Here, I present you with 5 great back exercises. I may rename them to be more in line with THE HEAVY MEAL STRENGH COACH brand, but I've included their actual names so you know what TF i'm on about.
Putting these into your plan guarantees you better results which Satan himself would be proud of.
To define our terms, by "back" I mean the muscles from just above your butt to the top of your neck as shown in the diagram below which has been made to be suitably metal.
I'll include videos, musical accompanyment and how I tend to program these exercises into my clients training.
As always, make sure itnis safe for you to perform these exercises before you try any of them.
For each exercise we'll cover:
Metal name
Actual name
Main Muscles Worked
Useful Training Cues
Example Training Protocol
Recommended Listening
METAL EXERCISE
PULLED APART BY SATAN
ACTUAL EXERCISE
LAT PULLDOWN
MAIN MUSCLES WORKED:
LATS
BICEPS
WHY
Because pull-ups and chin-ups are overrated as hell!
Hear me out, hear me out.
Pull-ups are bad-ass, impressive and if they are something you want to do, then you should do it.
I think they are overrated because:
Heavy people tend to struggle to do them effectively so the benefit to fatigue ratio is negatively skewed.
They are awkward and difficult to add additional weight.
They are less versatile than say, lat pulldowns because with a lat pulldowns, you can easily change handles whereas with pull-ups, this tends to be more difficult.
Dismounting from pull-ups when you are tired is riskier than exercises like a lat pulldown because you are a couple of feet in the air.
I programme them, I do them myself and for those who get a lot out of them they are great but for most people, the lat pulldown is the better option.
It's easy to select a weight to lift.
It's easy to change the amount of weight you are lifting.
You can change the handles easily.
You can adjust the tempo easily.
They can be performed using most cable machines.
They are just as good (probably better) than pull-ups for muscle growth as most people can train harder doing lat pulldowns vs. pull ups so they feature in most if not all of my programming.
TRAINING CUES
Arms long at the top.
Pull towards upper chest.
Puff your chest out at the bottom.
Imagine your forearms are following tracks in a straight line toward the floor.
EXAMPLE TRAINING PROTOCOLS
3-5 sets of 8-12 reps
1x75 seconds 1x60 seconds 1x45 seconds
Single arm 3x8-10 each side
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Death - Torn To Pieces
METAL EXERCISE
ROWING TOWARDS DEATH UNDER A SAPHIRE SKY
ACTUAL NAME
Compound Row
MAIN MUSCLES WORKED
LATS
RHOMBOIDS
TRAPS
SERRATUS
WHY
Because Nick Tumminello told me to.
He's a great coach whom you should check out now.
More reasons:
Quick and easy to set up
Smashes together a vertical pull down with a horizontal pull. Many back exercises only involve one of these so it allows us to be more efficient with our time, which is a precious commodity.
We get a little bit of hip hinge work and some hamstring/calf work. By no means as they trained enough by this exercise alone, but we give them a bit of work to supplement the other hamstring and calf work I'm sure you do WITHOUT FAIL.
USEFUL CUES
Butt back, stretch your arms away
Hip drive, pull arms back towards you
Squeeze the handles hard
EXAMPLE PROTOCOLS
3X12 to 15 reps
Pick a weight then perform as many reps as you can in 5-8 minutes
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Cannibal Corpse- Pounded Into Dust
METAL EXERCISE
SUSPENDED IN ACIDIC AGONY
ACTUAL EXERCISE
TRX/Suspension Trainer Rear Delt Fly
Main Muscles Worked
Rear Deltoid
Rhomboids
Traps
WHY
I love the suspension trainer. It is such a simple piece of kit and is so versatile. No lugging weights across the gym, just some straps to hold on to and you are good to go.
Rear deltoid flyEs are usually performed on a bench with weights or using a cable stack. Not everyone likes taking up a bench or cable stack while lifting small weights as rear deltoid fly requires.
Enter, the TRX Rear Fly.
Performing these on a suspension trainer allows you to adjust the difficulty by changing where you stand making it perfect for advanced techniques like drop sets or rest-pause sets.
USEFUL TRAINING CUES
Keep arms long
When your arms are out to the side, imagine you are squeezing a ball between your shoulder blades with as much force as you can muster
Keep the suspension trainer straps under tension throughout
EXAMPLE TRAINING PROTOCOL
3X12-15 REPS
Last set as a rest-pause set allowing 3 changes of foot position until failure to complete a rep is reached.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Carpenter Brut- Beware The Beast
METAL EXERCISE
SPINE CRUSHER*
*doesn't actually crush spines
ACTUAL EXERCISE
WEIGHTED BACK EXTENSION
MAIN MUSCLES WORKED
Erector Spinae
Glutes
Hamstrings
WHY
Deadlift variations rule. Exercises like the Romanian deadlift train the same muscles immensely well.
Good mornings can be as good but fewer people tend to be able to load this movement heavy enough to do anything.
Deadlift variations aren't brilliant for training the glutes as they are only working hard at the very top of the movement.
To make sure the glutes are being trained appropriately and the hamstrings and lower back (and your brain) is getting enough movement variety, I like many of my clients to do weighted back extensions.
USEFUL CUES
Move from the hips, not the lower back
Stretch downwards towards the floor, drive up so your upper body is just above parallel with the floor (equipment depending)
MAKE SURE YOUR FEET ARE ANCHORED DOWN
MAKE SURE YOUR FEET ARE ANCHORED DOWN
oh and...
MAKE SURE YOUR FEET ARE ANCHORED DOWN!
EXAMPLE TRAINING PROTOCOL
2x10 reps at 8-9 RPE
1 drop set holding 3 weights
X8 then discard a plate
X8 the discard a plate
X8 and either finish or perform as many reps as you can with bodyweight
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Gojira- Pray
METAL EXERCISE
SINGLE-ARM ROW OV GOD
ACTUAL EXERCISE
Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
MAIN MUSCLES WORKED
LATS
RHOMBOIDS
TRAPS
REAR DELTOIDS
WHY
This is a king among exercises. It uses minimal equipment, you can load it heavy, it trains lots of different areas at once so it's a great "bang for your buck" exercise. These may also facilitate you using some of the biggest dumbbells in the gym, which is cool AF, right?!
Some people struggle to demonstrate good form with this exercise and it can be tough to feel this exercise in the right areas because people struggle to feel muscles they can't see vs. those that they can see working.
If you are good at feeling the muscle working, this may not ring true, however for those that struggle, keep working, it can take years to learn how to feel an exercise in the right places but that doesn't mean it's doing nothing. It's doing loads.
When I was a bodybuilder, I rarely felt anything in my lats, but on stage, my back was one of my strongest features.
USEFUL CUES
Pull with your elbow
Let the shoulder move forward and stretch at the bottom
Pull the shoulder back at the top of the movement and SQUEEZE
Control down
Fast up
EXAMPLE TRAINING PROTOCOL
3-5x 8-12 each side
Nothing sexy needed here!
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Behemoth- The Left Hand Ov God
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