to mind . This is not the proper way to go upon your training though as most of us have the goal of improving our weaknesses and growing the muscles that are necessary . Typically , what works well is a combination of movements that hit different muscles within the workout ( or some people may choose to do it within the training week ). The way that I like to structure training for many clients that have a typical once a week back training split , is to pick 1 horizontal movement ( ie . Rows ), 1 vertical movement ( i . e . Pull downs ), 1 stabilization thickness movement ( i . e . Deadlift ) and 1 or 2 more or less Central Nervous System taxing movements for the persons specific weak points .
Now , once a proper routine is made for your own needs , then comes the most important part that most people neglect . PROPER EXECUTION . Proper execution is important for any muscle you train , but back is one that I commonly see being done improperly . These are 6 major tips that will help you maximize your back training :
1 . Stabilize- The back can handle large loads , this means it is very easy to allow the body to “ loosen up ” and start putting the tension onto other muscles or joints if we are not careful . Whether you are doing a pull-down , a pull up , a deadlift or a pullover , you want to focus on keeping your core nice and tight and stabilizing the abdominals and the upper back by creating tension there . This will allow the muscles to transfer as much energy as possible to moving maximal loads as opposed to having weaknesses in the chain that will lead to submaximal tension in the muscle .
2 . Tempo- Unless you are a master of contractions and have been doing this for decades , the majority of people I see in the gym have not mastered execution enough to crank out reps at the tempos I see . The majority of the time they are using momentum and are cutting their results short by not exposing the muscle to enough time under tension . For the majority of the people who may be struggling to build their back , I recommend a 2 second pause at the contraction , a 3-4 second eccentric , a 2 second LOADED stretch ( NOT RELAXED ) at the lengthened position and an explosive but controlled concentric .
3 . Grip- If you have a lagging back , you most likely have lagging forearms and / or grip strength ( this is not scientific but just an observation ). Most people will say “ get a pair of straps ” if your grip sucks . I
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