Training chest and back in the same session lets you use agonist-antagonist supersets — a high-dollar term for exercise pairings that hit opposite sides of your body with zero rest in-between.

By deleting the rest interval, these supersets allow you to get lots of training accomplished in less time. Better yet, they’re less likely to impair exercise performance compared to supersets targeting the same muscle groups. (1)

So buckle up, grab the plan, and get to work hitting just about everything above your hips using a handful of high intensity, highly focused movements.

Chest and Back Workout

• Muscles Trained
• Chest and Back Superset Workout
• Fast and Effective Upper Body Warm-up

Meet Your Chest and Back Muscles

In his prime, massive and full pectoral muscles were among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most impressive attributes. Arnold’s chest had size and symmetry — attributes which are key to a well-developed chest. Not only will lifters with bodybuilding goals need to perform chest exercises with sufficient intensity, but they will also need to ensure all areas of the chest are adequately targeted. 

Pectoralis major, the most prominent chest muscle, has two or three functional “subregions.” The sternocostal head is the largest portion and it is effectively trained during horizontal adduction exercises such as horizontal chest presses and flyes. (2)(3)(4) The upper-most part of the pec major, termed the clavicular head, is emphasized with shoulder flexion exercises and incline presses. (2)(3)(4)(5)

Less often discussed, but relevant to any lifter training for a top physique, is the inferior-most portion of the pecs — the lower costal fibers and abdominal fibers. These fibers pull your arms down from the overhead position, as in pulldowns and pullovers. (2)

An impressive back has three key qualities: breadth or width, thickness, and definition. While the latter can only be achieved by reaching sufficiently low levels of body fat, developing all qualities depends on robust muscle growth, or “hypertrophy,” of the back muscles. Major aesthetic back muscles include the latissimus dorsi, middle- and lower trapezius, and rhomboids. 

In bodybuilding, the muscles of the back are trained during vertical and horizontal pulling movements, along with a slew of single-joint accessory exercises. Perhaps counterintuitively, narrow-grip pulldowns and rows tend to promote back width, while wide-grip horizontal pulling tends to promote back thickness. (2) This workout builds both.

The Ultimate Chest and Back Workout

This double-duty routine incorporates free weights and machines, programs supersets and traditional sets, and leans into tension and “the pump” to build the ultimate upper body. It fits perfectly into either a chest and back/legs/shoulders and arms split or an upper/lower workout split. It might also be useful in a more classic “one body part per day” split when a missed workout necessitates doubling up.

Classic Chest and Back Superset Routine

• Neutral-Grip Pulldown — 3 x 8-12 (superset with following exercise)
• Machine Chest Press — 3 x 8-12
• Machine Wide Row — 3 x 12-16 (superset with following exercise)
• Machine Kelso Shrug — 3 x 8-12
• Incline Dumbbell Flye Press — 3 x 8-12
• Bar Dip — 2 x 8-12 (superset with following exercise)
• Standing Cable Pullover 2 x 16-20

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

The neutral-grip lat pulldown is a joint-friendly back-builder. It principally trains your latissimus dorsi — the muscle responsible for back width. The rhomboids of your mid-back, the muscles behind the shoulders (such your posterior deltoids and teres major), and even the lower portion of your pectoralis major (“costal fibers”) will also contribute to the movement. (2)

From the deep stretch when your arms are overhead to the peak contraction when your upper arms are pinned against the sides of your ribcage, the neutral-grip lat pulldown trains the target muscles through a range of motion unmatched by most other back exercises. Since your lower body is locked into the machine, the exercise can also be loaded heavily. Starting the workout with a heavy, full range of motion exercise sets the tone for the workout.

• How to Do it: Sit at a lat pulldown station using a grip attachment with parallel handles. Secure your thighs under the roller pads and slightly lean back at your hips. Initiate the pulldown by drawing your shoulder blades downward as you bring your elbows toward the sides of your ribcage. Return to the starting position with arms outstretched overhead.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest Time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Benefits of the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

• The exercise trains the back through large arcs of motion at the shoulder joint proper (glenohumeral joint) and shoulder girdle (scapulothoracic joint). Importantly, pulldowns train the latissimus dorsi at long muscle lengths, which may enhance muscle gain. (6)
• The neutral grip tends to be well-tolerated by lifters with banged-up shoulders or elbows. 
• This multi-joint back exercise largely spares the muscles that will be trained in the chest press, the second exercise of this superset.

Machine Chest Press

Provided your gym is not too busy and the lat pulldown station and chest press machines aren’t on opposite sides of the facility, plan to superset pulldowns with machine chest presses. If you’re training in a public gym and are concerned about occupying two machines at once, give the machine you are departing a quick wipe down and carry your things with you instead of leaving them to “claim” he equipment. This will give a non-verbal cue to anyone waiting to “work in.”

Sure, if someone does work in, it’ll slow your workout, but it’s the decent thing to do in a shared public space. Nine times out of ten, the machine will be empty when you return. 

Machine chest presses come in many designs — seated, lying, plate-loaded, cable stack-loaded, etc. Ideally, locate one that feels comfortable and provides a stretch across your shoulders in the bottom position. Although it may be acceptable to substitute the barbell bench press for the machine movement, you’ll need a trained spotter for the free weight version. Moreover, most lifters are more comfortable pushing high-effort sets — sets that approach or even reach failure — on a “self-spotting” chest press machine. 

• How to Do it: Adjust the seat and starting handle position so that your elbows and hands naturally track at approximately nipple-height at the bottom position. If the seat is too high (or if you are positioned too high up the bench on a lying chest press machine), it will feel like a decline press. If the seat is too low (or you are positioned too far down the bench on a lying version), your elbows will be flared out at or near shoulder-height. Even though you’re not performing a competition-style barbell bench press, you should still establish an arched mid-back position to facilitate greater chest tension. Lift your sternum and pull your shoulder blades together and toward your glutes. Press the handles until your elbows reach lockout. Lower with control to a tolerable stretch across your chest and the fronts of your shoulders.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest Time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Benefits of the Machine Chest Press

• Machine chest press may offer more targeted chest training compared to free-weight variations. This is likely due to the stability offered by the equipment, as the machine bench press has shown reduced lateral deltoid and triceps muscle activity and equivalent pectoralis major activity compared to the barbell bench press. (4) However, these findings were not replicated in a recent similar study. (7)
• It’s a machine-based exercise, which enables relatively heavy loading and high-effort sets without requiring a spotter. (7)

Machine Wide Row

Wide rows, traditionally performed with an overhand grip spaced wider than the shoulders, target the mid-back and back of the shoulders. As such, wide rows are a great exercise for back “thickness.”

Chest-supported machines, in particular, allow for greater focus on the target muscles and reduced systemic demand (i.e. less fatigue), because the lifter is not required to maintain an unsupported forward-bent posture. (8) Wide rows may also be performed on a chest-supported T-bar row machine or using free weights with your trunk supported on an incline bench.

• How to Do it: Set the seat height so the support pad makes contact with your lower chest and the handles are just below shoulder-height. Lean into the pad to ensure your hips are slightly behind your chest. Grab the handles with an overhand grip. You should have to stretch to reach the handles — if not, adjust the chest support or start position of the handles. Initiate the row by drawing your shoulder blades together and driving your elbows to the sides. Your elbows should track slightly below shoulder height, not tuck toward your body or flare above shoulder-height. Return to the starting position, allowing the machine to pull your arms forward and stretch your mid back.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest Time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Benefits of the Machine Wide Row

• This rowing variation has a favorable stimulus-to-fatigue, meaning support from the machine reduces the need for activity in non-target musculature. (8)
• When appropriately set up, the machine wide row applies a profound stretch to the mid-back and shoulders, increasing range of motion of the exercise and potentially enhancing hypertrophy.

Machine Kelso Shrug

Not all muscle groups targeted by multi-joint (compound) exercises are trained equally. Some muscles are hammered, while others are left relatively unscathed. For example, when using rows to target your mid-back, your shoulder muscles (e.g. posterior deltoid) may fatigue during wide rows, while muscles of the mid-back (e.g. middle trapezius and rhomboids) may not be trained to their potential. 

Advanced training techniques such as pre- and post- exhaustion may be useful to address inequitable training stimuli among agonist muscles during multi-joint exercise. Pre-exhaustion places an isolation exercise immediately before a compound exercise with no rest. Although bodybuilding pioneers like Arthur Jones tended to promote pre-exhaustion methods, the research on this strategy is somewhat lackluster. (9) At best, lifters accomplish equivalent training volume and experience similar strength gain compared to performing the isolation exercise and compound exercise as traditional straight sets. (10) At worst, trainees may lose repetitions during the compound exercise due to fatigue. (11) 

Fortunately, a related technique called post-exhaustion avoids the major downside of pre-exhaustion. Post-exhaustion uses compound supersets in a specific way. A multi-joint exercise is immediately followed by an isolation exercise for the same target muscle(s). 

Paul Kelso, an author and powerlifting analyst, promoted post-exhaustion training for thickening the upper back by using a sequence of rows and Kelso shrugs, his namesake exercise. Kelso shrugs may also be performed on a chest-supported T-bar row machine or using free-weights with trunk supported on an incline bench.

• How to Do it: Kelso shrugs involve isolated retracting (“drawing together”) the shoulder blades. While they may be performed with free weights while bent over or supported on an incline bench, performing Kelso Shrugs on a row machine with chest support allows you to better isolate the target muscles — your middle trapezius and rhomboids. Using a wide, overhand grips on the row machine, begin with your arms outstretched in front of you. You should feel a profound stretch as the machine draws your arms and shoulder blades forward. With little to no elbow bend and absolutely no rowing, squeeze your shoulder blades together, drawing the handles slightly closer to your body. Although your mid-back may arch or extend slightly as you draw your shoulder blades together, do not drive this motion by pushing your chest into the pad. Focus on using your middle trapezius and rhomboids. Pause momentarily, then allow the machine to slowly draw your shoulder blades apart.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest Time: Rest two to two and a half minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Benefits of the Machine Kelso Shrug

• This unique shrug variation hits the mid-back in relative isolation, allowing for additional training volume, especially when performed as a post-exhaustion technique following a rowing exercise.
• Kelso shrugs have a relatively easy exercise setup and minimal systemic fatigue.
• The exercise builds strength and control of the shoulder blades, which may promote overall shoulder health. (12)

Incline Dumbbell Flye Press

Muscles are stronger during eccentric contractions, which typically occur during the lowering phase of an exercise. One technique that exploits this phenomenon by increasing the intensity of the exercise during the eccentric phase is called eccentric accentuated training. (13) The flye press is a straightforward eccentric accentuated exercise, easily set up using an adjustable bench and a pair of dumbbells. 

While any incline press biases the upper chest, the incline dumbbell flye press packs an extra punch by accentuating the eccentric contraction of the clavicular head of pectoralis major. (3)(4)(5)(13) Therefore, this exercise serves to complement other chest exercises found in this workout, which tend to bias the lower muscle fibers of the chest.

• How to Do it: Set an adjustable bench to the 45-degree incline position. Lay on the bench and set your shoulder blades together so they lie flat against the pad. Begin with the dumbbells just outside the front of your chest and press them vertically until your elbows are nearly straight. Keeping slight elbow flexion, allow the dumbbells to drift apart. Continue to lower the dumbbells until you feel a strong stretch across the front of your chest. Bend your elbows to return the dumbbells to the start position before pressing to the top to repeat the sequence for additional repetitions.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8 to 12
• Rest Time: Rest one and a half to two minutes between sets.

Benefits of the Incline Dumbbell Flye Press

• The exercise is eccentric accentuated, meaning demand on chest is greater during the lowering phase, which may enhance strength development and hypertrophy. (13)(14)
• Using an incline bench promotes upper chest — pectoralis major clavicular head — activity and development. (3)(4)(5)

Bar Dip

Dips are typically performed using a dedicated dip station or a sturdy dip attachment on a power rack. The handles of the dip station or dip attachment are often parallel or diverge slightly from parallel — a feature that results in different training stimulus and exercise technique compared to traditional bodyweight bench dips. (15) 

Compared to triceps-focused bench dips, which are performed with the heels of hands supported by the long edge of a bench, bar dips show greater pectoralis major muscle activity. (15) Also compared to bench dips, bar dips require less shoulder hyperextension. (15) Since loaded shoulder hyperextension can be hard on the shoulders, dips may be better tolerated by lifters with known shoulder issues. (15)(16)

Bar dips are easy adapt to beginner strength-levels via the use of the lower body or an elastic band for assistance. They can be made more challenging by adding weight to a dip belt. Effective and versatile, the bar dip is a great exercise for building the mid- and lower chest.

• How to Do it: If your dip station or attachment has diverging handles, select a grip width comfortable for your shoulders. Begin in the top position with your elbows locked out and your hands on the bars under your shoulders supporting your weight. Your hips should drift slightly backward as you lower your body, allowing your elbows to flex and your upper arms to extend slightly behind you. In the bottom position, achieve a stretch across the front of your chest. Pause momentarily before pushing back to the top.
• Sets and Reps: 2 x 8-12
• Rest Time: No rest before moving to the next exercise.

Benefits of the Bar Dip

• The dip trains your pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, triceps brachii, and lower trapezius. Your latissimus dorsi, serratus anterior, and the posterior rotator cuff may also be active, serving as stabilizing roles. (15)
• Your chest experiences a “loaded stretch” in the bottom of the bar dip, which may promote accelerated muscle growth. (14)
• High-effort sets of dips may further bias your pectoralis major, as increased muscle activity has been shown when sets are taken toward failure. (17)

Standing Cable Pullover

As the name implies, pullovers involve drawing a resistance over the body from high-to-low. Although typically thought of as back exercises, pullover variations such as the dumbbell pullover and cable pullover train your back and chest. (2)(18)

The cable pullover has a slightly different resistance curve than free weight versions, as the lifter experiences maximum resistance when their arms are perpendicular to the cable rather than perpendicular to the vertical line of gravity. (19) This feature makes the cable pullover more conducive to high repetition, “pump work” style sets. 

Cable resistance also enables the exercise to be performed standing, a variation sometimes called a straight-arm pushdown or pulldown. If you’re looking for a high-tension solution to polish off your upper body workout, don’t skip the standing cable pullover.

• How to Do it: Grab a straight bar cable attachment with a double-overhand grip, with hands placed wider than your shoulders. Hinge slightly forward at the hips and lift your chest. With your arms outstretched overhead, pull the bar toward your thighs. Once the bar contacts your thighs, control the movement back to the start position. Keep your elbows straight but not locked throughout the movement.
• Sets and Reps: 2 x 16-20
• Rest Time: Rest two to three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Benefits of the Standing Cable Pullover

• Pullovers train the back and chest together. (18)
• The resistance profile of the cable pullover applies substantial resistance when the latissimus dorsi is stretched, which may enhance muscle gain. (6)(19)
• The focused tension of the exercise tends to promote a great lat pump sensation.

How to Warm-up for Your Chest and Back Workout

Traditional warm-ups begin with a short bout of cardiovascular activity to raise body temperature, increase breathing rate, and improve overall circulation, followed by more specific movements and mobilizations to prepare the body for the workout ahead. With a substantial chest and back workout ahead of you, cardio followed by a multi-exercise specific warm-up may feel daunting. 

Rather than skip the warm-up altogether, try a high-volume warm-up instead. High-volume warm-ups include long sets of high repetition, light resistance and/or bodyweight exercises performed in circuit fashion.

The benefits of high-volume warm-ups are similar to traditional warm-ups. They physiologically and mentally prepare your body for the workout, but they have the added benefit of extra reps for muscle groups that will be targeted in the upcoming workout and for muscle groups that could benefit from additional training volume (including specific weaknesses you may need to address). 

Perform 20 to 30 repetitions of each of the following exercises as a circuit — take no rest between each exercise set. Rest 30 seconds between circuits. Repeat the entire circuit two or three times.

• Band Face Pull: Stand facing a light resistance loop anchored at chin-height. With arms outstretched in front of your body, grasp the loop leaving a length of resistance band slightly wider than your neck between your hands. Keeping your chest up and your body stationary, draw the resistance band toward your forehead by simultaneously performing a high row with shoulder external rotation — Your elbows should track at or above shoulder-height, and your wrists should travel higher than your elbows. When the band reaches or nearly reaches your forehead, reverse the movement and return to the starting position. 

• Elevated Push-up: Begin with your hands elevated on a bench or Roman chair/back extension and your feet on the floor. Perform a push-up by pressing your body up and away from the support surface until your elbows are straight. Your push-up should resemble a “moving plank,” with your trunk and legs moving together as a unit. Lower until your chest touches or nearly touches the support surface.

• Dynamic 45-Degree Back Extension: Set up a 45-degree Roman chair so the top of the pad is just below your beltline. Lay with your thighs supported by the pad and your feet on the footplate of the machine. As you lower your torso toward the floor, intentionally allow your spine to round. As you raise your torso toward the ceiling, intentionally extend (“arch”) your spine throughout the movement. This movement requires minimal movement from the hip joints.

Here’s the deal: Some lifters train their back extensor muscles (the “fins” of muscle that lie on either side of the spine) on leg day with exercises like deadlifts, good mornings, and hyperextensions. Other lifters place these exercises with their back training. The jury is out on which practice is “best,” but one thing is clear — most lifters will benefit from more low back training. 

Outside of powerlifters who’ve adopted the reverse hyper machine, and those who still use old school back extension machines, few lifters intentionally perform dynamic back extensor training — exercises that intentionally train the back extensors through an appreciable range of motion. If you are new to flexion- and extension-based low back exercises, the dynamic 45-degree back extension is a good place to start, but you may need to reduce the repetition target until you’re accustomed to the direct work.

