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July 16th, 2011
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I guess your wish is to make everybody stare at you with fear/respect/aknowledgement when you hit a front lat spred.You want a V-shaped huge back Let me share with you my story on how I developed my back from a scrawny one to a powerful one.I have still much to learn but incorporating my tips into your workout will definitely make a difference.So let’s begin! 1.Pull ups are great exercise for making a V-shaped back.Yet pull ups by themselves are not enough to get the mass in your back that you are striving for.In order to make them more intense and much more effective you need to go HEAVY.Yes ,if you want big back you have to go HEAVY-always,no excuses here.Get a belt ,get a plate – attach the plate to the belt and go on – make it happen , pull yourself a couple of times with weights and you will feel the difference.If you don’t have a belt just place a dumbell between your knees and proceed.If you want the emphasis to be on the lats – then start your workout with pull ups .Make 2-3 light ones (using your bodyweight only) – you can do ,for instance, 1 set of chin ups and 1 of pull ups.Then go HEAVY. OF course you have to monitor your technique here because when you are using weights you are much more prone to injuries if you are jerking while you are pulling yourself up.Your goal has to be 2 seconds up and 2 seconds down.When you are down your arms have to be fully extended ,not bent.If they are bent – your forearms and biceps are taking most of the pressure while your back it’s just slightly pressured by the exercise.When doing weighted pull/chin ups aspire for 6-8 rep range.You don’t really need more in order to build solid muscle in your back. 2.The second exercise needed for a thick and muscular back is the king among the exercises – the good old deadlift.It’s so basic and it looks so easy to perform yet it requires 100 % of your concentration ,motivation and commitment.On this exercise always go HEAVY (again).By heavy I mean between 4 and 7 reps for a working set (I recommend going 10-15 reps when you are warming up).In my opinion ,you don’t need more to make progress.In order to make it more effective you have to pay attention to your arms-they have to be straight,not bent ,otherwise you might get hurt.If you want to get the best out of the exercise you have to put it in the beginning of your workout.What I do is that if I want the emphasis to be on my middle back and traps ,on overall strength and size, I go for the deadlift as a first and main exercise and then I do my pull ups (They will not be weighted if I put them as a second exercise). 3.A final word on the back – You have to make sure ,when you are training your back,that your arms are 100% recovered because your biceps will take much of the pressure ,especially if you choose to make weighted chin ups instead of pull ups.I’d recommend placing your biceps workout in your back workout,but it’s very important to train the biceps ONLY after your back because if you train it before – you simply won’t have the energy go heavy,which is what we want here. And remember – recovery,recovery,recovery – If you have to rest 7 days,if you have to -rest 10 days,it’s ok .But never hit your back after a session like this more often than 1 every 6 days.Otherwise you’ll simply overtrain if you are not “on the juice”.My back workout consists of only these two exercises – 2 sets of each exercise (2 working sets ,the warming up sets are around 3-4 for each exercise).Wish you luck in your path for bigger back.If you have found this article helpful and intersting,you can find more great articles at yourmusclepath.com People who are searching through the web for info about how to loose weight quickly, please make sure to visit the page that is quoted in this passage. |
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March 9th, 2011
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When most people think of bodyweight exercises, they think of ultra high-rep movements like push-ups and sit-ups. Or they picture army recruits doing endless sets of bodyweight squats and jumping jacks. But there is a lot more to using your body weight as resistance for strengh training than those old calisthenic moves. In fact, one of the best upper-body bulking exercises uses the bodyweight. I’m talking about the exercise everyone loves to hate: pull-ups and chin-ups. Face it, when it comes to strength training, most people neglect their upper back. While it’s easy to see the chest and shoulders in the mirror every morning, nobody really gets to see his or her back. And the old adage ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is proven true whenever you go into a gym and see people doing chest exercises over and over again. The same folks never seem to find the time to work on their back muscles. But the fact is, the back muscles are more massive, and stronger, than the chest will ever be. There is very little reason — other than aesthetics — to train the chest as much as most people do. But back strength is never a waste. A strong back gives you the power to work hard all through the day; it’s functional strength. Thankfully, you can work out your back muscles without learning exotic barbell exercises or investing in an expensive workout machine. That’s right: with nothing more than your body weight, your upper back will grow and strengthen in a matter of months. All you need to do is work on your pull-ups. A good chinning bar is all the equipment you need, and most people have something around the house that will serve the purpose. If you can’t do chins and pull-ups on anything convenient, then simply get yourself a doorway pullup bar and you’ll always have a place to do your upper-back workout. Most folks get confused about the