Building a thick and wide back

[PHIL HERNON]

Working your back is kind of like saying we are working the front. No one exercise can attack all the areas needed to stimulate the muscles to grow. On the other hand all you need are two exercises.

1. Pull ups- shoulder width grip. Palms neutral preferably but if not available then palms forward. Arch back, chest high. Force elbows slightly forward to engage the lats. Pull as high as you can without losing back arch.

2. Two arm dumbbell rows- grab DBs, keep upper body parallel to floor. Knees bent, back arched and butt out with head forward. Rotate scapula at bottom of stretch but keep back arched .Neutral wrist position. Pull DBs as high as you can not losing form, to the side of your body.

Drop the cables. Drop the wide and narrow grip nonsense. Drop the one arm rows. Stick to these two as they are a backs best friend.

 

[Elvia1023]

Thanks Phil

I don't really use many cables for anything. But I do like lat pulls using a lat pulldown machine. I stand up away from the machine and put one foot on the seat platform for stabilty and pull towards my chest. I force the elbows out a bit to engage the lats more and pull as deep to my chest as possible and use a slow negative and stretch the lats at the top. I used to find it hard to fully engage my lats but this has really helped me. Just curious what you think of this movement?

Of course nothing beats db rows the way you describe them... that is my fav movement for back. Once my back is better I will use them alot more... been using an incline bench (and fairly light weights) for rows recently solely to protect my back. Thanks again

 

[Reta]

I don't have the widest back, compared to when I started, I have a monstrous back. I do a lot of pull ups. At one point I was doing pull up as warmup almost everyday. I do incorperate wide (not excessively) grips although I do feel a little wider than shoulder width is the best.

 

[MooseKnuckles]

Good info Phil I will have to try neutral grip pull ups I always do palms forward so I will swith it up

 

[tr]

Phil,

What about db pullowers and bb rows (shoulder grip)?

when began doing like this:
Dorian Yates demonstrating bent over Barbell Row - YouTube
I've really began to feel my lats (did too wide and my back was too parallel to the floor)

 

[ajdonutz]

Love dumbbell rows but personally found i get much more lat activation from pull downs than pull ups. Not sure why but when pull ups were ny primary width movement my lats never grew, but when i stopped pull ups and switched to wide and close grip pull downs and seated rows they blew up fast

 

[Stewie]

Working your back is kind of like saying we are working the front. No one exercise can attack all the areas needed to stimulate the muscles to grow. On the other hand all you need are two exercises.

1. Pull ups- shoulder width grip. Palms neutral preferably but if not available then palms forward. Arch back, chest high. Force elbows slightly forward to engage the lats. Pull as high as you can without losing back arch.

2. Two arm dumbbell rows- grab DBs, keep upper body parallel to floor. Knees bent, back arched and butt out with head forward. Rotate scapula at bottom of stretch but keep back arched .Neutral wrist position. Pull DBs as high as you can not losing form, to the side of your body.

Drop the cables. Drop the wide and narrow grip nonsense. Drop the one arm rows. Stick to these two as they are a backs best friend.

A long time friend of mine Bronston Austin, (Not sure if you know him,Phil?) Suggested this,this really isolates the Lats.

Great Advice Phil!
Thanks for Sharing!

 

[comedycentral]

Excellent

I am fortunate that my home power rack has a ladder chin attachment with various width parallel bars for neutral grip chins.
Really hits the lats and apparently more elbow friendly

 

[PHIL HERNON]

Wow

A long time friend of mine Bronston Austin, (Not sure if you know him,Phil?) Suggested this,this really isolates the Lats.

Great Advice Phil!
Thanks for Sharing!

Holy shit Bronston Austin! Him and Steve Davis were the first real body builders I ever saw. Bronston always wore sweat clothes and a head band. Memories !!

 

[ajdos]

Phil do you have any alternatives for someone who temporarily cannot do chins?
My forearm on one side get some kinda pinch and my elbow on the other, its more about pain management on chins than concentrating on the movement.

 

[Rainmanisback]

Thanks so much Phil for sharing your wisdom... I will start applying all your training advice this week

 

[Sylva]

Deadlifts can add a lot of thickness, especially in the lower back and trap area. Before I read a post where u said you wouldn't do deadlifts and had other exercises you would do for those areas, are thy just these to failure, diff rep ranges etc or are their other specific ones you had in mind?

Thank u again for another awesome and informative thread.

 

[PHIL HERNON]

Well

Deadlifts can add a lot of thickness, especially in the lower back and trap area. Before I read a post where u said you wouldn't do deadlifts and had other exercises you would do for those areas, are thy just these to failure, diff rep ranges etc or are their other specific ones you had in mind?

Thank u again for another awesome and informative thread.

I do not recommend dead lifts. It is the same movement as a deep squat with a twist of still leg dead lifts. I choose those two over dead lifts as it is repetitive. I'll go over that on quad day.

 

[itrain]

great thread.. I love me some tbar rows aswell...


Sylva ... correct me if im wrong phil you dont reccomend deads because stiff legs hit the lower back hard enough

 

[Jizzmo]

my back was always lagging until i added in 5-10 sets of DB incline pullovers and straight arm pushdowns (kinda like triceps pushdowns but keep arms straight, upper body about 45° to the floor and then squeeze the lats at every rep).
nothing gives me as much lat activation as these two exercises, but DB pullovers kind of hurt my rear delts sometimes so i prefer straight arm pushdowns.

 

[Skrumpyarms]

Love the pull ups! Very good for the back.

 

[Sylva]

I do not recommend dead lifts. It is the same movement as a deep squat with a twist of still leg dead lifts. I choose those two over dead lifts as it is repetitive. I'll go over that on quad day.

ahhh, that does make sense!

 

[cal]

Love dumbbell rows but personally found i get much more lat activation from pull downs than pull ups. Not sure why but when pull ups were ny primary width movement my lats never grew, but when i stopped pull ups and switched to wide and close grip pull downs and seated rows they blew up fast

I think it depends alot on.whether you can do pullups while keeping back arched....most aren't strong enough to do this at least for good reps. But if you can pullups are way way better in my experience.

anyone found some good ways to progress on pullups , seems like easiest thing to go.stale on fast....
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

 

[RokyBuster123456]

Working your back is kind of like saying we are working the front. No one exercise can attack all the areas needed to stimulate the muscles to grow. On the other hand all you need are two exercises.

1. Pull ups- shoulder width grip. Palms neutral preferably but if not available then palms forward. Arch back, chest high. Force elbows slightly forward to engage the lats. Pull as high as you can without losing back arch.

2. Two arm dumbbell rows- grab DBs, keep upper body parallel to floor. Knees bent, back arched and butt out with head forward. Rotate scapula at bottom of stretch but keep back arched .Neutral wrist position. Pull DBs as high as you can not losing form, to the side of your body.

Drop the cables. Drop the wide and narrow grip nonsense. Drop the one arm rows. Stick to these two as they are a backs best friend.

Why DBs instead of BB row? rep range to failure? Dont you charge for this info? if sign with you do you put this all togeter?

 

[tkav1980]

I think it depends alot on.whether you can do pullups while keeping back arched....most aren't strong enough to do this at least for good reps. But if you can pullups are way way better in my experience.

anyone found some good ways to progress on pullups , seems like easiest thing to go.stale on fast....Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk 2

Vary the weight you use. Lets say for 3 weeks you progress nicely going to failure at 8,15,18 reps for 3 sets. The n all of a sudden Bam! you stall on the progress. I like to lower the weight I start with by maybe 20% and hammer that out till failure in a higher rep range for a few weeks and all of a sudden its back to progressing in weight.