Jacked from Front to Back

Nineteen sets in total, this formidable workout hits all major parts of your chest and back. Remember to take two or three “work-up sets” per exercise to groove your technique and identify a challenging weight for the target repetition range (“work-up sets” do not count toward set total). Altogether, plan to be in the gym a little over an hour accomplishing more than most do in two separate workouts. 

References

1. Weakley, J. J., et al. (2020). The effects of superset configuration on kinetic, kinematic, and perceived exertion in the barbell bench press. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 34(1), 65-72.
2. Ackland, D. C., Pak, P., Richardson, M., & Pandy, M. G. (2008). Moment arms of the muscles crossing the anatomical shoulder. Journal of Anatomy, 213(4), 383-390.
3. dos Santos Albarello, et al. (2022). Non-uniform excitation of pectoralis major induced by changes in bench press inclination leads to uneven variations in the cross-sectional area measured by panoramic ultrasonography. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 67, 102722.
4. Coratella, G., et al. (2020). Specific prime movers’ excitation during free-weight bench press variations and chest press machine in competitive bodybuilders. European Journal of Sport Science, 20(5), 571-579.
5. Lee, H. M. (2019). Force direction and arm position affect contribution of clavicular and sternal parts of pectoralis major muscle during muscle strength testing. Journal of Hand Therapy, 32(1), 71-79.
6. Ottinger, C. R., et al. (2022). Muscle hypertrophy response to range of motion in strength training: a novel approach to understanding the findings. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 10-1519.
7. Muyor, J. M., Rodríguez-Ridao, D., & Oliva-Lozano, J. M. (2023). Comparison of Muscle Activity between the Horizontal Bench Press and the Seated Chest Press Exercises Using Several Grips. Journal of Human Kinetics, 87, 23.
8. García-Jaén, M., et al. (2021). Electromyographical responses of the lumbar, dorsal and shoulder musculature during the bent-over row exercise: a comparison between standing and bench postures (a preliminary study). Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 21(4), 1871-1877.
9. Trindade, T. B., et al. (2022). Pre-exhaustion training, a narrative review of the acute responses and chronic adaptations. International Journal of Exercise Science, 15(3), 507.
10. Fisher, J. P., et al. (2014). The effects of pre-exhaustion, exercise order, and rest intervals in a full-body resistance training intervention. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 39(11), 1265-1270.
11. Vilaça-Alves, et al. (2014). Effects of pre-exhausting the biceps brachii muscle on the performance of the front lat pull-down exercise using different handgrip positions. Journal of Human Kinetics, 42(1), 157-163.
12. Sciascia, A., & Kibler, W. B. (2022). Current views of scapular dyskinesis and its possible clinical relevance. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, 17(2), 117.
13. Walker, S., et al. (2016). Greater strength gains after training with accentuated eccentric than traditional isoinertial loads in already strength-trained men. Frontiers in Physiology, 7, 149.
14. Wackerhage, H., et al. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 136, 30-43.
15. McKenzie, A., et al. (2022). Bench, Bar, and Ring Dips: Do Kinematics and Muscle Activity Differ?. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 13211.
16. McKenzie, A. K., et al. (2021). Glenohumeral Extension and the Dip: Considerations for the Strength and Conditioning Professional. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 43(1), 93-100.
17. McKenzie, A., et al. (2022). Fatigue increases muscle activations but does not change maximal joint angles during the bar dip. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), 14390.
18. Muyor, J. M., López-Miñarro, P. A., & Alacid, F. (2022). Comparison of electromyographic activity during barbell pullover and straight arm pulldown exercises. Applied Sciences, 12(21), 11138.
19. Schütz, P., et al. (2022). Chest exercises: movement and loading of shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. Sports, 10(2), 19.

Featured Image: Ground Picture / Shutterstock

The post The Ultimate Chest and Back Workout for Upper Body Muscle appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Whether you should focus on pulldowns or pull-ups can depend on a few factors, including your experience and your goals. From technique, programming, and step-by-step execution, here is everything you need to know about these foundational back-building exercises.

Lat Pulldown and Pull-Up

• Exercise Differences
• Exercise  Similarities
• Technique Differences
• How to Do the Lat Pulldown
• How to Do the Pull-Up
• When to Program the Best Pulling Movement for Your Goal

Exercise Differences

Recognising the differences between the lat pulldown and the pull-up can put you on the fast track for better results. Some key differences involve the equipment used, or lack thereof. Some relatively subtle, but significant, differences in programming can also be found.

Human Body vs. Machine

The major visual difference between the lat pulldown and pull-up is the fact that one is a bodyweight exercise and the other requires a full cable station. This brings with it two major considerations.

The lat pulldown uses a specialized cable stack pulley system to anchor your body in place while you move an adjustable weight stack, whereas the pull-up simply requires a fixed overhead bar that can support your body weight.

This can affect the relative ease of implementing each exercise into your program based upon availability of equipment, as well as your own capabilities — body weight pull-ups may be too challenging for beginners, while pulldowns can accommodate lifters of any experience or strength level.

As a calisthenics exercise, the pull-up places a greater stabilization challenge on your entire body, from your back and shoulders through your core to your lower body. The stable machine and fixed anchor points provided by the pads on a lat pulldown machine make it tremendously easier to take a seat and get to work. The machine itself provides stabilization, so you can focus targeting your back muscles.

Loading

One of the largest differences between the lat pulldown and pull-up is the range of resistance you can use. The lat pulldown is a highly adjustable machine that simply requires you to add more plates or lower the pin on the weight stack further and further — sometimes exceeding a comparable pull-up load.

The lat pulldown is more scalable than a pull-up — the resistance can be quickly and easily reduced to allow relatively weaker lifters to perform the exercise. Aside from getting creative using resistance bands to assist a pull-up or having access to a dedicated assisted pull-up machine, it can be quite challenging to overcome the baseline level (your body weight) needed to perform a pull-up. This is especially true if you want to perform multiple repetitions per set.

Sets and Repetitions

Similar to the differences in loading, the lat pulldown and pull-up are often paired with distinct set and repetition schemes. For many people, the pull-up is an upper body strength movement that lives in a lower repetition range. Whereas, the lat pulldown typically exists as an effective muscle-building tool that thrives with more moderate repetitions.

You’ll often see pull-ups performed for two to three sets of anywhere from one to 10 repetitions. While the pulldown could be performed with much heavier weights for low-rep sets, it’s nearly impossible to maintain strict form with such programming due to poor leverage. Having your lower body and core locked into position becomes a limiting factor.

In contrast, a lat pulldown is typically done for two to four sets of eight to 12 repetitions. Reaching that type of volume with pull-ups is typically reserved for experienced lifters of a significant strength level, either performed with added weight or with body weight alone.

Exercise Similarities

While there can be several key differences, the lat pulldown and pull-up do share some significant overlaps to consider, as well. They will hit many of the same primary muscle groups, both require some degree of overhead mobility, and the exercises share many basic variations.

Muscles Worked

The lat pulldown and pull-up primarily target your latissimus dorsi — a large swath of muscle located on either lateral side of your back. While the latissimus dorsi (lats) are the prime mover, both exercises will also heavily involve your upper back, biceps, and varying degrees of core musculature to stay in an efficient pulling position.

Mobility Requirements

The vertical pulling pattern used in both exercises requires you to be able to successfully, comfortably, and safely get your arms fully extended overhead. While that may sound simple enough, shoulder mobility and joint health is a very important component of avoiding training-related aches or pains in the long-term.

If you can achieve the overhead position effectively, both the lat pulldown and pull-up can be effective at maintaining your overhead mobility, especially when you focus on working through a full range of motion in the stretched (overhead) position.

Grip Variations

When it’s time to introduce exercise variety, the lat pulldown and pull-up can both allow narrow or wide hand positions, which can alter the muscle emphasis from your lats to your upper back or even your biceps. (1)

Both exercises can also be performed using unique grip orientations, from neutral-grip to overhand or even freely rotating (using individual handles or straps to allow your wrists to rotate during each repetition). Like grip width, changing the orientation of your hands and forearms is an effective way of altering muscle recruitment by making slight adjustments. (2)

Technique Differences

The lat pulldown and pull-up have some definitive technique differences. Because one is a calisthenics exercise and the other is performed while seated on a machine, your overall body position will affect exercise technique.

Hollow Body

The hollow body is a full-body bracing technique that helps to create a rigid body posture. The high level of total body tension it creates allows you to better control your movement through space. This technique is especially important during the pull-up, where you will be freely moving without any anchor points aside from your grip.

In order to successfully perform a pull-up, establishing a strong hollow body technique is essential to maintain stability. The lat pulldown, on the other hand, provides this stability on your behalf by offering leg pads to hold you in place.

Torso Angle

Your torso angle during each repetition is a major difference between the pull-up and lat pulldown. Because your lower body is secured under the knee pads, the lat pulldown allows you to manipulate your torso angle to target subtly different muscles. A greater degree of backward lean could emphasize more of your upper back, whereas a more vertical torso angle puts your upper back into a less advantageous position and emphasizes lat activation.

On the other hand, fairly consistent technique and upper body position is required for a proper pull-up. From a dead-hang position (gripping the bar with your arms fully straightened), you must set your shoulder blades by first “shrugging” yourself up. In doing so, you will be able to better leverage your latissimus dorsi to complete the rep and actually pull you up.

When you get this technical cue right, you will have a slightly backward-leaning torso angle while performing each repetition, but nowhere near the freedom of motion provided by the lat pulldown machine.

Lower Body Position

Your lower body positioning will certainly be a notable difference in each exercise. Similar to the stability requirements during the hollow body technique in the pull-up, your leg position will be affected by the need to stay rigid. Fully lock your legs out, leaving them either hanging straight down or angled slightly ahead of your body. You cannot achieve a strong, stable hollow body position with bent legs.

With a lat pulldown, you will be in a completely seated position with your feet flat on the ground driving your knees up against the pad. While some lifters disregard the knee pad and let their heels leave the ground during pulldowns, this poor form doesn’t add any benefit and only reduces your stability and upper body pulling power.

How to Do the Lat Pulldown

Sit on the lat pulldown machine and adjust the knee pads to snuggly anchor your legs in place with your feet flat on the ground. Stand back up and grab the lat pulldown bar evenly, about shoulder-width apart, with an overhand grip.

Brace your full body and sit down, securing your legs under the knee pads. Squeeze the bar tight, brace your core, drive your legs into the knee pads by performing a static calf raise.

Lean back slightly and pull the bar toward your chest. Focus on feeling your back squeeze in the bottom position before straightening your arms to return to the starting position.

Form Tip: Be diligent to avoid momentum. Secure your body in the machine and brace hard – only move the bar by squeezing your back and pulling with your arms. Do not excessively sway your torso backwards. 

Benefits of the Lat Pulldown

• The lat pulldown has a high degree of stability, making it a more effective way to focus on the back muscles.
• The pulldown machine offers highly scalable loading, making it easy to perform for lifters of all experience levels.
• Multiple handle attachments allow many variations for different benefits.
• It’s relatively safe to take this exercise close to muscle failure.

Lat Pulldown Variations

The majority of effective lat pulldown variations will capitalize on different handle attachments to slightly change your technique and alter muscle recruitment.

Close-Grip Pulldown

Close-grip pulldowns draw your hands slightly closer together than the standard, shoulder-width grip. This increases the amount of leverage your lats have and slightly increases the range of motion — both of which can lead to a stronger training stimulus.

The close-grip pulldown can make the exercise more effective when you’re just learning general technique by delivering a strong training stimulus without needing heavy weight.

Wide-Grip Pulldown

Wide-grip lat pulldowns place your hands slightly farther apart than the standard issue grip placement. This will put your lats at a greater disadvantage, making some of the supporting musculature in your upper back, shoulders, and arms contribute more. This will also reduce the load you’ll be able to lift.

This is a great exercise to fill gaps in your physique or in your strength development. By strengthening relatively weaker links, wide-grip pulldowns can also prolong the amount of time you can make progress before adding weight.

Dead-Hang Pulldown

The dead-hang style of lat pulldown will have you fully “relax” your shoulder blades and assume a completely upright torso between each repetition. Your teres minor (a small shoulder muscle) will get some added work helping to stabilize your shoulder for each repetition.

This is a great way to gain, and maintain, shoulder stability. The increased muscle recruitment will also help upper back development.

Single-Arm Pulldown

The single-arm lat pulldown turn the exercise into a unilateral (single-sided) version. This forces each side of your body to work independently of the other, which will greatly help to accommodate any body size or shape while addressing any natural asymmetries.

The single-arm pulldown is also a tremendously effective way to add more progression time to your lat pulldown exercise by essentially doubling the amount of load each side will have access to.

How To Do The Pull-Up

Perform the pull-up by grabbing a straight bar that is high enough for your legs to dangle freely without touching the ground. Use a small box or (safely) jump to grab the bar with an overhand grip approximately shoulder-width apart.

Perform a hollow body technique by flexing your core, depressing your shoulder blades, engaging your glutes, and locking your quads.

Engage your lats and flex your arms to pull your chest toward the bar. Once you have reached the highest point that you can pull yourself to, slowly lower back to the starting position using control. Maintain your brace and perform for your target repetitions.

Form Tip: Be diligent about maintaining hollow body tension and eliminating any lower body sway. Performing a pull-up gets exponentially more difficult when you have to counter any unneeded movement. Stay braced and aim to start each repetition from a motionless position. Swinging your hips and legs may help you perform more reps, but it reduces muscular stress on your back.

Benefits of the Pull-Up

• The pull-up requires little-to-no equipment.
• Bodyweight exercises can improve coordination and proprioception (body awareness) which can carryover to general athleticism.
• Scalable to suit either strength or hypertrophy goals when appropriate programming and loading is used.

Pull-Up Variations

Pull-ups can be modified to attack a few different goals. Similar to pull-ups, changing your grip position can deliver some unique benefits.

Wide-Grip Pull-up

Wide-grip pull-ups place your upper back (teres minor) on blast. A wider grip will make it harder on your lats, but also put a bigger emphasis on your ability to maintain the right shoulder positioning for each repetition.

When you’re looking to train nearly your entire upper body, while also seriously roasting your shoulder stability, use the wide-grip pull-up.

Neutral-Grip Pull-up

On the opposite side of things, a neutral-grip pull-up places you in a much more inherently stable position. The relatively closer grip and neutral (palms facing in) hand placement will make it easier to harness your back muscles to pull you up, but also take some of the shoulder stability challenge away.

When you’re looking to go for moderate or higher reps, or build a foundation of strength and muscle, neutral-grip pull-ups are a great option.

Towel Pull-up

Towel pull-ups are a huge boost to your grip strength. This low-tech modification, draping a simple (but sturdy) towel over a bar, will seriously challenge your ability to simply hang on.

If you’re in the market for a stronger grip and bigger arms — and if you can already perform more than a handful of pull-ups — challenge yourself with towel pull-ups.

When to Program the Best Pulling Movement for Your Goal

There are several instances where either the lat pulldown or pull-up might be the better option. Your specific goals and training experience are unique factors to consider.

Beginner

When you’re a beginner, you’ll be looking to build a base of muscle and strength before eventually launching into a more structured and challenging program. With that in mind, you may struggle with pull-ups because they can be very unforgiving.

While there are ways to make pull-ups more accessible for beginner lifters, such as using resistance bands for assistance, oftentimes a pull-up is a bit of a tall order. Instead, spending some time building a super-strong lat pulldown can be a relatively lower barrier to entry. Once you’ve accomplished this, either option is freely available and effective.

Muscle Gain

Both the lat pulldown and pull-up can be very effective muscle-building tools, but there are some subtle differences that likely edge the lat pulldown ahead. The lat pulldown is a more stable training tool. This means that there will be less “moving parts” in your way while you chase highly stimulating sets that accumulate volume needed to build your back. (3)

The lat pulldown also allows for a slow, controlled, and incremental increase in loading which once again provides a boost to long-term muscle growth. The pull-up is great in its own right, but it’s hard to beat the lat pulldown for pure muscle gain.

Strength Gain

Gaining strength can be accomplished with both the lat pulldown and pull-up. However, the lat pulldown can more easily be loaded and trained for strength-focused results. With that in mind, it’s going to offer you more lat-specific strength.

On the other hand, the pull-up, as a bodyweight exercise, is more of a full-body exercise. In this instance, the pull-up will help build greater full-body strength. If you want better overall strength potential, emphasizing the pull-up will likely be the better option.

Limited Equipment

When you don’t have access to a gym, the choice is a simpler one. The lat pulldown literally requires a machine, which likely is only accessible through a commercial or home gym equivalent.

While a pull-up bar may seem mandatory for doing pull-ups, it is not actually required. A pull-up can, technically, be performed anywhere you have access to a strong, stable anchor point to safely grab. The pull-up wins when you have limited equipment. 

Advanced Athlete

If you’re an advanced athlete in nearly any sport, it’s a toss up. Once you’ve developed a strong base of muscle, strength, and coordination, both the pull-up and lat pulldown can be tailored to your needs.

Both can be loaded and progressed, both have unique variations to prolong your progress, and both are relatively easy to master after a short amount of focused time. Depending on your goals or needs, either the pull-up or lat pulldown (or even both) can be effectively programmed for athletic goals.

Prioritize Your Pulls

The lat pulldown and pull-up are both iconic staples of weight training. The exercises have unique benefits, times of superiority, and some clear drawbacks. Depending on your training age, goals, and available equipment, one option may jump out as the obvious choice. Review the information and make the best decision for your goals. Prioritize your pulls for some big gains and, one day, both classic movements may find their way into your program.

