Transforming Your Back why is this important to know ? by JUAN ROJAS
If I asked you , what is the ONE movement that would properly develop the muscles in your back to give you a nice aesthetic look , what would your answer be ?
Some people may say deadlifts , some people may say pull ups , others may say rows . Who has the correct answer ?
Perhaps all of them , perhaps none of them . Like most things when it comes to building muscle , It truly depends on an individual ’ s needs .
Training your back is often misunderstood and I believe one of the major factors is because it is a body part we cannot see actively working . It is purely trained by feel . Although building your physique is all about having an intrinsic focus to contract and stretch muscles under load , very few people out there are true masters of this art . Before we delve into this too much , we need to learn the anatomy of the back . The back is comprised of roughly 20 muscle pairs of which all have a different job . The main larger ones that we often focus on for aesthetics are :
• The trapezius , whose job is to stabilize and move the scapulae . Essentially the traps will be activated when one moves the shoulders in any plane when the spine is maintained neutral .
• The latissimus dorsi , whose job is to extend and adduct the shoulder joint . This means the lat is fully stretched when we have our elbow overhead and slightly back , and fully shortened when we have the elbow tight to the body and behind the body .
• The rhomboids , whose job is to hold the scapulae onto the ribcage . They are activated dramatically when we stabilize the upper body and hold it in place during an exercise .
• The teres muscles which aid the lats and stabilize the shoulders . They help bring the elbow down and back when seeking a shortened position .
• The erectors which help stabilize the spine from the lower back to the upper back . They enable spinal flexion , extension and rotation .
• The rear delts to a degree ( they are part of the shoulders but we often use them and see them when we train or display our back ). The rear delts help bring your upper arm behind your body like when we are doing a rowing movement .
Now , why is this important to know ?
Because different movements will influence the activation of specific muscles to a lesser or greater degree . Understanding what movements influence what muscles , will help us determine what exercises to pick for our own specific needs . Some of us want bigger lats to look wider ; so maybe we need to focus on movements like pull downs , pull ups and pullovers . Some of us may be wide but need more lower and midback thickness to our physiques ; perhaps focusing on rows and deadlifts may be a good idea . Maybe we look awesome from the waist to our midback but we have nonexistent traps and rear delts ; so some sort of shrug work or rows with our elbows high will do the trick .
Some people walk into the gym without a plan and just pick the first 4 or 5 back movements that come
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