Back workout help!

Kiwi

New member
After a couple of years in which my training has suffered somewhat, I am trying to get back into the swing of things. All is coming along ok, except that my back and trap development seems to be lagging. It's probably just a matter of patience, but here are the exercises that make up my back workout (I do this 2x per week):

Front pulldown (2 sets)
Close pulldown (2 sets)
Supported T Bar Row (4 sets)
DB Row or seated cable row (2 sets)

I also do 3 sets of deadlifts on a different day once per week.

Does this seem reasonable? Perhaps I just need to be a bit patient here.

As for traps it seems that most guys find this muscle easy to develop, however I have very poor traps. I think the deadlift helps, but that's only done once per week. The problem I have with shrugs is trying to feel the exercise actually working on the traps. How should shrugs be performed - hard and heavy, or use a lighter weight and try to get a more qualitative feel?

Thanks.
 
Just some suggestions
- Make rowing more of the primary lifts, bentover rows/cable/db etc, and pull-ups/pulldowns secondary. The rowing lifts will incorporate more muscles and if you are trying to get your overall back to grow this is a better route then trying to target (that comes later)
- Traps, shrugs, try shrugging the weight up and hold and squeeze the muscle on top, hold it for 3-5 seconds, you won't need as much weight. Once they start getting stronger throw in some heavy weeks .
- Lower Back? other then DLs I don't see any lower back, GMs, Hypers, Romanian DLS and pull-throughs are a few choices.

Check out the stickies in the PowerLifting/strongman forum, there are some good articles that will definitely help you out. Remember the Back is a big muscle group, do you train your chest or arms more and harder?

Just some ideas, hope it helps
 
Couple of questions:

o Is that your full back-day program or do you work other body parts the same day.

o How does your back-day fit in with in your weekly schedule? Do you e.g. work chest or legs Monday and do back on tuesday?

o Are you a biceps man, i.e. do your back exercises hit your biceps more than your lats?
 
Shrugs: I like performing the exercise the way basso described, using a heavy weight on normal shrugs and a slightly lighter weight but same form on behind the back shrugs.

Behind the back shrugs should give you a bit of extra height and the normal version extra thickness.
 
rocketscientist said:
Couple of questions:

o Is that your full back-day program or do you work other body parts the same day.

o How does your back-day fit in with in your weekly schedule? Do you e.g. work chest or legs Monday and do back on tuesday?

o Are you a biceps man, i.e. do your back exercises hit your biceps more than your lats?
Click to expand...
I work out four days per week on an upper/lower split. So that back workout is combined with chest, shoulders and arms and performed twice per week. I think perhaps part of the problem could be strong biceps taking the work. I stopped doing barbell rows because they are difficult to perform without jerking. However I'm thinking of trying them back in my program again. I'll lighten the load and concentrate on holding the contraction at the top for a second rather than just jerking the weight around too much.
 
That's a lot of muscle groups in one day! I'm not saying it's wrong, but if your having trouble with a particular muscle you have to step back and look at your program. Is it really meeting your needs? From what little you've told us, if I was training you I would suggest a couple changes to try for about 8 weeks.

1. Instead of working Chest/Back twice a week, do Chest hard on 1 day and do maybe 1 light back movement, ie Pulldowns 4x10(light) On the 2nd day reverse, do your back first and hard and do 1 light chest movement last.
2. Split shoulders, Delts on chest day and traps on back day.
3. Do the same with arms as suggested with back/chest
4. Put the core movements first (back=DL/Bentover rows and Chest=Flat press/incline press) and put the biggest muscle first and work down. ie on back day your bis will be preexhausted by the time you get to them and the loads will be significantly reduced.

Just a couple of ideas to try, take what you want and toss the rest!
 
Kiwi said:
I work out four days per week on an upper/lower split. So that back workout is combined with chest, shoulders and arms and performed twice per week. I think perhaps part of the problem could be strong biceps taking the work. I stopped doing barbell rows because they are difficult to perform without jerking. However I'm thinking of trying them back in my program again. I'll lighten the load and concentrate on holding the contraction at the top for a second rather than just jerking the weight around too much.
Click to expand...

That's a lot of exercises then, but Basso already mentioned that. It often depends on the order of exercises to get the maximum results, e.g. if you do back after chest then you hit your chest when you're at your best and your back gets whatever is left of you after the first sets etc. So always do your priorities first.

To avoid bringing your biceps into play too much try pushing your elbows down rather then pulling your hands down (or towards you depending on the exercise). And possibly use less weight but concentrate on keeping your biceps out of the game.
Or just do deadlifts.

What barbell rows are concerned, I'm not a fan of them. Dumbbell rows are more efficient, allow a greater range of motion and are easier on your elbows and wrists. But maybe that's just me.
 
Markio said:
Shrugs: I like performing the exercise the way basso described, using a heavy weight on normal shrugs and a slightly lighter weight but same form on behind the back shrugs.

Behind the back shrugs should give you a bit of extra height and the normal version extra thickness.
Click to expand...


I'll second this. I gave up the Hammer strength shrugs awhile back and stick to BB and behind back bb shrugs and my traps took off :cheers:
 
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