References

1. Andersen, V., Fimland, M. S., Wiik, E., Skoglund, A., & Saeterbakken, A. H. (2014). Effects of grip width on muscle strength and activation in the lat pull-down. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 28(4), 1135–1142. https://doi.org/10.1097/JSC.0000000000000232
2. Signorile, J. F., Zink, A. J., & Szwed, S. P. (2002). A comparative electromyographical investigation of muscle utilization patterns using various hand positions during the lat pull-down. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 16(4), 539–546.
3. Schoenfeld, B. J., Contreras, B., Krieger, J., Grgic, J., Delcastillo, K., Belliard, R., & Alto, A. (2019). Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 51(1), 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764

Featured Image: Tom Wang / Shutterstock

The post Lat Pulldown vs. Pull-Up: The Battle for a Bigger Back appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

One such session was held in Pittsburgh, PA during the weekend of May 12-13, 2023 where Lunsford guest posed at the IFBB Pittsburgh Pro contest. Bumstead shared footage of the back workout on his YouTube channel.

Lat Pulldown Machine

Both men began the session by focusing on isolating their lats with lat pulldown machine. They performed both reverse-grip and neutral-grip pulldowns on different sets. Rambod was placing emphasis on driving the scapulae and elbows back to get a greater contraction. Both athletes also used slow tempos with their reps, increasing the time under tension. They were staying in the 10-12 rep range for each set. Rambod instructed Bumstead to hold the contracted portion for up to five seconds at the end of one set.

Why Do It: The lat pulldown focuses on the lats as well as the upper back. Using an overhand grip may recruit more of the upper back muscles, while an underhand grip may shift the focus to more of the lower lats and biceps. The neutral-grip can be used to isolate the lats with minimal biceps involvement.

How to Do It: Grab the handles with your preferred grip and sit on the seat of the machine with your knees secured under the pads. Get a stretch at the top before beginning the first rep. With control, drive your elbows down and back as you pull the handles down towards your chest. You can allow your upper body to come back slightly, but don’t use momentum to pull the weight down. Pull in as close to your body as possible and hold this position briefly before allowing the handles to return to the starting position under control. Repeat for the desired reps.

T-Bar Row

Next up was an old-school bodybuilding movement — the T-bar row. A barbell was placed in a corner of the gym while Lunsford stood at the opposite end with a V-handle in his hands. Both men started with three 25-kilogram (55-pound) plates on the barbell, and they eventually added a fourth. Only two sets were shown for each athlete.

Why Do It: This exercise is a basic mass-builder for the upper back. You get the feel of free weights, even though the non-weighted end of the bar is wedged or locked into position.

How to Do It: Once weight is on the barbell with the opposite end secured in a landmine unit, straddle the bar and place the V-handle underneath it so you can hold the handle with each hand. Bend at the hips while keeping your back straight. Lift the handles so the weighted end of the bar comes up off the floor. While maintaining the bent-over position, pull the bar up toward your chest to contract your lats and upper back. Slowly lower the barbell back to the floor, without letting it rest on the ground, and repeat for the desired reps.

Seated Cable Row

Bumstead started the third movement of the session when he did his first set of seated cable rows with a neutral grip. They were pulling the handle to the middle of their torsos to emphasize the upper back, but their execution of the reps were still slow and controlled. Rambod encouraged them to feel the muscles working with each individual rep.

Why Do It: This promotes thickness and detail in the upper back, which both men will showcase on-stage in back-double biceps poses during mandatory callouts or during various back poses in their individual routines.

How to Do It: Place your feet on the foot pad and sit on the bench while holding the handles. You should be able to stretch forward when lowering the handle without the pinned weight touching the stack. Keeping a straight back and slightly bent legs, pull the handle in toward your torso. Squeeze the upper back and hold the contracted position before lowering the pinned weight back toward the stack. Once you feel a stretch in your upper back, repeat for the next rep. Your upper body should move slightly, but you shouldn’t use momentum to pull the weight in. Keep a neutral neck position throughout the set.

Chest-Supported Two-Dumbbell Row

The fourth exercise of the day was first movement to use dumbbells. Both Bumstead and Lunsford placed themselves on an incline bench, chest down, and rowed the dumbbells up using an overhand grip. They allowed their elbows to flare out to emphasize the rear delts and upper back muscles. Rambod focused on their range of motion by having them stretch and lower the dumbbells as close as possible to the floor before beginning the next rep. 

Why Do It: This free weight movement hits the upper back and forces you to work each side independently to maintain stability and control of the weight. Doing this on a bench decreases the possibility of using momentum or cheating the exercise.

How to Do It: Place dumbbells near the head end of the bench. Straddle the bench and place your feet wide on the floor for balance. Place your chest on the bench and use your arms to secure the dumbbells. Pull the dumbbells toward your upper body while keeping yourself connected to the bench. When you feel the contraction of your upper back, slowly lower the weights towards the floor. Once you feel a stretch, begin the next rep.

The video concluded with footage of Bumstead saying some words on stage at the Pittsburgh Pro contest before brief clips of Lunsford’s guest posing was shown.

Not all details of this workout’s were shared, but you can try these movements for yourself by following the sample workout below.

Sample Back Workout

Lat Pulldown — 4 x 8-12

T-Bar Row — 3 x 10-12

Seated Cable Row — 3 x 10-12

Chest-Supported Two-Dumbbell Row — 3 x 10

Both Bumstead and Lunsford will compete in their respective divisions at the 2023 Olympia Weekend in Orlando, FL on the weekend of Nov. 2-5. Bumstead will aim to win his fifth consecutive Classic Physique Olympia title while Lunsford, now a Men’s Open competitor, looks to improve upon his second-place finish at the 2022 edition by overcoming current Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan.

Featured Image: @cbum on Instagram

The post Chris Bumstead and Derek Lunsford Go Heavy on Back Day with Hany Rambod appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Efficient programming and exercise choice can drastically improve the quality of your back workouts. Follow these steps to learn how to perform the reverse-grip bent-over row, and how you should incorporate it into your routine to make the most out of your back day.

• How to Do the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row
• Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row Mistakes to Avoid
• How to Progress the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row
• Benefits of the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row
• Muscles Worked by the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row
• How to Program the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row
• Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row Variations 
• Frequently Asked Questions

How to Do the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row Step By Step

Approaching the reverse-grip bent-over row for the first time doesn’t need to be an intimidating experience. Follow these steps for a picture-perfect lift. 

Step 1 — Setting Up

When you initially approach the bar, setting up for the reverse-grip bent-over row feels a bit like setting up for a deadlift. With the barbell over your midfoot, grab the bar slightly outside shoulder-width, using a double-underhand (supinated) grip — this is the “reverse grip” compared to the double-overhand (pronated) grip of the standard barbell row.

Brace your core, keep your spine neutral (not rounded or excessively arched), and drive through your feet to lift the weight off the floor. 

Form Tip: Experiment with your grip width to see what results in feeling the highest degree of lat (back) activation. Most likely, setting up with your grip just past shoulder width apart will yield the best results. But depending on your limb and torso length, you may feel more comfortable slightly closer or wider.

Step 2 — Find Your Trunk Angle and Brace Your Core

Hinge forward at your hips and stop when your trunk is pitched at roughly a 45-degree angle. Bend your knees slightly and maintain that angle throughout the movement. Keep your arms straight and allow the barbell to shift slightly forward. Take a deep breath and brace your core as you prepare to perform the row.

Form Tip: Consistency is key. Keep your arms at a dead-hang while you set up. This will reinforce the position you want to hold at the beginning and end of each rep.

Step 3 — Pull From Your Elbows

Squeeze and depress your scapula (pull your shoulder blades together and “down” toward your tailbone), then pull your elbows back. As you lift the weight, consciously engage your back muscles before you contract your biceps.

Continue pulling the weight toward your trunk until the barbell makes contact with your torso. To specifically target your lats rather than your upper back muscles, make the bar contact closer to your belly button than your sternum.

Form Tip: Don’t be concerned if your bar path isn’t a perfectly straight line. Pulling towards your belly button may feel awkward at first, but you should quickly notice increased lat activation when lifting this way.

Step 4 — Lower the Weight

Squeeze your back muscles at the top of the lift and consider holding the weight there for a moment. Keeping your back flat and your core tight, lower the weight back to the stretched position until your arms are fully extended.

Maintain the forward hinge position throughout the entire set. To perform the next repetition, pull the barbell toward your belly button again.

Form Tip: Keep the movement relatively slow and controlled. This helps to avoid using momentum from one repetition to another to lift the weight.

Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row Mistakes to Avoid

If you have a passing familiarity with the traditional bent-over row, or hinge movements as a whole, you could probably jump right into using the reverse-grip bent-over row to build your back and biceps without thinking too hard about form. Nevertheless, slipshod technique could mean you’re leaving gains on the table, or even putting yourself at an increased risk of injury.

Setting Up With a High Torso Angle

Either tight hips and hamstrings, a weak core, or a combination of the two could make it difficult for you to hold your trunk at a 45-degree angle across an entire set of rows. As a result, you could end up performing more of an upright row than you intend.

Setting up with a higher torso angle can result in increased muscular activation in your trapezius and your rhomboids, which means less isolation for your lats. 

Avoid it: When you setup to perform the row, be sure to hinge forward and shoot your hips back to create a strong pulling position. Add hinge movements like the deadlift, Romanian deadlift, and the good morning into your training plan to develop greater levels of strength, balance, and mobility. This will help you build the strength needed to maintain the angle in your torso for your entire set. 

Lower Back Rounding

For your spinal health and your longevity in the gym, for goodness sake, keep a flat back whenever you perform hinge movements like the row. While lower back rounding may be the result of a lack of mobility, you could also experience this just by going too heavy.

Avoid it: If you find your lower back rounding while you perform the reverse-grip bent-over row, set your ego aside. Either practice hinge movements until you’re capable of maintaining an isometric hinge or reduce the weights significantly and start over.

Engaging Your Biceps First

Since your biceps are a wrist supinator — responsible for turning your hand into a palm-up position — they engage the moment you “reverse” your grip on a bent-over row. In addition to being a secondary mover to perform the exercise, they also stabilize your elbow.

But your biceps should not be the primary mover in the reverse-grip bent-over row. That job falls to your lats, and trying to use your biceps to lift heavy loads meant for your lats might not end well for the much smaller biceps muscle.

Avoid it: Consciously think about pulling your shoulders back to engage your back muscles before pulling with your elbows. Don’t try to curl the bar to move the weight.

Utilizing Momentum From Rep to Rep

If you fail to maintain a consistent angle in your torso across each repetition, you might be generating momentum with your hips that decreases the load on your lats and biceps. This can be a sign of going too heavy, but you might also be doing this for ego lifting or simply because you’re not paying attention.

Avoid it: If the weight is too heavy for you to keep under control, lower it. Otherwise, consider focusing on the eccentric (lowering) portion of the lift to guarantee you keep the weight moving in a slow and controlled fashion to prevent momentum from building.

How to Progress the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row

If you have trouble performing the reverse-grip bent-over row right off the bat, here’s how you can approach it as a beginner and how to increase the difficulty as you continue to get stronger and progress in the gym.

Yates Row

The Yates row is the cousin of the reverse-grip bent-over row, the difference between the two being the angle of your torso. While you perform a reverse-grip bent-over row with your torso at roughly a 45-degree angle, the Yates row is performed from a more upright position.

The resulting lift targets your rhomboids and your traps in addition to your lats and biceps. It may not be as good of a lat builder, but it makes up for it by hitting your entire back. What was a “mistake” for the reverse-grip row can be used deliberately for a strategic purpose.

As you develop strength performing the Yates Row, you can slowly transition towards the reverse-grip bent-over row by experimenting with your torso angle. Sinking deeper into the hinge position will let you feel your lats working harder as you get closer to the 45-degree angle. 

Add Isometric Holds or Timed Eccentrics

At a certain point, implementing basic linear progression — adding more repetitions or more weight — stops being as useful for lifts like the reverse-grip bent-over row. Rather than continuously increasing the load on the bar, which can eventually create a higher risk than reward and may decrease stress on the target muscle, you can add isometric holds or timed eccentrics.

With isometrics, squeeze your back and shoulders at the top of each repetition for one, two, or even three seconds while the bar is in contact with your abdomen. For timed eccentrics, focus on making the negative (lowering) phase of each rep take two, three, or four full seconds. This can help to maximize your gains and develop your mind-muscle connection. 

Reverse-Grip Pendlay Row

If you’re looking to add an extra level of difficulty, swap out the reverse-grip bent-over row for a reverse-grip pendlay row. Since each rep starts and finishes on the ground, there’s no way for you to build momentum from rep to rep, which makes it a great lift to isolate your muscles and focus on pure pulling strength.

The reverse-grip pendlay row requires more hamstring flexibility than the reverse-grip bent-over row, because you’re in a steep forward-leaning position. However, it’s relatively easier on your core and lower back since you don’t have to hold an isometric hinge for the duration of your set.

Benefits of the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row

When you step into the gym, you come face-to-face with a wide range of tools and movements that you can use to sculpt your biceps and your lats. Here are some of the unique benefits of the reverse-grip bent-over row that make it worth adding to your routine.

Increased Lat Activation

Switching from a pronated grip to a supinated grip puts your arms and shoulders into a different position and changes the pulling angle, which is why it’s easier to draw the weight closer to your belly button than your sternum. This results in increased lat activation when compared to the traditional bent-over row.

Additionally, your rhomboids and traps play much less of a role in the reverse-grip bent-over row than they do when you perform the lift with an overhand grip. 

Improved Balance and Core Strength

Holding an isometric hinge isn’t easy. Your core muscles work overtime to maintain a consistent angle under heavy loads. Simultaneously, your hamstrings stay active and engaged at a lengthened position, which can help build strength in your posterior chain while also improving your overall mobility. 

Unparalleled Rowing Strength

The reverse-grip bent-over row cuts down on a number of variables and limiting factors posed by many other row variations. Generally speaking, you can lift heavier loads with a barbell than you can with a dumbbell.

Flipping your grip from overhand to underhand means your grip strength won’t hold you back as you increase loads over time because your wrists and forearms are in a stronger position. Finally, range of motion tends to be more efficient than with a traditional bent-over row, since you have improved leverage when tracking the bar closer to your center of gravity.

When you put all these factors together, what you get is a lift that lets you lift heavy weights with your lats, without so many of the variables that get in the way when performing other types of rows.

Muscles Worked by the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row

As a compound exercise, the reverse-grip bent-over row targets muscles across numerous joints. Here’s a list of the largest muscle groups worked by the lift. 

Latissimus Dorsi

With some back exercises, you feel “your back” working. That’s not the case with the reverse-grip bent-over row. When performed correctly, you should be able to feel and, later specifically target, your lats in particular.

Your lats are the biggest muscle group in your upper body — running along each side of the back half of your torso. Your lats are also the primary muscle group working in the reverse-grip bent-over row. A rock-solid pair of lats make your upper body and shoulders appear broader and your waist look more narrow in comparison, which makes them an important part of developing an aesthetic physique.

Biceps

As secondary movers — muscles which assist the primary target muscles during a given exercise — your biceps and your brachialis muscles play two separate roles during the reverse-grip bent-over row. Since your biceps are a wrist supinator, they get direct stimulation to maintain the palm-up position during the lift. More importantly, they’re responsible for stabilizing your elbow during flexion to support the joint as the muscle contracts. 

Abdominals

With a barbell held out in front of you and your torso held in an isometric hinge, your abs provide the strength and stability necessary to keep you from buckling over while performing the reverse-grip bent-over row. Especially as you get to heavier loads, you’ll find that your core plays a crucial role — keeping your torso held at the desired angle and stabilizing your spine to prevent rounding.

Hamstrings

As with any hinge movement, the reverse-grip bent-over row provides stimulus to your hamstrings. By developing strength in the fully lengthened (stretched) position, the exercise promotes muscular balance and flexibility in your hamstrings.

How to Program the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row

Building an effective training routine can be challenging. When you’re in the gym, you want to make the most of your time and energy to maximize your gains. If you’re not sure how to incorporate the reverse-grip bent-over row into your workout plan, here are a few options that you might consider. 

As an Accessory for the Deadlift

For powerlifters, who specialize in performing the squat, bench press, and deadlift, finding efficient compound (multi-joint) exercises that complement your primary lifts can be a bit of a chore or simply confusing. The reverse-grip bent-over row builds strong lats while performing an isometric hinge, which can improve both strength and mobility across your posterior chain.

Following the deadlift, consider incorporating three to five sets of six reps, using a weight that lets you keep your torso angle solid across the length of the set.

As a Main Movement For Bodybuilders

In the interest of both exercise economy, and the hormonal response that compound movements provide, many bodybuilders prefer to start their workouts with heavy compound exercises before they get to their isolation movements. (1)(2) When you’re carving a statue from stone, use the dynamite before you get started with the hammer and chisel. 

If your training split has a back and biceps day, the reverse-grip bent-over row lets you isolate your lats and warm-up your biceps, while also stimulating a hormonal response which may support muscle growth. Early in your workout, hit at least three sets of eight, focusing on the eccentric portion of the lift to maximize your hypertrophy gains. (3)

As a High Volume Accessory Lift

If you spend a significant amount of time in a squat rack or on a weight platform, adding the reverse-grip bent-over row as an accessory after the classic bent-over row can be as much about convenience as anything else. All you have to do is flip your wrists around and you have a lift that lets you engage and isolate your lats while also dialing in your rowing technique after the related muscles are thoroughly warmed up and pre-trained.

If you want to implement the reverse-grip bent-over row as a high volume accessory movement, consider performing three sets of 15 following other row variations. 

Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row Variations

Maybe you don’t have access to a barbell. Maybe you’re dealing with nagging shoulder or back pain. Maybe you just want to mix things up. Regardless of your reasons, here are a few different lifts that let you target your back like the reverse-grip bent-over row.

Seal Row

As with all chest-supported rows, the seal row provides unique stimulus by preventing you from developing momentum or engaging your hips. Unlike other chest-supported rows, you perform the seal row by lying face down on a flat bench.

The resulting lift can target your lats and your rhomboids without having to concern yourself with keeping a flat back. The full bench support also removes strain from the lower back and makes it virtually impossible to move the weight using momentum.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Row

Single-arm dumbbell rows are a relatively easy-to-learn introductory lift that keeps paying dividends as you grow in the gym. To get started, just kneel on a bench and row.

The single-arm row provides some advantages over barbell rows. Kneeling on a bench limits the amount of stress on your spine. Since the lift is performed one side at a time, you can isolate your lats and correct any muscular imbalances that may develop if you tend to exclusively use barbell row variations.

Inverted Row

Advanced pull-ups aren’t the only way to utilize your body weight for back-building. Inverted rows can be performed in a number of different ways — whether that be with suspension straps, on a Smith machine, a barbell set in a power rack, or any other stable surface that lets you get under it, and keeping your body in a straight line, pulling upwards.

To modulate the level of difficulty, simply increase or decrease the angle of your body relative to the floor. Either elevate your feet (for increased difficulty) or create a steep angle with an elevated upper body (to decrease the challenge).

FAQs

References

Vingren JL, Kraemer WJ, Ratamess NA, Anderson JM, Volek JS, Maresh CM. Testosterone physiology in resistance exercise and training: the up-stream regulatory elements. Sports Med. 2010 Dec 1;40(12):1037-53. doi: 10.2165/11536910-000000000-00000. PMID: 21058750.

Shaner AA, Vingren JL, Hatfield DL, Budnar RG Jr, Duplanty AA, Hill DW. The acute hormonal response to free weight and machine weight resistance exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2014 Apr;28(4):1032-40. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000317. PMID: 24276305.

Hody S, Croisier JL, Bury T, Rogister B, Leprince P. Eccentric Muscle Contractions: Risks and Benefits. Front Physiol. 2019 May 3;10:536. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00536. PMID: 31130877; PMCID: PMC6510035.

Featured Image: mountaira / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row to Build a Strong, Muscular Back appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Just a few problems there. The high intensity, high volume programs used by the pros do not tend to be sustainable for the rest of us due to some physiological (and often pharmaceutical) reasons. Most people also aren’t ready to trust their potential gains to an algorithm-fueled robot, so that leaves you creating a program for yourself.

Consider a time-tested axiom before diving in: It’s not hard to create a good bodybuilding workout program, but it’s also not hard to create a bad one. Fortunately, we’ve got your back. And your chest, shoulders, arms, and legs.

Here you will find evidence-based workouts to build every major area of an aesthetic physique. These workouts assume you’re a relatively healthy lifter with at least some experience in the gym (i.e. not a true beginner who could benefit from a more generalized approach). These plans work best with a body part split across the week.

Bookmark these workouts for your next hypertrophy training block and support the workouts with enough food to fuel performance, recovery, and growth so you can get started adding size. 

Best Bodybuilding Workouts for Each Body Part

• Chest Workout
• Back Workout
• Shoulder Workout
• Arm Workout
• Leg Workout

Best Bodybuilding Workout for Chest

The chest muscles play a prominent role in our physique. They are most often trained by multi-joint, upper body pushing exercises. The angle the “push” can be used to bias certain portions of the chest, allowing us to fully develop this region. In addition to pushing exercises, single joint exercises can also be used to target the chest. Single-joint exercise serves as “icing on the cake,” providing a touch of additional training stimulus. 

The Complete Chest Workout

Just about any repetition range can build muscle. (1)(2) This engaging workout begins with the heaviest exercise. As the workout progresses, moderate repetition, moderate weight exercises are introduced as compound sets — a time-efficient superset technique that pairs movements targeting the same muscles back-to-back without rest. The workout ends with high repetition “pump work,” leaning into the metabolic mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy. (3) This general format is repeated for workouts for all body parts. 

This chest workout is designed to be performed once per week. Select weights that allow completion of repetitions is near the lower end of the repetition range. Sets need not be taken to failure but should flirt with it. Meaning, sets must reach a high level of effort. (4)(5) When you end the set, you should feel like you have three or fewer repetitions remaining “in the tank.”

When you’re able to complete sets at the top end of the repetition range, add five to 10 pounds. This progression method “resets” your sets back toward the lower bound of the repetition range, allowing your to progress repetition volume once again in subsequent weeks. 

Barbell Bench Press

• How to Do it: Lie on a bench with your back arched and shoulder blades pulled down and together (“in your back pockets”). Unrack the bar and lower it to your chest. Press the bar upward until your elbows are straight but not locked.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-8
• Rest time: Rest three minutes seconds between sets.

Dip

• How to Do it: Support your body from a dip bar and lean slightly forward. Lower yourself until you feel a stretch across the front of your chest and shoulders or until your upper arms break parallel. Add weight or assistance as needed to achieve the target repetition range.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Incline Dumbbell Flye Press

• How to Do it: Lie on a 30- to-45-degree incline bench and begin with the dumbbells pressed locked out above your chest. Face your palms together and lower the weights in a flye, keeping a slight bend in your arms. From the bottom position, pull the weights in toward your shoulders and press the weights up to lockout.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Rest two minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Machine Incline Press

• How to Do it: Sit with your back and buttocks supported on an incline press machine. Push the handles along the arc of the machine’s path until your elbows are straight but not locked. Control back to the start position.
• Sets and Reps: 2 x 16-20
• Rest time: Rest 90 seconds between sets.

Muscles Trained on Chest Day

Chest day often draws added attention because the pecs are featured so prominently when you check the mirror, even more so once you get an awesome pump going mid-session. The majority of chest movements will also recruit “the pressing muscles” — your shoulders and triceps — for assistance.

Pectorals

When viewed from the front, the upper bodies of modern bodybuilders are dominated by well-developed chest muscles. The pectoralis major is the largest and most superficial chest muscle. All parts of the pectoralis major act to draw the arms toward the body, pull the arms together in front of the body, and internally rotate the arms. The upper portion of the pectoralis major also raises the arm. Therefore, a wide variety of exercises target the pecs. 

Anterior Deltoids

The anterior deltoids, or “front delts,” share the same actions as the pectoralis major. Conveniently, this means that anterior deltoids are trained during chest workouts, such as the one above, and during direct shoulder workouts. 

Triceps

The triceps brachii primarily serve to extend your elbows (straighten your arms). Because of this, compound movements such as pressing and dips can be counted toward total triceps training volume. This aesthetic “three-headed” muscle fills t-shirt sleeves more readily than any other arm muscle.

How to Warm-Up Your Chest

A traditional warm-up has two components: 1) the “general warm-up” and 2) the “specific warm-up.” The general warm-up elevates body temperature, improves oxygen delivery to muscle and other body tissues, and improves joint freedom of motion. It typically consists of short duration, low-to-moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise (e.g. air bike, rowing, jogging, or jumping rope).  

The specific warm-up primes areas of the body and movement patterns to be used in the subsequent workout for improved technique and performance. It is also a good time for dedicated mobility exercises and/or exercises intended to reduce risk of injury.

A specific warm-up for the chest may consist of exercises to prepare the upper body and spine for proper positions during pressing, stimulate muscle contractions of the muscles to be trained, and reinforce shoulder stability. It is wise to include lower intensity sets of the workout’s first exercise at the tail end of the specific warm-up.  

Chest Warm-Up

• Cardio: Five minutes, low-to-moderate intensity effort
• Band Pull-Apart: 2 x 15 
• Foam Roller Thoracic (Upper Back) Extensions: 2 x 10
• Push-Up: 2 x 10
• Bench Press: 3 x 6–10, work-up sets at light to moderate weight (e.g. approximately 40%, 60%, and 80% of the weight to be used for the first set of the workout’s first exercise).

Best Bodybuilding Workout for Back

A muscular back supports a confident posture, adds width to your upper body, and provides visual interest for those who happen to be walking behind your statuesque physique. That visual interest will come from the various muscles of the back, which converge on the shoulder blades and shoulders.

To create desirable definition and size, training the back from multiple angles using a variety of exercises may be useful. each exercise variation biases certain areas of the back and may result in distinct patterns of muscular development. (6)(7)

Back Width and Thickness Workout

Complete this full back workout once per week. Select weights that allow you to complete repetitions on the lower end of the repetition range. Sets to failure are not necessary to build muscle. (8) However, each set should reach a high level of effort. (4) When you’re able to complete all sets at the top end of the repetition range, add five to 10 pounds. 

Three-Point Dumbbell Row

• How to Do it: Perform the three-point dumbbell row with the knee and hand of your non-working side on a flat bench. Initiate the movement by pulling your shoulder blade toward your spine, and row toward the outside of your hip. Lower to a full stretch without rotating or sinking your hips
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-8
• Rest time: No rest between sides. Rest three minutes between sets.

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

• How to Do it: As the name implies, the neutral-grip lat pulldown is performing using a handles attachment that faces your palms toward each other. Begin in a full overhead position and pull your elbows down to the midline of your ribcage — don’t force the bar to reach your chin or chest.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest time: Rest two and a half minutes between sets.

Machine Wide Row

• How to Do it: Set up on a machine with a chest support, grasping the handles with a wide, overhand grip. Initiate movement with your shoulder blades and pull toward your chest. Return to a fully stretched position.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Cable Flexion Row

• How to Do it: Perform this seated row variation on a low cable machine. Allow resistance to pull your trunk and shoulder blades toward the machine — your spine should round forward, promoting a massive stretch through your back muscles. Begin by pulling the shoulder blades together and down. As you row the bar toward your torso, extend your spine but do not use momentum from the trunk to drive the movement. Reverse the movement and repeat.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 16-20
• Rest time: Rest two minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Muscles Trained on Back Day

Your back is one of the largest muscle groups on your body because a number of various individual muscles coordinate during each movement. This comprehensive workout will address and train a large number of muscles on your posterior torso including the lats, rear shoulders, and upper and mid-back. Your biceps and gripping muscles are also recruited during most exercises.

Mid-Back and Lats

Mid-back muscles, which act on the shoulder blades, create the appearance of a raised, central diamond-shape. Your latissimus dorsi (lats) sweep from the small of the back toward the outsides of your armpits and enhances the appearance of a “V-shaped” torso. These muscles comprise the bulk of the back musculature and are trained by upper-body pulling exercises. 

Rear Deltoids

While your rear deltoids are traditionally trained via shoulder-specific exercises (e.g. reverse flyes and cable external rotations), wide and narrow-grip pulling movements also hit the rear deltoids. When considering total weekly training volume for the rear deltoids, it is appropriate to include pulldowns, pullovers, and rows. 

Biceps and Other Elbow Flexors

Drawing a resistance toward your body, as performed during pulldowns, trains your elbow flexors. As the most visible elbow flexor, the biceps brachii gets all the glory; however, the brachialis is a deep elbow flexor that boosts the appearance of the biceps by pushing it up — kind of like the supportive parent or friend whom you should probably call and thank (after your workout, of course). 

How to Warm-Up Your Back

Once again, it’s a good policy to raise the body’s temperature with some general movement and prime the areas of the body to be trained before jumping into the workout. On top of that, “back day” is a great time to incorporate some direct exercise for the midsection, as many workout splits don’t allocate ab training to one specific day. 

Back Warm-Up

• Cardio: Five minutes, low-to-moderate intensity effort
• Abdominal Crunches: 3 x 15-20 
• Medicine Ball or Landmine Rotations: 3 x 10-12
• Band Over and Backs: 2 x 10-12
• Three-Point Dumbbell Row: 3 x 6–10, work-up sets at light to moderate weight (e.g. approximately 40%, 60%, and 80% of the weight to be used for the first set of the workout’s first exercise).

Best Bodybuilding Workout for Shoulders

The deltoids are the muscles that envelop your shoulders. Well-developed deltoids appear full and rounded, “capping” the shoulders. The deltoid has three functional parts — anterior, middle, and posterior.

The anterior deltoid is primarily responsible for raising the arms in front of the body (e.g. pressing), pulling the raised arms in toward your midline, and internally rotating the arms. The middle deltoid raises the arms out the sides (e.g. lateral raises and overhead presses) and assists with pulling the raised arms away from your midline (e.g. reverse flye). The posterior deltoid assists with the reverse flye movement in addition to external rotation and driving your arms behind your body (e.g. rows).

While your shoulders clearly get some work on chest day and back day, a dedicated shoulder workout helps to ensure each part receives adequate training. The diverse actions of the deltoids open the door for efficient use of supersets on shoulder day. 

The 3D Delt Workout

Perform once per week using weights that allow repetitions at or near the lower boundary of the stated repetition range. Once again, the majority of working sets should be high level of effort with three or fewer repetitions remaining before failure. Machine-based overhead pressing is included to allow lifters to safely approach or achieve failure without a spotter.

Once you reach the top of any repetition range, add five to 10 pounds to the exercise. Be vigilant for stagnating progress or drops in performance, as these features might indicate that it’s time for a deload. 

Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press

• How to Do it: Sit on a bench with a vertical back support. Rest a dumbbell on each thigh before “kicking” each weight into position at shoulder-level with your palms facing forward or angled slightly in. Press both weights overhead to full lockout before returning to shoulder-level.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-8
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Dumbbell Reverse Flye

• How to Do it: Stand with a dumbbell in each hand at arm’s length by your sides. Hinge forward at the waist and slightly bend your legs. Slightly bend your elbows and maintain the arm angle throughout the set. Draw your upper arms toward the ceiling, stopping the your elbows are roughly in line with your shoulders. Lower under control — don’t allow the weights to build momentum in the bottom position.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Rest three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Machine Shoulder Press

• How to Do it: Sit in an shoulder press machine and adjust the seat height to allow you hands to reach shoulder-height in the bottom position. Take a palms-forward grip and drive the weight up to near-lockout before lowering with control. Aim to move at a steady pace and maintain continuous tension through each repetition.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Rest two minutes between sets.

Face Pull

• How to Do it: Set a resistance band or cable pulley at roughly eye-level. Take a palm-down grip and step back to create tension in the stretched position. Begin the face pull by driving your elbows back in line with your shoulders while pulling your hands in line with your eyes or ears. From the contracted position, reach forward until full lockout.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Lateral Raise

• How to Do it: Stand with a dumbbell in each hand at arm’s length, resting the weights on the front of your thighs. Keep a slight bend in your arms and raise the weights “up and out” until your hands are slightly above shoulder-height. Maintain a tight core and stable torso — don’t allow your hips or back to swing. Lower to the starting position with your hands in front of your thighs.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 20-24
• Rest time: Rest two minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Dumbbell Shrug

• How to Do it: Stand with a pair of dumbbells at arm’s length by your sides. Drive your shoulders toward the ceiling as high as possible — move vertically without “rolling” your shoulders or pulling your shoulder blades together. Lower to a full stretch.
• Sets and Reps: 2 x 20-24
• Rest time: Rest 90 seconds between sets.

Muscles Trained on Shoulder Day

The shoulder joint is arguably one of the most precarious joints in the body, responsible for a long range of motion in a variety of directions. The deltoids may be your primary “shoulder muscle,” but several muscle groups play a role in completing most shoulder-focused movements.

Shoulders

The middle deltoids widen the appearance of the shoulders, so they are an important target for physique-focused bodybuilding training. Your middle and anterior deltoids are trained by the presses in this workout. Middle deltoids get direct, high-repetition work during the lateral raises.

As previously discussed, it is fair to consider rows, pulldowns, and pullovers as rear deltoid exercises; however, these exercises alone may not result in adequate stimulation of this relatively small part of the shoulder — reverse flyes can be superior in that regard. (9) As a bonus for shoulder health, face pulls hit the rear deltoids, middle deltoids, rotator cuff, and some of the muscles acting on the scapula. 

Trapezius

The traps are a diamond-shaped muscle of your mid- and upper back. The upper and lower fibers of trapezius (e.g. the top and bottom portions of the “diamond”) are trained during presses, as they act to upwardly rotate your shoulder blades. Shrugs are included in the shoulder workout to further develop the upper trapezius. 

Triceps

Your triceps brachii receive additional training volume during the shoulder workout, owing to the muscle’s role as an elbow extensor. These extra sets are beneficial, especially if you’re reasonably well-trained. Recent research suggests the triceps brachii are among the muscles that grow more rapidly with higher training volumes. (10)

How to Warm-Up Your Shoulders

Prepare your shoulders for peak performance by increasing your body temperature with a small dose of rhythmic cardiovascular exercise, such as rowing, jumping rope (ideally with a heavy rope to further activate your upper body), or riding an air bike. Then, perform exercises to mobilize your shoulder joints, shoulder blades, and spine through essential ranges of motion. Wrap up the warm-up with light sets of the first exercise of the workout.

Shoulder Warm-Up

• Cardio: Five minutes, low-to-moderate intensity effort
• Band Pull-Apart: 2 x 15 
• Foam Roller Thoracic (Upper Back) Extensions: 2 x 10
• Band Over and Backs: 2 x 10-12
• Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press: 3 x 6–10, work-up sets at light to moderate weight (e.g. approximately 40%, 60%, and 80% of the weight to be used for the first set of the workout’s first exercise).

