The bread and butter of a good back program is deadlifts and barbell rows. Deadlifts are great for increasing lower back mass and strength, as well as sheer overall strength and mass. In my opinion, barbell rows are the best exercise for specifically targeting the upper back, hands down. With heavy deadlifts and heavy barbell rows in your routine, coupled with a good diet, you should see improvements all throughout your back. Also, if you're really wanting to concentrate on creating thickness, try incorporating seated cable rows or T-Bar rows into your routine. I became fond of a seated cable rows/v-bar pull down superset. Here's an example of one of my back routines:
Pull-ups (either x sets until 50 reps, or 5 sets till failure)
Barbell Rows (warmups) 4 x 12, 10, 8, 6 or 10, 8, 6, 4 (I switch it up)
- Seated Cable Rows 3 x 8-10 or 6-8 (6-8 if I went real heavy before)
- V-Bar Pulldowns 3 x 8-10
Deadlifts (warmups) 4 x 10, 8, 6, 4 or 4 x 4-6
* You can vary the rep ranges, or even the sets if you want to.
** Stretch after pulldown exercises, then stretch a lot more after your workout.
*** Add a little extra biceps work if you want
If you're dieting to gain mass, this workout will work well. But then again, if you're dieting to gain mass, a lot of workouts will work well. Just make sure to include the basics, concentrating on really good form, and you're gold.
Me = :type: lol
