[quote]rser wrote:
[quote]ironmanzvw wrote:
[quote]rser wrote:
[quote]ironmanzvw wrote:
[quote]rser wrote:
[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:
[quote]rser wrote:
Does it need to be targeted using a specific lift, or is this a matter of conditioning?[/quote]
A little of both. What’s your current height and weight?
What does your current back workout look like? (The exercises, sets, and reps.)
I’m pretty sure a picture of your “great” back would’ve been more relevant.[/quote]
5’10.5" & 243lbs
I do this back routine 2x/week:
Deadlift 4x6
Bentover Rows 4x6
Behind-neck Pulldowns 4x6
Wide-grip Chinups 4xFailure (I try to get at least 24)
One-arm Dumbbell/Cable Rows 3x8
All lifts are heavy.
Picture included; sorry for the terrible quality.[/quote]
Give me your back. Thanks.
[/quote]
Lol, no way, it took me 10 years to get.[/quote]
Lol, well I’m trying to get there. Def have not been at it for 10 years though lol. Looking at my back in my avatar…any tips on what I should improve on with my back oh back-wise one.
[/quote]
In my opinion, your back is definitely on track. It seems you have the muscle size and would benefit greatly from some conditioning. Your spinal erectors look great, so continue doing heavy deadlifts. I think the other thing you could use is a more exaggerated flaring out of your lats, lots of chinups will help with that. And finally some more size and definiftion to those muscles of your upper back, traps, teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus and posterior deltoids. Bentover rows, one-arm dumbbell rows and rear delt raises will really tease out those individual muscles.
On a more general note: in my opinion, for those of us who have to work hard to grow or who are just starting out, there’s no measure of improvement better than weight progression. Be sure to be increasing weight each session. I’ve always relied on this concept in developing my routine. I see a lot of inexperienced guys in my gym coming up with creative routines that manage to avoid standard lifts who then never get bigger and out of frustration change their workouts every several weeks. Yet you talk to these people and realize that their bench amount or their skullcrusher amount or their bicep curl amount is exactly the same as it was 10 weeks ago. The more argumentative ones will retort with something like, “Oh well I’m just going for reps,” but we know that building strength is guaranteed to build size in a way that nothing else is. There’s just no way around the fact that, come hell or high water, the guy who reps 600 lbs on the squat will always have huger legs than he did when he could only do 400 lbs or 200 lbs. Not the same can be said for the guy who did 12 reps yesterday and now does 15.
New guys should have this mentality: “Right now, I’m squatting 315lbs for 4 sets of 6; if I go up 5lbs/week for 20wks I’ll be up to 415lbs and by then my legs will be huge!” Instead, a lot of guys have this mentality: “It’s been 3 weeks, and I don’t see any change. What exercise am I missing that’s keeping me from growing? Maybe I need to try cross-legged-cable-pull-twist-extensions.”
But it’s simple: go in to the gym balls-to-the-walls ready to explode and do exercises that allow you to lift something heavy! Then next session, add 5 lbs. Regardless of what you see in the mirror from week to week, you can rest assured that, over time, you are indeed growing. There is no way around this for guys looking for added mass. Weight progression on a high-volume, heavy lift routine built around standard lifts will pack on size over time like nothing else.[/quote]
Thanks for the response man.
Yea my erectors starting getting much larger and thicker once I started focusing on heavy deads/rack pulls as the meat and potatoes of my back routine. As for the top of my back…I’m not sure what I’m not doing right. If you view me from the front, my traps look pretty damn large. They have the height, but not the depth that you are speaking of. One thing I almost never do is one arm db rows, I have been doing smith machine bent over rows for a few months now because I can really focus on squeezing the lats instead of perfecting the balance of the movement. Perhaps I should start utilizing db rows for that upper back/trap thickness I seem to be lacking?
As far as your views on weight progression, I could not agree more. It really is a very simple concept. If you (over time) continuously increase the workload of a lift…the muscles that are working will be forced to grow. That simple. This is of course provided nutrition is in check lol. For instance, last year I became complacent with my deads and rack pulls. I just hung out for sets around 405. Its not that I couldn’t go heavier if I pushed myself…I simply didn’t push. Over the last 6 months or so, I started pushing myself on these exercises. Last week on rack pulls I did 555 lbs for 5 reps on my 4th set. I can literally see the difference in my lower back lately from going heavier.