Best Bodybuilding Workout for Arms

Although your arms undoubtedly receive training during chest, back, and shoulder workouts, a dedicated arm day may help to accelerate muscle gain. But arm day need not be exclusively single-joint (isolation) exercises. In this workout, a pull-up variation is used as the first exercise, because it targets your biceps with the bonus of additional training volume for your lats and rear deltoids. (11)

Single-joint exercises for your biceps and triceps come next in the workout. These are performed back-to-back on the same incline bench to promote a searing stretch and enhanced growth. (12)(13) The workout concludes with training for lesser-appreciated muscles for arm thickness.

Gun Day Isn’t Only Sunday

Complete the arm workout once per week. Use weights that allow you to complete of repetitions on the lower end of the repetition range. When you’re able to complete all sets with repetitions at or exceeding the repetition range, add five pounds.

Neutral-Grip Pull-Up

• How to Do it: Hang from a neutral-grip pull-up bar or freely moving handles with palms facing each other. Pull your chest toward the bar by driving your shoulders back and flexing your elbows. Lower with control.  
• Sets and Reps: 2 x 6-8
• Rest time: Rest three minutes between sets.

Incline Dumbbell Curls

• How to Do it: Perform incline dumbbell curls on a bench set at an approximately 45-degree angle. With underhanded grips on the dumbbells, allow your arms to hang vertically beneath your shoulders. Without swinging your upper arms forward, curl the dumbbells. 
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Incline Skull Crusher

• How to Do it: Take a palms-down grip on the inner handles of an EZ-bar and lie on a 45-degree incline bench. Point your elbows toward the ceiling and allow the bar to lower just behind your head without moving your upper arms. Feel your triceps stretch and then straighten your arms to return to the start position.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 16-20
• Rest time: Rest two minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Reverse Biceps Curl

• How to Do it: Perform the standing reverse biceps curl with an overhand grip on an EZ-bar or straight bar. Keeping your arms at your sides, curl the weight by bringing your knuckles toward your shoulders. Return to the start position. 
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Gripper

• How to Do it: Hold grip trainers, or the handles of a grip machine, using a power grip with the fingers and thumb of each hand wrapped fully around each handle. Close your hands against the resistance, then slowly control the opening of the grip trainers or machine as far as possible without losing control of the implements.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 20-24
• Rest time: Rest 90 second before repeating the previous exercise.

Muscles Trained on Arm Day

Arm training has a misconception of being only for vanity and appearance, but well-developed biceps and triceps can contribute to overall strength as well as shoulder and elbow joint health.

Biceps and Elbow Flexors

Your biceps brachii and brachialis add upper arm size, while the brachioradialis adds dimension to the forearm. All three of these muscles are trained via elbow flexion (bending your arms against resistance), whether in single-joint fashion as in the curl variations, or within compound pulling movements like the neutral-grip pull-up. 

Triceps

The three heads of your triceps brachii can be trained via resisted elbow extension (arm straightening). Since the long head of the triceps crosses behind the shoulder, triceps exercises that place the shoulder in flexion (e.g. overhead movements including incline skull crushers) may expose the triceps to more mechanical tension. Ultimately, this can result in enhanced growth. (12)(13)

Forearms

When you train your grip, forearm muscles that flex the fingers contract forcefully. These muscles tend to bend your wrists as well. To counteract wrist flexion, the muscles on the opposite side of the forearm (i.e. wrist extensors along the top of your forearm) contract. The result is a robust forearm-training stimulus. 

How to Warm-Up Your Arms

Your arm day warm-up can be straightforward: Simply get your body moving. Special attention is given to the wrists, forearms, and elbows. The exercises should be non-fatiguing. 

Arm Warm-Up

• Cardio: Five minutes, low-to-moderate intensity effort
• Push-Up: 2 x 8-12
• Zottman Curl: 2 x 8-12
• Dumbbell Wrist Flexion (Wrist Curl): 1 x 8-12
• Dumbbell Wrist Extension (Reverse Wrist Curl): 1 x 8-12
• Neutral-Grip Pull-Up: 2 x 6–10, work-up sets at light to moderate difficulty (e.g. on an assisted pull-up machine if necessary, using a greater amount of assistance than you’d use for your working sets).

Best Bodybuilding Workout for Legs

Leg day is a longer, often more grueling workout compared to other body parts, and rightfully so. If you’re only going to train lower body once per week, you’d better make it count.

While there is debate regarding whether deadlifts belong with back day or leg day, the hamstring-dominant Romanian deadlift (RDL) is programmed in this leg workout, as this variation reduces the overall load required by reducing leg drive without sacrificing training stimulus to the target muscles. Supersets and compound sets are used extensively during this 24-set workout to save time. 

The Ultimate Leg Day

Complete once per week. Select weights that allow you to complete repetitions on the lower end of the repetition range. Each set should reach a high level of effort. If you are accustomed to high-volume leg training (e.g. 25+ sets), you may consider adding a set or two to front squats, the squat machine exercise, or leg extensions, as the quadriceps have been shown to respond favorably to higher training volume among well-trained lifters. (10) When you’re able to complete all sets at the top end of the repetition range, add 10 to 20 pounds. 

Front Squat

• How to Do it: Support a barbell across the front of your shoulders with a palms-up or cross-arm grip. Keep your trunk as upright as possible as you squat to a comfortable depth. 
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 6-8
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Prone Hamstring Curl

• How to Do it: Lie on a prone hamstring machine with the roller pad contacting just above your heels. Flex your knees through the longest range of motion you can achieve, then control back to the stretched starting position.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest time: Rest three minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Romanian Deadlift

• How to Do it: Hold a barbell in front of your thighs. Begin by lowering from the hips, keeping your knees slightly bent throughout the exercise. Aim to feel a strong stretch in your hamstrings before returning to standing upright.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Leg Extension

• How to Do it: Sit in a leg extension machine with your knee joint aligned with the pivot point of the moving part of the machine. Straighten your knees, pause very briefly at lockout and then lower slowly with control. Keeping your feet pulled up toward your shins (ankle dorsiflexion) may help you feel a stronger quadriceps contraction. 
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Rest two and a half minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Machine Squat

• How to Do it: Pendulum or lever-style squat machines are becoming more popular in gyms; however, if your gym does not have one, a hack squat or leg press machine is an acceptable substitute. Set up under the padded “yoke” of the squat machine, keep your feet flat as you lower into a deep squat. Use a controlled motion at your hips, knees, and ankles. Push back to a nearly locked out position. 
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise without rest.

Calf Machine

• How to Do it: Locate a calf machine that allows a relatively straight knee position during operation (e.g. standing calf machine or leg press). Lower slowly through your entire ankle range of motion. Without bouncing out of the bottom position, push through the ball of your foot and big toe until you’ve reached the top of your available ankle range of motion. Pause briefly in both the fully stretched and fully contracted positions.
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 16–20
• Rest time: Rest two and a half minutes before repeating the previous exercise.

Back Extension

• How to Do it: Hit your lower back, hamstrings, and glutes by setting up in a glute-ham developer (GHD), as shown, or in a 45-degree Roman chair (back extension) with the top of the pad set just below your hip joints. Lower and raise your trunk primarily from the hips; however, it is acceptable to permit some low back movement as well. 
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 12-16
• Rest time: Move immediately to the next exercise.

Seated Calf Machine

• How to Do it: Set the pads atop your thighs with your knees bent approximately 90-degrees. Lower to the bottom position by allowing your ankles to full dorsiflex. Without bouncing out of the bottom position, raise to the top position of full plantar flexion (rising onto the ball of your foot).
• Sets and Reps: 3 x 20-24
• Rest time: Rest 90 seconds before repeating the previous exercise.

Muscles Trained on Leg Day

Working entire lower body, leg day involves a significant number of separate body parts working in unison for many movements. Targeted isolation exercises will emphasize your quadriceps, hamstrings, or calves for further muscle-building stimulus.

Quadriceps

The quadriceps femoris, or “quads,” refers to the four muscles on the front of your thigh. All four act to extend your knee, and the centermost quadriceps muscle also contributes to hip flexion. You can train these muscles with squats, squat-type movements, and isolated knee extension exercises. For safety and confidence, machine-based exercises may be helpful, especially toward the end of the workout as fatigue sets in.

Glutes

Few muscle groups enhance the image of athleticism like the glutes. Therefore, the glutes are a common target for physique-based training. Although the glutes have various actions at the hip, all three “glutes” — gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus — act to extend your hips.  

Hamstrings

While your quadriceps are prominent when the legs are viewed from the front, well-developed hamstrings steal the show when the legs are viewed from the side. Composed of four muscles, the hamstrings act to flex the knee, and three of them act to extend the hip. Leg curls train the hamstrings as knee flexors, while the Romanian deadlift and back extension are the primary exercises in the workout for training hamstrings as hip extensors.  

Calves

Even if you favor baggy cargo shorts as your go-to warm weather attire, your calves are likely to be the most readily visible lower body muscle group. Although they may receive a modest training stimulus during squats and other squat-like movements, direct calf exercises are typically needed to stimulate meaningful growth.  

How to Warm-Up Your Legs

Prepare your lower body for this leg workout with a warm-up that mobilizes stiff hips and lengthens tight muscles. Use front squat warm-up sets to hone technique and dial-in a strong squat stance. 

Leg Warm-Up

• Cardio: Five minutes, low-to-moderate intensity effort
• Walking Lunge: 2 x 10 per leg 
• Hamstring Sweep: 2 x 10 per leg
• Deep Squat plus Trunk Rotations: 2 x 10
• Front Squat: 3 x 6–10, work-up sets at light to moderate weight (e.g. approximately 40%, 60%, and 80% of the weight to be used for the first set of the workout’s first exercise).

On the Road to Ripped

You’ve probably heard of the “Stairway to Heaven” and the “Highway to Hell,” but the roadmap provided here gets you on the Road to Ripped. When all five workouts are performed once per week, total training per major muscle group is consistent with current best practice recommendations for building muscle. (1)(14) Those accustomed to lengthy or convoluted training sessions will find this program to be refreshingly simple. Simple, but not easy.

References

1. Schoenfeld, B., et al. (2021). Resistance training recommendations to maximize muscle hypertrophy in an athletic population: Position stand of the IUSCA. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 1(1).
2. Lacio, M., et al. (2021). Effects of resistance training performed with different loads in untrained and trained male adult individuals on maximal strength and muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(21), 11237.
3. Schoenfeld, B. J. (2013). Potential mechanisms for a role of metabolic stress in hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training. Sports Medicine, 43, 179-194.
4. Helms, E. R., et al. (2016). Application of the repetitions in reserve-based rating of perceived exertion scale for resistance training. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 38(4), 42-49.
5. Refalo, M. C., et al. (2022). Influence of resistance training proximity-to-failure on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 1-17.
6. Lehman, G. J., et al. (2004). Variations in muscle activation levels during traditional latissimus dorsi weight training exercises: An experimental study. Dynamic Medicine, 3, 1-5.
7. Wakahara, T., et al. (2012). Association between regional differences in muscle activation in one session of resistance exercise and in muscle hypertrophy after resistance training. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 112, 1569-1576.
8. Grgic, J., et al. (2022). Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 11(2), 202-211.
9. Franke, A. R., et al. (2015). Analysis of anterior, middle and posterior deltoid activation during single and multijoint exercises. J Sports Med Phys Fitness, 55, 714-721.
10. Brigatto, F. A., et al. (2022). High resistance-training volume enhances muscle thickness in resistance-trained men. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 36(1), 22-30.
11. Youdas, J. W., et al. (2010). Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(12), 3404-3414.
12. Wackerhage, H., et al. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 126(1):30-43.
13. Maeo, S., et al. (2022). Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position. European Journal of Sport Science, 1-11.
14. Schoenfeld, B. J., et al. (2019). Calculating set-volume for the limb muscles with the performance of multi-joint exercises: implications for resistance training prescription. Sports, 7(7), 177.

Featured Image: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock

The post The Best Bodybuilding Workout for Each Body Part appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Based on the amount of energy drinks consumed by studious first-year college students, we can dispatch the first claim. Alertness and insomnia? Yes. Back muscles? No. As for good deeds, this is a fitness article so it shall be kept secular. That leaves vertical pulling — pull-ups and pulldowns.

Although pull-ups can be modified for nearly everyone, nothing beats the adjustability and convenience of cable-stack pulldowns. But the traditional overhand grip isn’t for everyone, especially those with shoulder issues. (1)(2)(3)

The neutral-grip lat pulldown is a shoulder- and elbow-friendly alternative to standard lat pulldowns. Find out how to perform, program, and modify this big back builder.

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

• How to Do the Neutral-Grip Pulldown
• Neutral-Grip Pulldown Mistakes to Avoid
• How to Progress the Neutral-Grip Pulldown
• Benefits of the Neutral-Grip Pulldown
• Muscles Worked by the Neutral-Grip Pulldown 
• How to Program the Neutral-Grip Pulldown
• Neutral-Grip Pulldown Variations 
• Frequently Asked Questions

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown Video Breakdown

Dr. Merrick Lincoln (the author of this article) demonstrates how to do a neutral-grip pulldown and talks you through a complete repetition. Check to see what form looks like before reading on for the details.

How to Do the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown Step By Step

As opposed to using a straight or cambered “lat bar,” the neutral-grip pulldown requires use of a bar with grips running perpendicular to the length of the bar. This allows you to keep your forearms in a “neutral” rotation, with your palms facing each other, halfway between full supination (palms facing toward you) and full pronation (palms facing away from you).

Step 1 — Establish Points of Contact

Face a cable machine with your glutes on the seat, both feet flat on the floor, and your upper legs under the thigh pad. If necessary, adjust the height of the thigh pad or seat for secure fit.  

Form Tip: When setting the height of the thigh pad or seat, ensure your feet are flat on the floor with your heels slightly behind your knees. This enables you to easily slide your feet back to stand when it’s time to retrieve or return the pulldown bar.

Step 2 — Grab the Bar and Set Your Trunk Angle

Grab the handles with a shoulder-width, or slightly narrower, position. If the bar has traditional cylinder-shaped grips, use a fully closed grip with your fingers and thumb wrapped around the bar. If the bar has more modern paddle-style or angled grips, ensure the palms of your hands make maximum contact with the paddles. With this handle, the knuckles of your fingers should be flexed over the top of the handle. 

Once your grip is secure, lift your chest, lean back slightly (e.g. 10 to 30-degrees from vertical), and brace your core. Maintain this trunk position throughout the exercise. In the stretched position, your elbows should be locked completely straight.

Form Tip: If you have a limited range of motion in the overhead position, you may benefit from leaning back slightly farther (e.g. approximately 30-degrees from vertical). This changes the pulling angle and reduces stress on your shoulder joints.

Step 3 — Pull Down to Peak Contraction

Initiate the movement by drawing your shoulder blades together and down, and “pull your shoulder blades into your back pockets.”

Immediately after beginning to move your shoulder blades, begin pulling your elbows toward the sides of your ribcage. Peak contraction is achieved when your shoulder blades are squeezed together and down, and your upper arms are pinned to your sides. 

Form Tip: Don’t worry about getting the bar to your chest, below your chin, or to some other arbitrary position. Focus on achieving a strong contraction in your back muscles when you reach the bottom position. 

Step 4 — Return and Seek Stretch

Lower the weight and allow your arms to be drawn upward, slowly letting your elbows extend. At the same time, allow your shoulder blades to be elevated. The upward movement phase ends when your elbows are completely straight. You should feel a strong stretch across the outside of your armpits — those are your lat muscles being properly stretched.

Form Tip: As your arms are drawn overhead and your latissimus dorsi are stretched, your low back might tend to arch. Avoid this by keeping your abdominal muscles engaged to maintain a neutral torso.

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown Mistakes to Avoid

Common errors in the neutral-grip pulldown occur when range of motion goes unchecked, when compensations are permitted, and when your arms “out-muscle” your back. 

Excessive Range of Motion

The uninitiated often assume the pulldown is not complete until the bar touches their chest. This is erroneous. Hyperextension of your shoulder places additional stress on the front of the shoulder. (4)(5) This is not typically good for folks with anterior shoulder instability, a prevalent issue among lifters. (4) Also, there’s simply no added benefit because the demand on your shoulder muscles decreases due improved leverage in the bottom position.

Still convinced touching the bar to your chest is “necessary?” Watch a handful of folks with barndoor backs perform neutral-grip pulldowns. They don’t touch the bar to their chest — albeit, they likely couldn’t if they wanted to due to the size of their latissimus dorsi and teres major muscles. 

Avoid it: A good rule of thumb for pulldown range of motion is to pull down and back until your triceps squeeze against your lats. Achieve a strong contraction, then begin the upward movement. 

Slouching Into the Repetition

The sticking point, or most challenging part of the repetition, occurs near the bottom of the downward pulling phase. Novice lifters often work through this portion of the lift by rounding their shoulders forward and flexing their mid-back. This gives the appearance of “crunching” or slouching at the bottom of the repetition.

Avoid it: As you pull, keep focus on your back muscles by reminding yourself to create space between the front of your shoulder and the cable pulley.

“Curling” the Weight Down

While it’s true the neutral-grip pulldown can be a great biceps-builder, it is not intended to be an arms-focused exercise. Lifters who initiate the pulldown with elbow flexion and “muscle” the bar down with their elbow flexors are missing out on back gains.

Avoid it: Performed properly, upper body vertical pulling exercises (i.e. pull-ups and pulldowns) are initiated by back muscles, specifically your lower trapezius and latissimus dorsi. (8) These muscles should activate a split-second before your biceps. Ensure this sequence by downwardly rotating and depressing your shoulder blades to begin each rep or “pull your shoulder blades into your back pockets.”

How to Progress the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

To learn the neutral-grip pulldown, start with light weight. Over time, progress the exercise by adding weight and/or repetitions. Incorporating strategic pauses may also be useful for dialing-in proper form and building strength. 

