” pulldowns, but I’ve found this to be both an enjoyable change of pace and also very effective at getting that stretch and day after soreness.

I can’t prove, but I believe, that the DOMS or day after soreness is an integral part of the mind-muscle connection. The fact that you can feel the muscle for several days afterwards whenever you do anything that involves it helps you know how to feel it when you are targeting the muscle in a training session, I think.