So I am abiding by the mentality that you should attack one goal for a period of time and then move on to the next goal. My goal is to increase my back width. I am running 5/3/1 and train on Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri. If I have a high frequency approach, could I do, say, a T-Bar Row on Mon., Pullups on Tues., another row variation on Thurs., and Lat Pull Downs on Fri? I would perform 4 sets of 10 of the exercise and that would be my only back work with the exception of deadlifts. I plan to do this for 3-4 months until I am satisfied with my back width. Anything wrong with training the same bodypart two days in a row like this?
I do back work every single day I am in the gym, up to 6 days in a row. Usually do 3-4 sets of a back exercise during warm-up and I do the power snatch most days as well. No problems. Been doing it that way for months now. with a high frequency approach I dont go near failure though. I’d also suggest watching your elbows…i sometimes get aggravation there if I focus too much on heavy weight stuff like chins too often (but chins have always had a tendency to bug me)
I know from a performance standpoint, the only way I was able to really progress on pull-ups and then move to weighted pull-ups. S
I would consider not changing your routine, but adding 25 to 75 pullups(depending on your pull up capacity) outside of your regular workout every day.When i tried this i saw rapid lat width improvement, you should get an improved MMC in the lats/teres major as well
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
I do back work every single day I am in the gym, up to 6 days in a row. Usually do 3-4 sets of a back exercise during warm-up and I do the power snatch most days as well. No problems. Been doing it that way for months now. with a high frequency approach I dont go near failure though. I’d also suggest watching your elbows…i sometimes get aggravation there if I focus too much on heavy weight stuff like chins too often (but chins have always had a tendency to bug me)[/quote]
My experience is about similar. My elbows tell me if i use too heavy or too much volume. I do pulldown 6 times weekly with gains in muscles size (not waist) and strength, romboids 4 times. I had an injury so my upper body was lacking so i tried high frequency and it seems to work when managed wisely. Articles from Chad W. and other say so. Rings are a plus for joints too avoid abuse/over use situations. I use 2 D shaped handles, keep a log to tweak load and volume.
Happy season !
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
I would consider not changing your routine, but adding 25 to 75 pullups(depending on your pull up capacity) outside of your regular workout every day.When i tried this i saw rapid lat width improvement, you should get an improved MMC in the lats/teres major as well[/quote]
How many sets would you spread those reps across and how close to failure do you get?
Also, would you still do pull ups on your actual back day as well?
Keep the mantra sometimes less is more… unless you’re running on anabolics, The back generally needs more volume to grow then sime body parts but that can be done by some extra volume a couple times a week… I mean it is also about the program and your self… Plenty of gymnasts practice 5 times a week but the training is a bit different… light weight high volume and frequency… Lifting heavy with assistance exercises should work fine for size.
[quote]thogue wrote:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
I would consider not changing your routine, but adding 25 to 75 pullups(depending on your pull up capacity) outside of your regular workout every day.When i tried this i saw rapid lat width improvement, you should get an improved MMC in the lats/teres major as well[/quote]
How many sets would you spread those reps across and how close to failure do you get?
Also, would you still do pull ups on your actual back day as well?[/quote]
I wouldnt stress to much about those specifics- but yes i would do pullups on back day as well, as far sets and failure i would just do 2 to 3 sets away from my workout and i probably went fairly close to failure—your back seems decently developed now so you probably already have an intuitive sense of how to structure something like this to best suit your needs.
1 thing i avoid is slow eccentrics.
[quote]recreational wrote:
1 thing i avoid is slow eccentrics. [/quote]
The eccentric is fucking awesome for growth, but I guess if you train something almost everyday, is something you should avoid.
I do pullups 3 days a week, Mon: volume Wednesday: weighted Friday: volume, and my elbow has started to reallllly give me trouble, is this the cause? I just started doing pullups often 2-3 months ago
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
I do back work every single day I am in the gym, up to 6 days in a row.[/quote] Mainly lats ?
[quote]chobbs wrote:
I do pullups 3 days a week, Mon: volume Wednesday: weighted Friday: volume, and my elbow has started to reallllly give me trouble, is this the cause? I just started doing pullups often 2-3 months ago[/quote]
I see 3 problem sources:
- grip, if possible use rings or if not available use 2 D separate handles(this is what i do)
- focussing too much on heavy
- too much volume
From what you do i would take a short rest (skip 1 WO), eliminate 2 potential problem sources to find out if the 1 still “risky” is problematic
and just eliminate the “irritant” when you identify it by trials.
The 2 links in my previous post might fill in more details.
My 2 cents is listen, pain is a warning sing, abuse at your own risk.
If you are limited to neutral, over, under grip, i would use neutral 50%, 25% the other 2. Just be smart lower the volume a bit until you feel safe to add slowly.
@recreational the grip is probably the cause, I either go wide as possible for volume for reverse shoulder width grip for weighted ones
[quote]tolismann wrote:
[quote]Aragorn wrote:
I do back work every single day I am in the gym, up to 6 days in a row.[/quote] Mainly lats ?
[/quote]
No mainly rows, face pulls (but heavy, like say 150-160 lbs on the stack), rows on a lat pulldown machine–sort of like a forward leaning row, hits both lats and mid back. And power snatch. Lots of power sntach, single arm db snatch, and some overhead squats and (light) klokov press thrown in several times a week in addition to the snatch work.
I like a thick back, don’t care about lats right now, and I also focus on the mid back as means to help stabilize the receiving position in power snatch.
Basically, every day I am in the gym as part of my warm-up I typically am doing 3-4 sets of cable work, 5-7 sets of power snatch or single arm db snatch, and about 2x a week some light overhead squatting and klokov press (a couple sets each, sometimes up to 4 sets of overhead squatting).
So…basically I am getting about 8-12 sets of back work as a warm-up before squatting or benching or whatever. I’m also focusing on front squat so that also adds to the back work via indirect support. Multiply that by 5-6 days a week. I’m not going close to failure on any of the cable work.
I’m sure if you regulated it properly it would work for lats too.
I really, really like doing back work this way. I’m fresh for my other work, and I don’t have to worry so much about not having enough volume in there on a weekly basis (too much benching and not enough back syndrome). Also, power snatch and overhead squat are automatically awesome, so there’s that. If I have trouble focusing on my low traps or anything for the olympic lift variation, I typically put some sort of low trap “prehab” movement or something in there between sets of warm-ups for activating it.
I don’t do chins often or even kroc rows right now–although I friggin love me some kroc rows for back work! This is really giving me about all that I need, especially because of my front squat focus. In the future I will probably change some things again (right now I am going to add CT’s high pull layers in on dedicated days), but this has worked really well from my point of view.
Just don’t take long or struggling eccentrics, and don’t go near failure often.