Start Light, Add Weight and Reps

Once proper form is dialed in, progress the pulldown by adding weight. The amount of weight you add should be related to your primary training goal. A weight that allows four to six good repetitions is an effective target when you’re prioritizing strength. A wide range of weights can be effective for hypertrophy, so pick a weight that allows a repetition target you prefer (e.g. eight to 12 repetitions, 12 to 16 repetitions, or 16 to 20 repetitions). 

Once you’ve established your working weight, you will need to add weight or repetitions over time to ensure you are progressively overloading your muscles. A simple strategy is to add repetitions, then add weight once you’ve exceeded the top end of your target repetition range. For example, if you/re aiming for eight to 12 repetitions per set, start by identifying a weight that allows you to perform approximately eight repetitions.

In a week or two, you’ll likely be hitting nine or 10 repetitions with the same weight. Eventually, you’ll reach 13 repetitions, which is the signal to add weight. Note: If you have a bit more training experience, gains sometimes come more slowly and you might consider the occasional deload to ensure ongoing progress. 

Add “Iso-Holds”

Near the bottom position of a pulldown, when your elbows are bent and just in front of your chest, the resistance at the shoulder is amplified by the length of the humerus (upper arm bone). This portion of the movement is the sticking point — the point where muscular failure or form breakdown is most likely to occur. It’s also the perfect position for adding an isometric hold or “iso-holds.” This is an intensification technique used to prolong time under tension and improve strength at targeted positions.

To add an iso-hold, simply stop at the most challenging portion of the pulldown. Hold for four to six seconds, and then complete the repetition. Iso-holds can be performed on the final repetition to maximize set performance or incorporated on every repetition. Keep in mind, you will likely need to lower the weight or repetition target if you intend to use iso-holds on every rep. 

Benefits of the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

Sure, there are a lot of back exercises you could do at the gym, so why focus on this pulldown variations? With good effort and decent programming, lifters can build respectable size and strength with the neutral-grip pulldown due to the setup, range of motion, and user-friendliness.

Works Back Muscles Through a Full Range of Motion

During pulldowns, shoulders reach the overhead position at the top of every repetition. This exposes the target muscles to substantial stretch and load. This mechanical tension is a key driver of muscle growth. (6) Unlike rows, for example, which only train the muscles through a relatively partial range of motion, pulldowns reach maximum or near-maximum stretch on the target muscles.

Full range of motion training may result in more muscle gain over time. (7) As a bonus, full range of motion training is likely to improve flexibility as effectively, or even more effectively, than stretching. (9)  

An Alternative for Banged Up Shoulders and Elbows

Although traumatic injuries among resistance trainees are somewhat uncommon, a large percentage of lifters complain of painful shoulders and elbows. (4)(10) The lion’s share of these issues can often be attributed to overuse or training errors. 

Forearm position during exercise affects the stress and strain experienced by joint structures, connective tissues, and muscles around the elbow. (11) Structures around the shoulders experience different patterns of stress based on your arm path. For example, the “high five” position of abduction and external rotation passed through during traditional lat pulldowns is associated with increased stress the front of the shoulder. (4)(1)(3) Temporarily avoiding this position may be indicated in the presence of certain shoulder injuries.

It may be prudent for lifters to incorporate neutral-grip variations to reduce the risk of overuse. Periodically switching out pull-ups or traditional lat pulldowns for a slightly different vertical pulling exercises, such as neutral-grip pulldowns may help to ward off overuse-type injuries. 

Lifters already contending with overuse injuries related to upper body pulling may wish to experiment with variations such as the neutral-grip pullover to determine whether it’s better tolerated than previous exercises. 

Allows Easy Use of Advanced Training Techniques

Advanced training techniques can include methods used to take sets past failure (e.g. forced reps, drop sets, rest-pause), delay failure (e.g. cluster sets), or increase time under tension by imposing a tempo (e.g. lowering the weight very slowly with six-second eccentrics). (12) The neutral-grip pulldown is typically performed on a stable and safe machine that allows for efficient use of these techniques.

The pulldown machine enables quick manipulation of weight — just move the pin or slide plates on or off. This allows for efficient performance of drop sets. The machine is also self-contained and “self-spotting.” If muscular failure is reached, there is very little chance of getting pinned under weight. Just stand up and control the pulldown bar back to the top position. 

Similarly, if the lifter wishes to take rest within a given set (i.e. cluster set training), the machine allows for quick stops and starts. Finally, the seated position on the machine allows for a training partner to safely and efficiently assist the lifter to perform additional reps. Advanced training techniques are far from easy, but the pulldown setup makes them about as efficient as they can be.

Muscles Worked by Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

The neutral-grip pulldown hammers muscles of the back, shoulders, and arms. (3)(13)(14) The pulldown is a relatively fundamental movement because it recruits a number of upper body muscles and works them through a significant range of motion.

Shoulder Extensors — Lats, Upper Back, Deltoids

The neutral-grip pulldown targets the muscles that extend the shoulders or draw the arms from in front of the body toward the back of the body. They primarily include the latissimus dorsi, teres major, rear deltoids, and the long head (or innermost portion) of the triceps brachii. Interestingly, the lower part of the pectoralis major (“costal fibers” of the chest) contribute to the pulldown as well. (14)

Collectively, the shoulder extensors have the potential to be highly aesthetic muscles. Well-developed latissimus dorsi gives the back breadth, while teres major and rear deltoid enhance shoulder dimensions. And if any gap remains between the arms and upper sweep of the lats, building the long head of triceps brachii will appear to fill it in. “Wings” achieved.

Mid-Back

Sometimes called “scapular muscles,” the muscles of the mid-back act on your shoulder blades. No big back is complete without the visual interest and depth of well-developed scapular muscles.

While these muscles may not be the primary target of the pulldown, they will receive a training effect. During the pulldown, the rhomboids, lower trapezius, and middle trapezius rotate the shoulder blades downward, pull them together, and draw them toward the small of your back. 

Elbow Flexors

Curls aren’t the only way to build big biceps. Drawing resistance toward the body trains the muscles of elbow flexion (bending your arms) — specifically, your biceps brachii, brachioradialis, and brachialis. Functional importance notwithstanding, these muscles give your arms a more muscular, anaconda-like appearance. 

How to Program the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown

Neutral-grip pulldowns can fit nicely into most lifters’ programs in a full body workout, back day, or pulling session. Whether your major training goal is strength or muscle gain, an overarching recommendation is to perform neutral-grip pulldowns earlier in the workout to maximize adaptations.

As a Primary Exercise for Strength

The neutral-grip lat pulldown is a long range-of-motion, multi-joint exercise that allows incremental loading. These features make it ideal for use as a primary exercise in your “back day” or “pull day” routine. Primary exercises, sometimes termed “core exercises” in some circles, are compound (multi-joint) movements typically placed earlier in the workout before any “accessory exercises,” which are typically single-joint exercises or rehab/prehab work.

This exercise order is preferred, because multi-joint exercise performance tends to suffer when performed after isolation exercise. (15) Moreover, exercises performed earlier in the workout tend to stimulate greater improvement in strength. (16)

To prioritize back strength, hit two to five sets of four to six repetitions using 85% or greater of your one-repetition maximum (1RM), ideally early in your workout. (17)

As High-Volume Hypertrophy Work

If your training focus is building a big back, address neutral-grip pulldowns toward the beginning of your workout. Due to heavy involvement of the biceps brachii and other elbow flexors, it is best practice to perform pulldowns before curls or other direct biceps exercises. 

Some research has shown that as few as three sets of barbell curls performed before pulldowns can decrease back-training performance by three to five repetitions. (13) Lost repetitions does not bode well for optimal muscle gain, as hypertrophy is positively related to exercise volume (i.e. total weekly sets x reps). (18) Maximize pulldown volume by performing this exercise early in the workout.

For building bigger back and biceps, perform three to six sets of eight to 20 repetitions using a weight that brings each set within three or fewer repetitions of failure.

Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown Variations

On your back-building quest, there are many variations of the neutral-grip pulldown to help move you forward. Select the most appropriate variation based on personal preference, equipment availability, and goals. 

Neutral-Grip Pull-Up 

No pulldown machine? Prefer pull-ups over pulldowns? Swap neutral-grip pulldowns for pull-ups. If multiple neutral-grip widths are available, start with the ones closest to shoulder-width or slightly narrower.

Despite the fact your bodyweight provides the resistance, the mechanics of the neutral-grip pull-up are similar to the neutral-grip pulldown. Start from a dead-hang, initiate from your shoulder blades, and pull your elbows down to your sides.

V-Bar Lat Pulldown

Using a narrow V-bar or “chinning triangle” attachment results in a tighter arm path and hits your back and arms differently. Neutral-grip pulldowns with the V-bar appear to rely more heavily on the biceps brachii than shoulder-width and wide neutral-grip variations. (13) So the V-bar pulldown is a great option for those prioritizing strong, thick arms.

The V-bar pulldown is performed much like the neutral-grip pulldown except the lifter should focus on squeezing the elbows and forearms together throughout the exercise. Elbows should graze your ribcage below your pecs as you approach the bottom position of the exercise. 

Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

Single-arm lat pulldowns are wonderful for feeling the stretch and contraction of your latissimus dorsi and other shoulder extensor muscles through a large arc and long range of motion. Because each arm is worked individually, they can also help to address any possible side-to-side strength asymmetries.

The half-kneeling single-arm lat pulldown is the next level of single-arm pulling. The “half-kneeling” position (i.e. one knee down) provides a large, stable footprint for the addition of subtle trunk movements. These trunk movements allow more stretch at the top followed by a stronger peak contraction at the bottom of each rep. The former may enhance “stretch-mediated” muscle growth, while the squeeze at the bottom promotes mind-muscle connection and increased latissimus dorsi activity. (6)(19)

Face the cable stack and kneel with the working side knee down. Allow your shoulder blade to be pulled up for a full stretch through your lat. Side-bend your trunk slightly away from your working arm. Pull by drawing your shoulder blade and elbow down and in. Achieve peak contraction by aggressively pulling your arm to your ribcage and side-bending slightly toward the working side. Focus on feeling your lats “cramp” at the bottom of each rep.

Swiss Bar Pullover

The pullover is a phenomenal exercise for the shoulder extensor muscles — latissimus dorsi, posterior deltoid, part of your pectoralis major, etc. Although commonly done with a two-handed grip on a single dumbbell, the pullover may also be performed using a neutral-grip implement such as a Swiss bar, a multi-grip barbell, or triceps bar.

The Swiss bar may enable those with less-than-ideal range of motion (i.e. limited forearm pronation or shoulder external rotation) to reap the benefits of pullovers – Namely, heavy loading overhead when the target muscles are at their longest lengths, which may enhance growth.(6)(20)(21) Just be sure to have an attentive spotter due to free weights passing over your head and face during the movement.

Earn Your Wings

The neutral-grip lat pulldown builds a wide back and thick arms to boot. When performed with a shoulder-width or slightly narrower grip, it tends to be a joint-friendly exercise for your lats, upper back, mid-back, and biceps. Altogether, neutral-grip lat pulldowns may be among the best options for building a set of wings when your shoulders have other plans.

FAQs

References

1. Escalante, G. (2017). Exercise modification strategies to prevent and train around shoulder pain. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 39(3), 74-86.
2. Ribeiro, A. S., Nunes, J. P., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2020). Selection of resistance exercises for older individuals: the forgotten variable. Sports Medicine, 50, 1051-1057.
3. Fees, M., et al. (1998). Upper extremity weight-training modifications for the injured athlete. The American journal of sports medicine, 26(5), 732-742.
4. Kolber, M. J., Corrao, M., & Hanney, W. J. (2013). Characteristics of anterior shoulder instability and hyperlaxity in the weight-training population. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 27(5), 1333-1339.
5. Watson L, et al. (2016). The treatment of multidirectional instability of the shoulder with a rehabilitation program: Part 1. Shoulder & Elbow. 8(4):271-278
6. Wackerhage, H., et al. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 126(1):30-43.
7. Kassiano, W., et al. (2022). Which ROMs Lead to Rome? A Systematic Review of the Effects of Range of Motion on Muscle Hypertrophy. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 10-1519.
8. Youdas, J. W., et al. (2010). Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(12), 3404-3414.
9. Morton, S. K., et al. (2011). Resistance training vs. static stretching: effects on flexibility and strength. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 25(12), 3391-3398.
10. Siewe, J., et al. (2014). Injuries and overuse syndromes in competitive and elite bodybuilding. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 35(11), 943-948.
11. Bryce, C. D., & Armstrong, A. D. (2008). Anatomy and biomechanics of the elbow. Orthopedic Clinics of North America, 39(2), 141-154.
12. Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review of advanced resistance training techniques and methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897.
13. Vilaça-Alves, J., et al. (2014). Effects of pre-exhausting the biceps brachii muscle on the performance of the front lat pull-down exercise using different handgrip positions. Journal of Human Kinetics, 42(1), 157-163.
14. Ackland, D. C., Pak, P., Richardson, M., & Pandy, M. G. (2008). Moment arms of the muscles crossing the anatomical shoulder. Journal of Anatomy, 213(4), 383-390.
15. Figueiredo, T., et al. (2016). Influence of Exercise Order on One and Ten Repetition Maximum Loads Determination. Journal of Exercise Physiology Online, 19(2).
16. Nunes, J. P., et al. (2021). What influence does resistance exercise order have on muscular strength gains and muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(2), 149-157.
17. Peterson, M. D., Rhea, M. R., & Alvar, B. A. (2004). Maximizing strength development in athletes: a meta-analysis to determine the dose-response relationship. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 18(2), 377-382.
18. Figueiredo, V. C., de Salles, B. F., & Trajano, G. S. (2018). Volume for muscle hypertrophy and health outcomes: the most effective variable in resistance training. Sports Medicine, 48, 499-505.
19. Snyder, B. J., & Leech, J. R. (2009). Voluntary increase in latissimus dorsi muscle activity during the lat pull-down following expert instruction. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 23(8), 2204-2209.
20. Maeo, S., et al. (2022). Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position. European Journal of Sport Science, 1-11.
21. Pedrosa, G. F., et al. (2021). Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths. European Journal of Sport Science, 1-11.
22. Murugan, S., et al. (2013). Grip strength changes in relation to different body postures, elbow and forearm positions. Int J Physiother Res, 1(4), 116-121.
23. Valério, D. F., etal. (2021). The effects of lifting straps in maximum strength, number of repetitions and muscle activation during lat pull-down. Sports Biomechanics, 20(7), 858-865.
24. Snarr, R., Eckert, R. M., & Abbott, P. (2015). A comparative analysis and technique of the Lat Pull-down. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 37(5), 21-25.
25. Vigotsky, A. D., et al. (2018). Interpreting signal amplitudes in surface electromyography studies in sport and rehabilitation sciences. Frontiers in Physiology, 985.
26. Vigotsky, A. D., et al. (2017). Greater electromyographic responses do not imply greater motor unit recruitment and ‘hypertrophic potential’ cannot be inferred. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 31(1), e1-e4.

Featured Image: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

The post How to Do the Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown for a Bigger Back appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The pulldown can be taken to another level, however, once you recognize that the exercise doesn’t need to be performed with both hands fixed to one straight bar. This familiar setup can make for a smooth and stable pull, but it also disguises just how much work one side of your body is doing compared to the other side.

For this reason, opting for a unilateral (single-sided) movement can provide unique benefits and increased back focus. When the name of the game is muscular development and pulling strength, these details are huge. Here’s how to get your back on track with the single-arm lat pulldown.

Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

• How to Do the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown
• Single-Arm Lat Pulldown Mistakes to Avoid
• How to Progress the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown
• Benefits of the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown
• Muscles Worked by the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown
• How to Program the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown
• Single-Arm Lat Pulldown Variations
• Frequently Asked Questions

Ideal Single-Arm Lat Pulldown Technique Demo

Coach Lee Boyce provides a clear demonstration of the single-arm lat pulldown in action. See the movement performed with each arm and then read on to learn the details.

How to Do the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

The single-arm lat pulldown may feel slightly awkward at first, especially if you’re not used to performing back exercises with one arm at a time. But any time spent learning the movement will pay off with new size and strength. 

Step 1 — Know Your Equipment

You may be stuck with whatever equipment your gym offers, but some pulldown setups are more user-friendly than others. The gold standard is a dual pulley system. This makes it easy to attach individual handles to each pulley, which will be more naturally aligned with each of your shoulders.

The second best option would be a singular pulley attachment that operates on a pivot. That way, even though the pulley is positioned in the center above your head, it still turns in the direction of your working arm during the movement.

Least optimal would be a single pulley attachment that is completely fixed to the machine with no room to turn or pivot. Many older pieces of equipment are constructed this way, but if it’s the only “pulldown” station available, consider setting up either on the floor at a manually adjustable cable setup (like one for triceps pressdowns) or on the ground beside the seat at the pulldown station.

Form Tip: The key point is to position the pulley as close in-line with your working-side shoulder as possible. This will allow the most comfortable, most efficient line of pull during the exercise.  

Step 2 — Sit Tight, Grab Hold, and Stretch

Secure your thighs under the pad and reach up to get a hold of the handle. Because you’re only reaching one arm, it should be easier to stretch higher while reaching above your head.

Your body will naturally reach higher with one arm compared to raising both arms overhead. If you have doubts, you can quickly test it yourself — Stand facing a wall and raise both hands above your head to touch the highest point you can reach. Then drop one hand and repeat. You’ll undoubtedly get higher with the single arm by comparison.

In the overhead stretched position, your palm should face toward the machine.

