How to Effectively Train the Back

I am taking another small break from my, 'How To Attract the Opposite Sex' series to go over effective back training. I feel this is a very important topic. If you don't believe me, take a look around the gym next time you are there. One glaring thing you will notice is an almost complete lack of back development. You will see plenty of decent chests and biceps, maybe even some nice shoulders and in rare occasions, even some quads and triceps, but rarely if ever will you see a decently developed back.

A lot of people try to explain this away. They say that since the back is behind you that people simply just do not put much emphasis on it, kind of like the hamstrings and calves. Actually, I see a lot of people working the calves but I think that is because it is such an easy thing to do. Much like training the traps, the calves require a tiny range or motion and people can use a huge amount of weight. I crack up seeing guys heave up 400 + pound shrugs but they cannot even deadlift 315. The same goes for goes working the whole stack on a calf raise machine but then cannot even squat 225 to proper depth. Of course! The squat and deadlift are the two hardest exercises to perform. They require a level of muscular activation that far exceeds all the other lifts. Most people simply don't do them.

If you look around the gym you usually find that most people use lat pulldowns, dumbbell rows, and maybe t-bar rows to build their backs up. While these three lifts are great for building a nice back they are just the beginning of a good back program, not the end. I am sorry but I have never seen anyone with a great back who does not deadlift and do bent over barbell rows with very heavy weights. In bodybuilding there are three men who stand out to me as having amazing backs. They are Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, and Franco Columbo. They are all three did very heavy bent rows and could deadlift some huge weights. To be fair, Dorian did his deadlifts at the end of his back training so he wouldn't have to go extremely heavy, but both Franco and Ronnie wear known for having huge deadlifts. I believe Franco pulled 700+ pounds at a bodyweight of around 170 lbs. and Ronnie Coleman has done 800+ pound deadlifts for reps. There is an obvious correlation to a well developed back and a big focus on heavy deadlifts and bent over rows. \

This doesn't mean that all you need are those two lifts to develop a great back. The back is a large area that encompasses several different distinct areas. Here is a (very) basic diagram of the muscle groups that make up the back.

As you can see, the back is a very complex grouping of muscles. To develop a great back program you have to make sure to fully develop the lower, middle, and upper portions of the back. Sometimes all three regions will be trained together on the same day, and sometimes they will be broken up and trained with other body parts.

The region generally referred to as the lower back is the erector spinae (spinal erectors). When these muscles are fully developed and you have a low body fat percentage they will appear to look like a Christmas tree. This region is most often trained with deadlifts (all varieties), good mornings, and back raises. As you can see there is some overlap between the lower and middle back regions, so lifts that target one area will generally hit the other area to some degree as well. If I train my hamstrings and quads together on the same day I will train my lower back along with the middle back. If I train my hamstrings and quads on separate days I will train the low back with the hamstrings. This is because most of the lifts that target the hamstrings (stiff leg deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, good mornings, back raises, and pullthroughs) all hit the lower back really hard as well. Basically any motion that makes you bend over at the waist will use the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back to straighten back up. When using very heavy weights your body will naturally use the muscles that are strongest to perform the lift. If using lighter weights you can have better control over which of the muscles does the majority of the work during the lift. If I am doing stiff leg deadlifts for my hamstrings I make sure to squeeze the hamstrings hard and do not worry about locking out the lift where the glutes and low back are working the hardest.

