How to Train Your Back Muscles

Posted March 3, 2010 in Fitness Tips No Comments »
Swole Fitness Tips

Trying to build a rippling, powerful, V-shaped back?

Trying to max out rear-view sexiness for bikini season?

If you said “Yes!” then you should use these tips for isolating your back muscles when training with pull-ups, pull-downs, and rows.

How to Isolate Your Back

Sexy Back Muscles
Sexy Back Muscles

When training your back, use a hook grip instead of wrapping your thumb around the bar. To use a hook grip, simply place your thumb alongside your index finger when holding the bar.

The hook grip will decrease the involvement of your arm muscles when pulling, so you can work your back muscles harder. This technique works for pretty much any back exercises.

Don’t get carried away though, the hook grip is not appropriate for other muscle groups. Using a hook grip for chest and shoulder training, or when deadlifting, is completely unnecessary and can actually put you at risk for injury. Stick to back exercises only.

How to Most Effectively Train Your Back

  • Stick with the top 5 best back exercises so you won’t waste any time or effort.
  • Change up your hand positioning in order to work your back muscles from different angles.
  • Split your back training up into a horizontal (rows) or vertical (pull-ups) priority depending on the day.
  • Keep your head and chest up during the day, and your shoulders back. This will help you keep a healthy posture.
  • Don’t forget to do barbell deadlifts, whether you are male or female!

For example, using a 4-day Mon / Tu / Th / Fri split, pick 2 horizontal back exercises to use on Monday and Thursday, and 2 vertical back exercises to use on Tuesday and Friday. That’s one way to max out your back training, but don’t do it for more than a couple months, or you could end up overtraining your back.

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