Back Training

 

            In keeping with the theme of breaking training down into individual body parts, today I’ll be speaking about back training. In the last post, I stressed the importance of training based on the muscle fiber content of the muscle group you intend to train.

 

With this in mind, the muscles of your back tend to be a mixture of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, so it would be ideal to train using a mix of both low and high volume training.

 

Back training also has an added level of nuance due to all the individual muscles that comprise the back.

 

The major muscles that make up the back that we will keep in mind are as follows:

·       Traps

·       Lats

·       Rhomboid

·       Spinal Erectors

·       Rear delts (it’s fine to group these in with shoulders if you prefer)

 

Often times training for these groups are split up by upper back (traps and rhomboids), mid back (lats, teres), and lower back (spinal erectors).

 

As I introduced last week, I’ll be including the volume training landmarks.

MV – six sets per week

MRV – 20 sets per week

MEV – ten sets

MAV – four – 12 sets per week

 

With this in mind I’m going to include some sample exercises with volume recommendations.

For an all-purpose exercise that’s going to hit most if not all of these muscles:

1.     Bent over Barbell rows – these will do a great job of promoting muscle growth because of all of the motor unit recruitment that this exercise elicits.

o   Keep the volume low on these, and listen to your body

o   IF YOUR LOW BACK STARTS TO HURT PROCEED WITH CAUTION

o   I’d recommend doing these only once per week, with no more than four sets

2.     Chest supported row

·       This is any sort of row where your chest is supported by a bench or pad

·       Common varieties include chest supported T bar and chest supported machine row

·       In my opinion, these are superior to a bent over row because your lower back is no longer a limiting factor

·       Feel free to do these 1-2 times per week with as many as 10 sets over the week

 

3.     Lat pullover

 

·       This is one of my favorite exercises to isolate the lats

·       Very low stress on your body overall, while offering a high level of stimulus

·       Feel free to do these 1-3 times per week, with as many as 12 weekly sets

 

Next week, I’ll continue to break down training by muscle group.