The region of the middle back is largely dominated by the latissimus dorsi (the lats, wings). These are the largest muscle group of the back and play a role in most lifts to one degree or another. The lats are best hit with pulldowns of all varieties, all varieties of chins, rows of all types, and pullover movements. Most exericses that work the lats will also work the biceps and upper back as well. Depending on my training split, I will sometimes train my biceps on the sameday that I train my lats because of this overlap. To better hit the lats during pulldowns and chin ups it is better to utilize a closer grip. The wide grip versions of those exercises stress the upper back more than the middle back. With bent over rows you should be bringing the bar into your waist line and not pulling straight up into your chest. Pullovers, especially performed with a cable or machine are really the only way to isolate your lats so I always through them into my training. One important thing to remember when doing pulldowns is to focus on pulling from the back of your elbows and not your hands. You should think of your hands and forearms simply as hooks. This stresses the lats more and puts less stress on the biceps. As far as overhand or underhand grips, I say use both. I mostly perform close grip pulldowns with an underhand grip and wide grip pulldowns with an overhand grip.

The upper back is comprised of many smaller muscles. The rhomboids, teres major and minor, infraspinatus, trapezius, and postier deltoid head all make up the upper back region. The majority of trainees work their rear deltoids along with the rest of their delts. Traps are generally viewed as a separate muscle group as well. This leads some people to training their upper back and traps along with their shoulders. Others will train their shoulders on back day because of the overlap. I usually just train my back all to itself and know that there will be some overlap. The truth is there is always going to be overlap whenever you train a muscle. The back comes into play with every lift. Even while bench pressing you utilize your lats heavily. The lats are how you unrack the bar and set it in place over your chest. Your lats also control the descent of the bar and play a small roll in at the bottom of the lift. Pulldowns, chins, shrugs, rows, cleans, and bent over lateral raises all hit the upper back. With pulldowns and chins, taking a wider grip will put more stress upon the upper back. With rows (whether seated or standing bent over) bringing the bar up to the chest region rather than the waistline will also stress the upper back.

Shrugs are probably one of the most overused exercises in the gym. Because it has an extremely limited range of motion and you can use very heavy weights, every douche in the gym does them. And they generally use so much body heaving it is actually more of a half assed 1/12th deadlift than a shrug even. People love easy lifts. That is why you see hardly any bent over rows and deadlifts but tons of pulldowns and shrugs. Don't fall into this trap. Do the things that you dread because those are the things that will make you better. I am not saying to ignore shrugs, just keep them relegated to small part of your training. Trap development is largely determined by your genetics due to insertion points and muscle bellly size. I naturally have big traps so I do not directly train them. If you lack back development and focus on your traps too much it will make you look narrow and ruin your sense of symmetry and completely fuck up your v-taper. If you have been following my How to Attract the Opposite Sex series then you know that the v-taper is all too critical for women to find men attractive. So blasting away those shrugs might attract some dorks at the gym but while you are busy doing that men like me who deadlift and do heavy bent rows are sleeping with beautiful women (in my case my wife). Damn that hurts doesn't it. Ouch!

So don't be douche. Do you shrugs but when you want to load up the plates make sure it is for deadlifts and rows and not shrugs.

So in review-

1. The back can be broken down into three main regions, the lower, middle, and upper back.

2. Hit the lower back with deadlifts and back raises.

3. Hit the middle back with close grip chins and pulldowns, pullovers, and with heavy rows pulled to the waist.

4. Hit the upper back with wide grip chins and rows along with rows to the chest. Add in some shrugs if your traps are lacking in size.

5. You can train your back all on the same day or break up the three regions and train them with other muscle groups.


Here is a sample of my back training from the other day.

Straight Arm Cable Pullovers- 5 x 10-12 reps
Wide Grip Pulldowns- 4 x 8-12 reps.
Bent Over Barbell Rows- 4 x 6-12 reps*
Close Grip Pulldowns- 4 x 8-12 reps
T-bar Rows- 4 x 6-12 reps*
Seated Rows using the Triceps Rope- 4 x 10-12 reps
Back Raises- 4 sets of 10 reps

* On both of these lifts I worked up to the heaviest weight I could handle for 6-8 rep range. I do deadlifts every other week rather than every week because of how taxing it is.

As you can see we hit our backs from top to bottom. This might seem like a lot of volume but as I said the back is a very large and diverse area so it requires more exercises than say the chest to properly hit it.