Form Tip: This deep stretch will allow you to contract and stretch through a longer range of motion, which will enhance the training effect on the target muscles. (1)

Step 3 — Set Your Shoulder and Pull

Rest your non-working hand comfortably on the leg pad or on your torso. “Reverse” the stretched position by actively setting your working shoulder — lower it by pulling your shoulder blade down and “in” to your mid-back. Push your chest up high and make your neck “long.”

Pull through your elbow, don’t think about curling with your arm. Squeeze your upper back and lats tight. Think about tucking your elbow into your back pocket. Don’t let your upper body crunch sideways as you pull down.

Form Tip: Take advantage of the single handle, which allows you to play with your hand and wrist position. You can supinate (turn your palm to face you) as you lift the weight or or can rotate to a thumbs-up position. Find a wrist angle that works efficiently, comfortably, and powerfully for you.

Step 4 — Return to the Overhead Stretch

When your hand reaches shoulder-level, feel a strong contraction through your side. Return to the starting position by reversing the motion. Lower the weight slowly and control the movement as you reach overhead to full extension.

Don’t overstretch by leaning toward the non-working side. Keep your torso stable and vertical throughout the exercise. When your arm is straight, shrug your shoulder blade up for maximum activation.

Form Tip: Let your overall mobility and flexibility guide your movements. Ideally, aim to bring your hand down near shoulder-level. Don’t force any excessive range of motion and don’t turn it into an ab exercise by crunching to the side — that won’t help to recruit your back. 

Single-Arm Lat Pulldown Mistakes to Avoid

The single-arm lat pulldown can invite some simple technique or programming errors that will reduce the muscle and strength gains. Here are the biggest points to watch out for.

Going Too Heavy 

The most common mistake should almost go without saying, though it doesn’t only apply to the single-arm lat pulldown — check your ego at the door. This is a much more precise, unilateral version of the pulldown, which itself is notorious for overly heavy loading that requires more body swing than lat activation.

There’s no place for that with the single-arm lat pulldown, nor is there any real use for it. You’ll be subject to excessive swinging or twisting to get the weight down, and you’ll ultimately be using everything except your lats to get the job done.

Avoid it: Keep loading relatively lighter to reduce the temptation to swing the weight. Focus on using perfect form throughout each section of the movement and try to feel your back muscles contracting and stretching.

Slouching in the Finished Position

Like any back exercise, the goal should always be to maintain a “proud chest,” especially through the contracted phase of the lift, to ensure good posture and proper muscle activation.

It’s easy to “close yourself up” as you complete the pull, by adding something of an abdominal crunch to the pattern. This is not ideal because it reduces stress on the target muscle and puts you in an inefficient position.

Avoid it: Focus on starting tall and finishing just as tall, or even taller. This posture cue will make you aware of your overall body position.

How to Progress the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

As a relatively straightforward, cable-based exercise, you can approach this exercise with confidence no matter your experience level.

Adjust Load

Like many movements, you can adapt the challenge by simply changing the loading. Most cable stacks go as light as 10 to 20 pounds. Even while keeping your target rep range the same, you can accommodate nearly any strength level by reducing the weight to perform repetitions with crisp technique.

Similarly, you can go as heavy as possible while maintaining form. As previously discussed, swapping form for more weight is anything but productive. Fortunately, when using good technique and a moderate rep range, even the most experienced lifters will find the full weight stack to be more than enough.

Benefits of the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown 

This unilateral movement offers the benefits of single-side training combined with the benefits of a cable pulley.

Scapular Mobility

Scapular mobility is the overlooked key to every successful back exercise, including the single-arm lat pulldown. Lifters sometimes mistakenly think that stability is the only function of the scapulae (shoulder blades). As such, they believe the scapulae shouldn’t be allowed to move during exercise.

This may be true in movements like the barbell bench press, but it’s not something that actually promotes shoulder joint health. For every joint in your body, there’s actually a certain degree of stability and mobility needed to maintain proper joint function. Depending on the joint in question, there will be a greater need for one over the other.

For example, hinge joints like the knees and elbows require more stability than mobility due to the limited nature of their responsibilities and available joint angles. There is still a degree of mobility they need to create proper range of motion, and to allow for a little bit of “give” laterally and medially.

In the case of the scapulae, stability is paramount, but it’s essential that they possess the capacity to move around the ribcage in elevation/depression (up and down), and in protraction/retraction (forward and back together).

This brings us to where most lifters drop the ball when performing pulling movements. Simply put, the shoulder blades must direct the action of any pull pattern – chin-ups, rows, and yes, pulldowns too. Initiating the movement by simply pulling with your hands won’t do much to engage the upper back muscles and lats.

To practice the proper mechanics, it’s useful to break the movement down into pieces, learning how to engage your lower traps, rhomboids, and lats. You can do this by keeping your elbow straight while pulling through only the first portion of the lift.

Applying this concept to the single-arm lat pulldown will support your quest for muscle, keep the focus in the right places, and keep your scapulae strong and healthy.

Muscle Size

The single-arm lat pulldown is a prime choice for hypertrophy due to its greater isolation on each individual side of the muscle — making each side of your back perform work on its own. The added stretch and long range of motion for each rep also supports muscle growth and strength.

Reduced Joint Strain

Using a single handle allows you to customize your hand and wrist’s start and finish position. This ability to rotate can be useful for lifters who struggle with a history of shoulder, elbow, or wrist issues. These seemingly small changes accumulate into a movement that takes on an entirely new identity as a hidden weapon for back day. 

Muscles Trained by the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

All pulldowns are considered “back exercises,” but the single-arm lat pulldown provides a unique spin on the generally familiar exercise. This results in a new approach to muscle reccruitment.

Lats

When done correctly, the single-arm lat pulldown primarily focuses on the lats. One key function of the latissimus (lats) is bringing your arm from an overhead position toward the body’s centerline.

Because a lat muscle rests on each side of your back, the single-arm lat pulldown allows you to focus on one specific muscle during each set, which can address any developmental imbalances that may be present.

Upper Back

Your upper back, as a whole, contributes to the single-arm lat pulldown. Collectively, your lower trapezius and rhomboids work as direct synergists to support the prime mover (lats) during the exercise. Your upper back provides stability and support, while also controlling your scapulae during the overhead stretch and peak contraction.

Biceps

Your biceps are recruited in many back exercises as your arm extends and contracts. Particularly, your biceps are more significantly recruited as you rotate your hand into a supinated (palm facing you) position. (2)

Obliques

Because the single-arm lat pulldown is a unilateral exercise, there is an added contribution from your obliques on the sides of your abdominals. These muscles resist excessive lateral flexion (sideways bending) of the spine when performing the lift through a full range of motion. As you focus on keeping a stable torso during the exercise, your obliques are activated to maintain your posture.

How to Program the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

Because the single-arm lat pulldown is a relatively focused exercise, being performed with one arm at a time, it’s not well-suited to very heavy loading. However, because of the multi-joint nature and high degree of muscular involvement, extremely high repetition training may fatigue support muscles before the primary target muscles.

Moderate Weight, Moderate Repetition

Approach the single-arm lat pulldown with a classic set and rep scheme for reliable size and strength gains. Three to four sets of 10 to 12 reps will let you target your back with an ideal amount of time under tension without needing to load super-heavy, and potentially form-destroying, weights.

Single-Arm Lat Pulldown Variations

This exercise is already, technically, an alternative to a traditional, straight bar lat pulldown, so the list of modifications for more effectiveness or user-friendliness is relatively short. Of note, one exercise stands out as a great alternative. For it, all you need is an adjustable bench and cable pulley.

Cobra Pulldown 

Set an adjustable bench to a roughly 45-degree incline and place is alongside a high cable pulley. Grab a single handle attachment and lay your side on the bench. This unique setup puts you in position to pull diagonally, and allows you to hit the lats directly with super-strict form.

The position essentially immobilizes your upper body and removes the involvement of any cheating muscles like the lower back or abs. The goal is to avoid lifting heavy and focus on muscle recruitment.

Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

This is a common and effective pulldown variation that allows you to position your body more directly in-line with the cable pulley. An added benefit of the half-kneeling position is a passive stretch of the hip flexor on your kneeling side and increased glute activation to stabilize your hips and pelvis during the exercise.

However, the half-kneeling single-arm lat pulldown can also change the pulling angle by adding a diagonal, slightly more horizontal, line of pull rather than an overhead (vertical) pulldown motion. This can increase recruitment of your upper back muscles and may reduce the work done by your lats.

Frequently Asked Questions

Bigger Lats, One Side at a Time

The single-arm lat pulldown is the intermediate back-training movement you didn’t know you needed. Make sure you have the classic pulldown movement down pat, along with a good handle on basic mechanics of your shoulders and shoulder blades. Then it’s off to the races as you use the exercise for higher volume and great isolation. Time to get some single-sided gains while building a powerful and more muscular back.

References

1. Pallarés, JG, Hernández-Belmonte, A, Martínez-Cava, A, Vetrovsky, T, Steffl, M, Courel-Ibáñez, J. Effects of range of motion on resistance training adaptations: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2021; 31: 1866– 1881. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14006
2. Youdas, J. W., Amundson, C. L., Cicero, K. S., Hahn, J. J., Harezlak, D. T., & Hollman, J. H. (2010). Surface electromyographic activation patterns and elbow joint motion during a pull-up, chin-up, or perfect-pullup rotational exercise. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(12), 3404–3414. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181f1598c

Featured Image: @coachleeboyce / Instagram

The post How to Do the Single-Arm Lat Pulldown for Back and Biceps Gains appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

On Feb. 19, 2023, Hall posted a video to his YouTube channel where he worked through a fast-paced back workout that was bodybuilding-oriented. The training session and next step in his competitive ambitions follow a late January 2023 back workout with International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Pro League member Jamie “The Giant” Christian. Hall had his son Max on hand as he worked through this latest routine.

Here’s an overview of Hall’s latest bodybuilding back workout.

Deadlift

Understandably, Hall begins his routine with a staple compound lifting movement: the deadlift. However, in orienting it more toward bodybuilding, Hall didn’t use the typical heavyweights some might be accustomed to seeing him lift. In the interest of keeping his muscles under tension for longer, the athlete instead warmed up with two 20-kilogram (44-pound) plates on each side of his barbell and a few working sets with three plates on each end using a slow eccentric (lowering phase) on each repetition.

Hall explained his changed rationale in a very matter-of-fact fashion.

“I love moving weights as hard as physically possible,” Hall said. “Unlike strongman where you just move the weight from A to B. And you win competitions, you win lots of money. No, no, no. In bodybuilding, you’ve got to move the weight as slow and as painfully as possible. And you can still win loads of money, so that’s good.”

Lat Pulldown/Machine Pulldown

To really get after his back muscles and round them out from different positions, Hall implemented two variations of the lat pulldown in a superset. He began with pulldowns on a standard cable pulley and alternated with a machine-based pulldown that worked each arm independently. Hall performed three sets and 10 reps of each respective movement.

Incline Row/Seated Row

For the next portion of his workout, Hall worked in another superset, this time performing incline rows and seated rows. The athlete did three sets each while using a slow and controlled motion for added tension.

Dumbbell Hammer Curl

After finishing off the main back portion of his workout, Hall decided to throw in some biceps movements, turning the session into a combined back and biceps workout. He began with dumbbell hammer curls and performed four sets.

Machine Biceps Curl

To finish off his productive day, Hall isolated his biceps muscle on a strict curl machine. A pad on the machine elevated the arms to chest-height while restricting the total movement of the arms, forcing the biceps to do most of the work. Hall would complete an extended drop set — decreasing the weight after every few repetitions — for an undisclosed total number of reps before finally wrapping up.

With Hall’s bodybuilding debut still many months away, any progress he makes in the interim is likely positive. As he continues to dip his toes into bodybuilding-oriented training, it appears evident Hall is willing to pull out all the stops to make his next athletic endeavor productive.

Featured image: @eddiehallwsm on Instagram

The post Eddie Hall Takes Another Step Toward Bodybuilding With an Intense Back Workout appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Even when your biceps aren’t getting a major stimulus from some back exercises, they’re getting warmed up and slightly pre-fatigued for the latter part of the workout, when you can finish them off with some direct biceps training.

It’s a match made in heaven and many body part split programs would be incomplete without a solid back and biceps day. Here are some of the best back and biceps workouts to add size and strength whether you’re new to the gym or think you’ve tried it all.

Back and Biceps Workouts

• For Beginners
• For Intermediate Lifters
• For Advanced Lifters
• Benefits of Back and Biceps Training
• Muscles Trained During Back and Biceps Workouts

Beginner Back and Biceps Workout

The goal with beginner-level training is to get strong and do so with a low barrier of entry, using exercises that can be relatively easily mastered. Many lifters who are new to the gym gravitate toward training their back using barbell rows. While the barbell can be a great tool for back training, it’s often skill-intensive and highly fatiguing, especially for beginners.

Base-Building Back and Biceps

This back and biceps workout routine uses exercises that are relatively simple to learn and more appropriate for establishing a base of strength and muscle. When you focus on the target muscles and apply strict technique, you’ll also give your  pulling muscles a gnarly pump by the end of the session. Technically, if you had to label your workout in detail, it could be considered a “back, biceps, and shoulders workout” because you’re also giving some direct attention to the rear head of the shoulder muscle.

Bent-Over Dumbbell Row

The bent-over dumbbell row delivers a strong back-building stimulus without taxing your spinal erectors (lower back) like a barbell row often can. Avoid swinging your torso to move the weight.

How to Do it: Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, with your arms straight down by your sides. Bend your legs slightly and hinge forward at your hips while keeping your back neutral, not rounded. Let the weights reach toward your toes with your hands facing each other. Drive your elbow back past your ribs and try to feel a contraction in your back muscles. Return the weights to the stretched position before repeating. Maintain the same hip angle throughout the exercise.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: 60 to 90 seconds between sets

Close-Grip Lat Pulldown

The close-grip lat pulldown will help stretch your lats and hit them in a way the row didn’t. Mixing vertical pulling (like the lat pulldown) with horizontal pulling (like rows) is a very effective way to target the multiple muscles of your back.

How to Do it: Attach a neutral-grip (palms facing each other) to the pulldown cable. Grab the handles and sit, allowing your arms to straighten and stretch overhead. Plant your feet flat and secure your knees under any available pad. Keep your upper body nearly vertical, with a slight backward lean. Drive your elbows down until the bar is generally near your face or chin. Control the stretch as you return to the arms-overhead position.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: 60 to 90 seconds between sets

Machine Reverse Flye

The machine reverse flye will torch your rear deltoids. Although the rear delts are technically part of your shoulder muscle, the rear muscle head is involved in many back exercises. Training them directly as part of a back and biceps routine makes sense because your rear delts, like your biceps, are pre-fatigued after training your back.

How to Do it: Sit with your chest braced against the pad in a reverse flye (or “reverse pec-deck”) machine. Grab the handles with a thumbs-up grip with your hands at shoulder-level in front of you. Keep a slight bend in your elbows. Pull your hands back until they’re in line with your shoulders to the side. Don’t “overpull” to reach your hands behind your body. Return your hands to the forward position without letting the weights slam onto the stack.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: One minute between sets

Alternating Dumbbell Curl

The alternating dumbbell curl lets you focus on each arm individually, so you get some serious bang for your biceps training buck. The slight supination (turning of the wrist) helps to recruit more overall biceps muscle, including your brachioradialis, making the exercise a top notch biceps-builder.

How to Do it: Stand with a dumbbell in each hand with your arms hanging down at your sides. Bring your left hand up in a thumbs-up position. As your hand passes your hips, turn your hand palm up and continue curling until the weight is near shoulder-level. Reverse the motion to return the weight to your side. Repeat the movement with your right hand. Alternate arms with each repetition.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-20 per arm

Rest Time: 45 to 60 seconds between sets

How to Progress

As a beginner, your goal is to learn proper form with simple movements while getting stronger. As long as your compound (multi-joint) exercises get stronger while using good technique, you should be building muscle in all the right places.

Keep pushing each set until you eventually reach the end of the rep range. Once you reach that ceiling, increase the load and repeat the process, but only do so if your form remains strict. Don’t develop a habit of cheating just to move the weight. Once your loads have increased significantly, roughly 30% or more, you can jump into the next program.

Intermediate Back and Biceps Workout

Once you’ve reached the intermediate stage — you’re feeling more skilled in the gym and your shirts have filled out with a bit of muscle — it can be tempting to start “ego lifting,” especially if you start to notice the bigger lifters in the gym swinging around weights when they row. Don’t do that. It can get you injured and, actually, doesn’t stimulate your back well as using crisp, strict technique.

Keep your form dialed in and you should feel your back working deeply across the targeted muscle fibers, allowing you to trigger growth. The same principle applies to your biceps — no swinging. Let your biceps do the work, not your ego. Elbow flexion, not momentum, will grow arms.

Back and Biceps Workout with New Angles

As you transition to an intermediate lifter, you can likely handle some more volume as long as you’re eating enough nutrients to recover and grow. It’s also a good time to introduce some variety to prevent overuse injuries while also stimulating muscle regions in different ways. (1) This back and biceps gym workout uses a few different movements to target your muscles.

The chest-supported row is a great first exercise of the day. It’s stable and doesn’t require as much warming up as a free-standing row. The stability helps you focus on your back. The single-arm rows allow you to take advantage of unilateral (single-arm) strength-building, because you can lift more with one arm than trying to lift two dumbbells together. This unilateral focus also helps to correct any imbalances you may have.

The incline dumbbell curl stretches your biceps more than the standing movement, which elicits a large growth response. (2) The stretched movement may also impose more soreness due to the increased range of motion, but you should be able to handle that now that you’ve got more experience under your belt.

