Sample Back Workout

Build Your Back With This Hardcore Workout!

Many people admire those wing-like lats you see on pro bodybuilders but training your back properly with full intensity requires exceptional technique, determination and concentration. You can easily fall into the trap of not training your back with full intensity, leaving you with inferior results.

When performing back exercises it is easy to lift or pull the weight with your arms and shoulders, meaning your specific back muscles aren’t being hit with enough intensity. Outlined are some of the best back growth exercises put together in a workout that will hit every part of your back for full development.

Outer back (lats (latissimus dorsi)
Your lats provide you with the wide shape and are hit using exercises such as:

Pull ups
Machine pull downs
Dumbbell pullover
Deadlift

Middle back (rhomboids)
Your middle back can be hit with these exercises:

Dumbbell & barbell rows
T-bar rows
Deadlift

Upper back (traps (trapezius)
Your traps can be trained with:

Shrugs

The following workout is designed to hit your back hard and make all parts of your back grow.

Deadlift: 3 x 4 – 7
Grip: to increase the weight you may want to have one hand pronated and one hand supinated, this will increase your grip strength.

Stand with feet quite narrow – shoulder width or less

Keep your head up and looking forward

Do not over extend your back at the top – once standing upright lower the weight back down.

Pull up / machine pull down 3 x 8 - 10

Take a wide grip here to stimulate the widest part of the back
Concentrate fully on the muscle contraction – use your back to pull the weight. Make sure to take your arms and shoulder out of the movement as much as possible.

Make sure the eccentric part (the lowering in the pull up / the pulling upwards of the bar in a machine pull down) is slow and controlled – make the eccentric part last for a count of 3 seconds controlling the weight all the way.

Barbell row 2 x 8 – 10

Take an overhand grip about shoulder width – let your hands hang down naturally.

Your back should be about a 45-degree angle

Activate your core and keep your body still – don’t sway the weight.

Keep your arms out of the exercise – squeeeeze your back together to lift the weight. Once your back has squeezed together there is no need to lift the weight any further with your arms.

Lower the weight in a controlled motion with your back muscles.

Dumbbell pullover 3 x 8 – 10

Lying with your back flat on a bench hold one dumbbell in your hands above your head and lower the weight behind you to the floor feeling a stretch in your back, then bring the weight back up above your head. This is one rep.

Shrugs 2 x 7 – 9

These can be done with a barbell behind you back or a pair of dumbbells. Go very heavy with this exercise.

Feel like you are trying to touch your ears with your shoulders

Again squeeze at the top of the exercise and lower slowly.

The key to all of these exercises is to move the weight with the muscle your are trying to stimulate and try to take your stabilising muscles out of the lift as much as possible. Concentrate on the ‘mind muscle connection’.

Full workout programme

Deadlift 3 x 4 – 7
Pullup 3 x 8 – 10
Barbell row 2 x 8 – 10
Dumbell pullover 3 x 8 – 10
Shrugs 2 x 7 – 9