posted Wed, 04/24/2024 - 06:20
1570
Tips for back day?
ad
I follow a 4 day training regimen, where I work chest, back, arms then legs. I train to failure every set and always feel a good pump and that I did some good work. Except back day. I do an even mix of pulldowns and rows (4-5 sets of each type, total of 8-10ish) Anyone have any tips for improving my back workouts? I tend to feel the pump better on the cut, but even then it usually isn’t as good as other days.
- Bookmark
- 0
- 0
If your gym has a high lat rows machine hop on that. Make sure you contract hard at the bottom and really stretch at the top. Then hop on rows, i like to have a wide neutral grip, narrow supinated, and wide pronated. Go heavy but keep your reps slow and controlled. Those are my favorites for a killer back pump.
Have you tried doing Widowmakers though? i like to finish my back day with 1 Widowmaker set on the seated hammer strength where your chest is supported. gets them torched and super pumped every time
evanBack is tricky bro. Try mixing in some pull-ups or machine rows and really squeeze at the top. Slow down the reps and focus on pulling with your elbows instead of your hands. I used to barely feel my back too until I started doing that.
Mind muscle connection. Squeeze at top of each rep. You may get less reps out or have to lower weight at first but this has helped me with everything but calves! lol.
I find seated rows give me the best back pumps. Deadlifts also if you’re holding at the top for slightly longer than usual. If for instance lat pull downs are your last exercise for back day, run the weight down on your last set until you can’t lift light weight.
Pull ups help create a good back. Mix in some wide grip to fail, and neutral grip to fail. I typically include several sets of these after lat pull downs and rows
My back day routine rotates.
There's upper-mid-and lower-back.
My typical routine for any or a combined part of that would be 4 exercises totaling 12-16,000 lbs of weight moved with a focus on the contraction and negative.
I hope that might help.
12-16,000 lbs of weight. Get me lost
How about what you pre workout pump meal is
Cause weight is less important than a good mind muscle connection with lesser weight no
My pre-workout these days is typically a 7a.m. breakfast of 4-5 eggs, 2 pieces of whole grain toast and 5 slices of bacon followed by a 1 hour nap before i lift at roughly 10ish in the morning.
The weight, that's what it totals is 5 reps for fingers out and 8 for in on pull downs trying to feel a stretch in lats, wide grip. On the other exercises it depends, might be a low-high pull plate loaded machine, might be a low-mid row tower.
Just my 2 cents.
1.straps 2. Start light and feel the squeeze, if you can feel it, go heavier, keep going until you can’t get a great squeeze then go back down to the widget right before that one and use that as your working weight 3. There’s probably over 100 variations of back exercises you can do try tons of them until you feel the most pump in your back. 4. Start with something to activate the back. You can hang from a pull-up bar and try flexing your lats while hanging and then I do like 50 super light weight assisted pull-ups to get some blood in my back. 5. Form- you need to be doing each movement correctly because there so many muscle involved and there’s some back exercises you could fudge your way through without even using your back. For example. With a low cable row/most rows actually, make sure when you pull towards you, you keep pulling until your elbows are behind you to get the squeeze, you can even try and focus on touching your elbows together behind your back(obv not possible hit just imagine). My back needs a lot of volume or a lot of weight or both, but the weight can’t be too much that your just yanking it around. And STRAPSSSSS will change your life for pull movements
Use some strap for limit foreamrs activation during pull exercices.
For Warmup Use an exercice for mobility’s scapula
Begin your workout with an isolation of lat with unilatéral row (high row for exemple)
One thing I love doing and it makes a difference is use straps when you do back. Using straps cuts out the forearm and biceps activation you get and isolates the back muscles
Agree! Wasn't even thinking about them before. I like using them on most back workouts. Especially when I go a little heavier.
Try german volume training. I think bent over rows, barbell or dumbbell, are king. 10 sets of 10 while running the rack or utilizing a steady weight does wonders. Of course you can't outwork deadlifts or pull ups. Attack EVERY angle you can on seated cable rows with EVERY attachment available.
For the last 6 months I have started with 3-4 pulldown movements and ending my back days with 1-2 row movements. My lats have improved tremendously in that time frame. I love the neutral grip pulldowns, MAG grip and a lot of the hammer strength or machine pulldowns are really nice too. For rows I typically go for a chest supported row or a DB single arm row. Rep range always 12, + or - two reps. After I finish the pulldown movements my lats are pumped to the max and it literally feels incredible
I really like the burn of the 12 - 15 reps. Especially when you try to lift the heaviest you can to get the reps in
Starting my back day with neutral grip pull ups made my lats grow exponentially and gives a great pump. I switched lat pull downs for machine lat pulldowns aswell. I just couldn't hit my lats the right way doing them.
The best thing is to really engage and feel the part of the back muscle you're working. That's the biggest for me. Then at the point of where the concentric is about to turn to eccentric I hold it for like 2 seconds the slow eccentric. I usually feel pretty good after that and get a nice pump along the way. I like to do barbell rows, close grip supinated pull downs, lat pull down machine (really like the ones where you can twist the grip on it) and dumb bell rows. At the end I like to finish with one arm lat pull downs to add a little extra to finish off my back. Maybe you do that already but thats just what I do on back day and really any muscle group I'm working.