differences (if any) between pull-ups and chin-ups. But it’s simple. Both exercises are similar. They each work the upper back and the biceps. But pull-ups (with the hands facing away) put more stress on the upper back, and chins put more stress on the biceps. It’s a matter of degrees; if you think your biceps need more work, just do chin-ups. But if you want to widen your lats, stick to pull-ups. While neither exercise is really more (or less) difficult, lots of times people prefer one over the other. It all comes down to your personal body shape — your physiology. If you naturally have a strong back, you’ll probably find that pullups (and wide-grip pullups) are easier than chins. But if you have large biceps, chins are probably going to end up being your favorite variation. So don’t neglect the most massive part of your upper body — your lats and upper back. Use a chinning bar regularly and keep this important functional part of your physique in tip-top shape. If you are want to get more information about lose 10 pounds 10 days, make sure to visit the URL that was mentioned right in this paragraph. |
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November 19th, 2009
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When you think of back exercises, you think of different types of rows, pulldowns, chin-ups, and deadlifts, right? These are all compound exercises that work multiple muscles. To TRULY isolate your lats, you need this exercise! This is a great one for beginners OR advanced trainers! There are two main things that hold people “back” when trying to train their back. The first is that they can’t see it when they’re training it. This makes it harder to really focus on and properly work AND, since it’s not a “mirror muscle,” it tends to get lower priority in the overall training workload. The second thing is that people can’t FEEL the back muscles actually doing the work. And if you can’t feel the back muscles working, chances are, they’re not getting worked very effectively. Now, you can’t fix the first problem of not being able to see the muscle while training it without having a double mirror setup that allows you to see your back in the mirror. It’s rare you’ll find a gym that has mirrors on two opposing walls – they try to avoid the “funhouse” effect. So you’ll just have to take it from me that it’s CRITICAL to put a lot of effort into back training – MUCH more so than it is for chest training. Your pecs don’t hold your spine up… But we CAN address the point about feeling your back working. One of THE most effective exercises I’ve found for really teaching you how to feel your back working is the Stiff-Arm Pushdown. It’s an isolation exercise (defined as a single-joint exercise, in this case, the shoulder joint) for the latissimus dorsi, a.k.a. the “lats,” which is rare. And even though it IS an isolation exercise for the lats, the long heads of the triceps are involved in the movement as well. The long heads of triceps perform a similar function in bring the arm down towards the waist and can’t be removed from the movement due to their anatomy. The Stiff-Arm Pushdown is also one of the ONLY back exercises that doesn’t involve the biceps in some way, making it a great teaching tool for helping you feel what it’s like for your back to work without relying on bicep assistance. How To Do It: Put both hands on the bar (overhand grip) about 6 to 8 inches apart. Take a big step back, bring the bar back with you. Lean forward so your torso is at about a 45 degree angle. You can have your feet set together or be in a lunge position – whichever is most comfortable to you. Keep your abs tight and an make sure there is an arch in your lower back. In order for your lats to function properly, the lower back MUST be arched. At the start position, your arms are in an overhead position and slightly bent but stiff. The cable weight is pulling up on your arms so your lats are getting stretched. Now begin the movement, pushing the bar directly down and around in an arc. DO NOT bend your arms!! Keep them locked into that slightly bent position. All the movement should occur at the shoulders. Push the bar all the way down to your thighs, squeezing your lats hard the whole time. Pause at the bottom then let the cable pull the bar back up, keeping tension in your lats. As you come to the top, dip your upper body down a bit to increase the stretch on the lats. For breathing with this exercise, you want to take a BIG deep breath at the stretch (top) of the movement. Inflating your lungs maximally at the top will increase the stretch on the lats and help you feel the lats working. As you push the bar down, exhale through pursed lips (like you’re blowing up a balloon). This exercise can also be done one arm at a time with a single cable handle as well. Go for moderate to higher reps with this exercise – it’s not a power-based exercise but more a “feel” exercise that you need to really keep form tight on. This exercise will give you a strong burning sensation in that lats because they don’t really get any break in the tension throughout the movement. I like to use this exercise as part of a pre-exhaust style of set, working it immediately before another exercise for the lats such as a variation of chins, rows or pulldowns. Do a set of 8 to 10 reps of the Stiff-Arm Pushdown then go right to the exercise. I can promise…you’ll feel your lats working! You see, because the Stiff-Arm Pushdown only hits the lats and leaves the biceps untouched, when you move to the other exercise for back (e.g. chins, pulldowns or rows) the lats will already be “pre-exhausted” and the biceps will help keep the movement going, pushing the lats harder. It’s a great technique and very effective if you have trouble feeling your back when you train it. Conclusion: —————— |
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