Chest-Supported Row

This movement fully supports your upper body and essentially removes your lower back from the equation, making it a strict back-building exercise with few limitations. The chest-supported row is an excellent way to begin a back-focused training day because your lats and larger back muscles are doing the work without fatiguing your low back.

How to Do it: Lay chest-down on a supported bench and grab the handles with a palm-down grip. Unrack the weight before pulling the bar up as high as possible. Pause briefly in the contracted position before lowering the weight to a full stretch.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: 60 to 90 seconds between sets

Wide-Grip Pulldown

This movement is one of the most fundamental pulldown variations. The emphasis on a long overhead stretch with a strong contraction makes the wide-grip pulldown an essential player is many back workouts.

How to Do it: Attach a long bar to a pulldown station. Take a grip slightly wider than shoulder-width and sit down. Secure your knees under any pads and allow your arms to extend straight overhead. Keep your torso mostly upright and drive your elbows down, pulling the bar to nearly chin level. Pause briefly before returning to an overhead position.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: 60 to 90 seconds between sets

Single-Arm Dumbbell Row

The single-arm dumbbell row is a classic back-training exercise. Mastering this movement is an essential for long-term back development. It allows you to target your back muscles, one side at at time, while drastically reducing lower back stress.

How to Do it: Grab a dumbbell in one hand, with your palm facing in toward your body. Brace your non-working hand on a flat bench or on the same side knee. Drive your arm up and back until the dumbbell is near your ribs. Pause briefly for a maximum contraction before lowering to a full stretch. Perform all reps with one arm before switching sides.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: No rest between arms, one minute between sets

Cable Rear Delt Flye

Targeting your rear delts with cables instead of a machine increases the time under tension, which can improve the muscle-building stimulus. (3) This unique movement lets you get more benefit from relatively less weight.

How to Do it: Stand in the middle of a double cable station with a high pulley with each hand grabbing the cable from the opposite side. Flex your abs and bend your knees slightly. Keep a slight bend in your arms as you draw your elbows down and back. In the full contraction, your arms should be slightly behind your torso. Return to the stretched position, with your arms crossed in front of your body.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15

Rest Time: 45 to 60 seconds between sets

Incline Dumbbell Curl

The incline dumbbell curl is a powerful choice for a biceps exercise. The intense stretch and focused contraction creates a major trigger for muscle growth. Be sure to prioritize technique over heavy loads — if done properly, relatively light weights can feel extremely heavy. Resist the urge to cheat.

How to Do it: Set an adjustable bench to roughly 45-degrees. Lay back while holding a dumbbell in each hand. Rest your head, shoulders, and back on the bench pad. Allow your arms to hang straight with your palms facing forward. Curl the weight up while moving only your hand and the dumbbell — don’t let your elbow, upper arm, or head move. When you’ve reach the highest position possible without moving your elbow or upper arm, slower lower the weight to a full stretch.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15

Rest Time: 45 to 60 seconds between sets

How to Progress 

Once you are able to hit the end of the rep range for an exercise, increase the load in the next workout. It’s basic, bread and butter progression. There’s no need to overcomplicate things. You keep form strict and, as long as you eat enough while getting stronger, your arms will expand and your back will eventually get its own zip code.

Advanced Back and Biceps Workout

Now that you are even stronger, you need to periodize to new variations along with adding lifting straps. What often happens with advanced lifters is that their grip and forearms can become a limiting factor during back exercises, leaving progress-building reps untapped in each set.

At this stage of development, your back should be significantly stronger than your smaller forearm muscles. Strategically using lifting straps can prevent your forearms from fatiguing while allowing you to impose more stimulating reps to your back and biceps.

Back and Bi’s for Experienced Lifters

As an advanced lifter, you need to be more specific about hitting all regions of your back. The barbell row is extremely comprehensive and skill-intensive, so it becomes the first exercise in the workout. Vertical pulling is next to more thoroughly target your lats. At this point, you should be strong enough to do at least five strict pull-ups. If not, stick to lat pulldowns and figure out whether it’s a lack of strength or an excess of body weight hindering your pull-up progress.

The Jefferson curl is a unique movement added to train your spinal erectors from top to bottom. This unconventional exercise sometimes gets a bad rap because it requires a rounded back, which is usually warned against, but your spine was designed to move and these types of controlled, dynamic contractions grow your muscles best.

If you want a thick, back-dominant look in both your upper and lower back, Jefferson curls can be a secret weapon. It should go without saying, do them with control and don’t load your ego. The workout wraps up with the addition of the barbell wrist curl. Since you’ll be using straps, which supplements your gripping strength, your forearms will benefit from some isolation to keep them growing.

Barbell Row

Sometimes considered the definitive back exercise, the bent-over barbell row can be a key player in building size and strength. Don’t let the ability to move heavy weight tempt you into cheating the technique. Keep your form strict and don’t bounce or swing weight.

How to Do it: Stand in front of a loaded barbell with a stable shoulder-width stance. Hinge at your hips and grab the bar with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width. Brace your core and explode the weight up toward your lower ab region, below your belly button. Try to pause very briefly before lowering the weight with control.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: Two minutes between sets

Pull-Up

The pull-up is a classic bodyweight exercise. In many training circles, your pull-up performance is second only to your bench press ability as a measure of your true experience and aptitude in the gym.

How to Do it: Grab an overhead pull-up bar using a shoulder-width grip, with your palms facing away from your body. Flex your abs and keep your body in a generally straight line — resist the urge to “kick” your legs up as you lift. Pull your chest toward the bar and lean slightly back. When your mouth or chin is near bar-level, lower yourself to full extension (a straight-arm stretched position) with control. Don’t free fall into the bottom.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 5-10

Rest Time: Two minutes between sets

Jefferson Curl

The Jeferson curl is performed contrary to one overriding weight training rule — here, you’re supposed to allow your back to round during the exercise. During most other movements like squats, deadlifts, and rows, proper technique usually involves keeping a stiff and neutral spine. During the Jefferson curl, the goal is to deliberately round your spine (under full control, of course).

How to Do it: Stand with a light barbell in your hands, with straight arms resting in front of your body. Lean forward at the waist and imagine curling each individual vertebrae down as you reach toward your feet. Keep your arms straight and keep the bar close to your legs. When you’ve reached the end of your flexibility, “uncurl” slowly to return to a standing position.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 5-10

Rest Time: One minute between sets

Cable Rear Delt Flye

The cable rear delt flye remains a reliable, high-intensity way to finish off your rear deltoids at the end of your workout for back and biceps. Keep your form strict and focus on feeling your delts doing the work.

How to Do it: Stand in the middle of a double cable station with a high pulley with each hand grabbing the cable from the opposite side. Flex your abs and bend your knees slightly. Keep a slight bend in your arms as you draw your elbows down and back. In the full contraction, your arms should be slightly behind your torso. Return to the stretched position, with your arms crossed in front of your body.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: One minute between sets

Incline Dumbbell Curl

Blast your biceps with the incline dumbbell curl. The intense stretch and hard contraction make it an excellent choice for zeroing in on your arms.

How to Do it: Set an adjustable bench to roughly 45-degrees. Lay back while holding a dumbbell in each hand. Rest your head, shoulders, and back on the bench pad. Allow your arms to hang straight with your palms facing forward. Curl the weight up while moving only your hand and the dumbbell — don’t let your elbow, upper arm, or head move. When you’ve reach the highest position possible without moving your elbow or upper arm, slower lower the weight to a full stretch.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-12

Rest Time: One minute between sets

Barbell Wrist Curl

Work your forearms (specifically, your wrist flexors) with the barbell wrist curl. The targeted movement will give some attention to your forearm muscles, which could potentially be understimulated when using lifting straps during heavier back exercises.

How to Do it: Set up on a flat bench with an underhand (palm-up) grip on a barbell. Support your forearms across the bench. Extend your wrists down to lower the weight, allowing the bar to roll toward your fingertips. Curl your hand closed and bring your wrists up without lifting your forearms from the bench. It’s a relatively short range of motion, so focus on applying tension without swinging.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 10-15

Rest Time: 45 to 60 seconds between sets

How to Progress 

Progression is the same as before — Train hard, don’t swing any weights, and add reps or load each week.

If you can match or beat your rep performance, that’s great. Once you get to the highest end of the rep range, add load the following week. If you’re lifting heavy, but find yourself getting fatigued and losing performance, you may need to deload at some point.

But for the most part, continual growth comes down to continual strength increase with constant nutrient intake. Just be cautious when it comes to progressing pull-ups. It’s tempting to justify reps that swing around, which can end up adding load hastily.

Focus on your form most weeks and only count reps that are performed under controlled. Once you get to 10 strict pull-up reps, add five to 10 pounds, reduce the reps back to five, and keep going.

Benefits of a Back and Biceps Workout

While each type of body part split or potential workout setup can have its own benefits, there are a few distinct reasons to consider planning a back and biceps day in your weekly training split.

Happier Joints and Better Posture

People with strong backs who do more pulling exercises have happier, healthier joints. When you bench or overhead press excessively and don’t balance your musculature with rows, pulldowns, or pull-ups, your shoulders can get cranky. (4)

Your joints and connective tissues begin to beg for more rowing and a stronger back. This can create a healthier spine, improve joint function, and promote better posture.

You Get Good at Moving Stuff

Sure, nobody wants to be “that friend” everyone in the group hits up when they need help moving, but the alternative is worse — being the friend nobody contacts to help them move because they’re scared you’ll snap in half.

That’s where a consistent back and biceps day comes in. You’ll simply be more capable through everyday life, and moving furniture will feel like child’s play. Beyond the practical benefits, building strength in your back, biceps, and grip can carry over to boost performance in the gym — everything from more obvious exercises like farmer’s walks and deadlifts to overhead pressing, where a stronger back helps to provide upper body stability.

Build Some Eye-Catching Muscle

Many people rightly associate biceps training as being essential for a more aesthetic physique. While the chest, abs, and even shoulders are often considered other contenders for attention-grabbing body parts, a well-muscled back can take your muscularity to the next level and create an undeniably athletic and powerful look.

By training your back and arms, you fill out any T-shirt better, as opposed to looking like a malnourished college freshman swimming in baggy clothes. A big back can also make your waist look relatively smaller in comparison, in case you’re still working to shed a bit of extra fluff.

Back and Biceps Basic Anatomy

Here’s a brief rundown of all the muscles you’ll be hitting with each back and biceps workout. Yes, you’re training “the back” and “the biceps,” but there’s a bit more detail to consider.

Trapezius

The traps are a diamond-shaped muscle that takes up a large part of your upper back. It spans from your mid-neck to just below your shoulder blades. The trapezius has many muscle fibers and several “sections” — the upper traps, mid-traps and lower traps — but a variety of horizontal and vertical pulling will hit the muscle in its entirety. The main function is scapular retraction (pulling your shoulder blades together), so rowing exercises will be particularly useful.

Lats

The latissimus dorsi, or lats, are another big muscle group. It takes up the outer parts of your mid-back, spanning up to your armpits and down toward the start of your lower back. The lats are often notorious for giving you that wide look.

Some lifters regard the lats as the wingspan muscle because people can see your back gains from the front thanks to your lats. Not to mention, it makes your waist look smaller as well. Any vertical pulling exercises, like all pulldown exercises, hit the lats with a strong contraction and long stretch.

Spinal Erectors

These are two long, thick beams that run from the top of your back to the bottom, including what’s typically referred to as your “lower back”. Similar to the traps, your spinal erectors get stimulated with nearly every back exercise because they’re involved in controlling posture near the hips. They’re trained directly as the primary focus during Jefferson curls or any pulling or hip hinging exercise where you are actively arching your back.

Rhomboids

Your rhomboids are relatively smaller back muscles that attach at your mid-spine and sit partially under your scapula, creating part of your upper back musculature. The rhomboids aid in scapular retraction, in a similar role to the traps, and they help your posture look better. All horizontal rowing will hit the rhomboids well, especially if you focus on pulling your elbows back to allow your scapulae to squeeze together.

Rear Deltoids 

The rear deltoids are the back head of your shoulders. Developing this relatively smaller muscle can makes your overall back look more complete, along with “rounding out” the appearance of your shoulders.

People who often ignore or underappreciate back training usually have lagging shoulders, as well. All pulling exercises where your elbow travels behind your body, like many types of rows, will hit the rear delts.

Some lifters argue that the rear delts don’t really need direct training as long as you have enough back volume each week, but well-planned isolation work never hurts, especially if you want to focus on building a specific body part.

Biceps

Your “biceps” actually consists of three related muscles: the biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis.

The biceps brachii is the spotlight “biceps” muscle consisting of two heads, a long head and short head. Both are visible and create what most people consider the biceps on their upper arm. You can’t see any distinct separation between the two heads unless you’re incredibly lean or incredibly muscled.

The brachialis is a smaller muscle that sits between your biceps and triceps. It’s rarely ever visible due to its anatomical location, but it creates arm size by “lifting” your biceps. Unless you’re very heavily muscles or as lean as a competitive bodybuilder, you’re not likely to see the muscle itself.

The last big player in the biceps game is the brachioradialis. It sits at the top of your upper forearms and rotates your wrists to a neutral (thumbs up) position, along with helping to flex your elbows. It’s more visible than the brachialis and, when developed, can help to fill out your sleeves, especially near the forearm area.

All of the aforementioned biceps muscles primarily work at elbow flexion (bending your arms), so these muscles get trained with every row and pulldown, as well as with any type of curl. This is why, if you’re getting stronger on a variety of back exercises and adding some hard curls, you don’t need many sets of biceps training to see big results.

Time For Some Back and Biceps

Time to start applying these workouts for back and biceps. Take an honest assessment of your experience level and get working on your rows, pulldowns, and curls. You’ve seen the most efficient ways to plan these back and biceps exercises, so get into the gym and get growing. Your back will widen and your arms will expand. Your upper body will look more impressive, and you might even notice that your physique is getting a few you extra admirers as a side effect.

References 

1. Kassiano, Witalo1; Nunes, João Pedro1; Costa, Bruna1; Ribeiro, Alex S.1,2; Schoenfeld, Brad J.3; Cyrino, Edilson S.1. Does Varying Resistance Exercises Promote Superior Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Gains? A Systematic Review. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 36(6):p 1753-1762, June 2022. | DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004258
2. Oranchuk, D. J., Storey, A. G., Nelson, A. R., & Cronin, J. B. (2019). Isometric training and long-term adaptations: Effects of muscle length, intensity, and intent: A systematic review. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 29(4), 484–503. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.13375
3. Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. K., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
4. Cools, A. M., Witvrouw, E. E., Mahieu, N. N., & Danneels, L. A. (2005). Isokinetic Scapular Muscle Performance in Overhead Athletes With and Without Impingement Symptoms. Journal of athletic training, 40(2), 104–110.

Featured Image: Prostock-studio / Shutterstock

The post The Ultimate Back and Biceps Workout for Every Lifter From Beginner to Advanced appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

But how about doubling up on big lifts in the same workout with deadlifts after squats? Or maybe deadlifts before rows?  The question of whether to put the deadlift on “leg day” or “back day” is a contentious programming issue.

Put deadlifts on leg day, and you’re likely combining squats and deadlifts in the same workout. Not exactly a walk in the park, especially considering the heavy loads typically used with these big lifts. Instead, you could slip deadlifts alongside upper body exercises like barbell rows, but now you’ve created a daunting “pull” session with the potential to fry your back.

Before you double-down on any program design biases, consider the potential pros and cons. Explore the root of this question, delve into scientific evidence, and find practical recommendations to solve this lifting conundrum. 

Deadlift on Back Day or Leg Day?

• Overview of Training Splits
• Muscles Worked by the Deadlift
• Effects of Intra-Workout Fatigue
• Strategies to Manage Intra-Workout Fatigue
• Recovery Between Workouts
• Programming the Deadlift for Strength 
• Programming the Deadlift for Hypertrophy

Overview of Training Splits

Most lifters, particularly those training three more times per week, commonly organize their routine using some type of training split. I wrote extensively about the most popular training splits. In brief, a “split” assigns a specific focus to each session of the week. Two of the most common training split routines are Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) and body part (BP) split.  

In PPL split routines, lifters hit the gym three or more times per week. The first session (“push day”) is traditionally dedicated to upper body pushing exercises (e.g. overhead press, triceps extensions, or dips). The next session (“pull day”) is reserved primarily for upper body pulling exercises (e.g. rows, pull-ups, or curls). In essence, “pull day” is a “back day.” Lower body exercises are typically assigned to the third session (“leg day”). 

In BP split routines, lifters hit the gym at least five days per week. As the name suggests, each workout in a BP split is assigned its own muscular region of focus. An example of a common BP follows: “Chest day,” which invariably falls on Monday for typical gym-goers, includes exercises targeting the pectoral muscles (e.g. bench press, incline bench, or pec flye). “back day” includes exercises targeting the muscles on the back of the torso (e.g. lat pulldowns, rows, or back extensions).

“Leg day,” often the most (or least) favorite session of the week, is reserved for lower body exercises such as squats, leg press, leg extensions, leg curls, and calf raises. Direct training for the arms (e.g. plenty of biceps curls and triceps pushdowns) occurs on “arm day.” Finally, “shoulder day” includes overhead pressing variations, lateral raises, upright rows, and other exercises focused on the deltoids. 

The Deadlift Dilemma

So, where does the deadlift fit in? 

At face value, the deadlift appears to primarily train the hips and lower body. Therefore, the deadlift belongs in “leg day” of PPL and BP split routines. Done and dusted, right? 

Better loosen your lifting belt, because it’s not that simple. Categorizing deadlifts in a split routine is a complex question. Its implications may affect the productivity of your training. We need to consider functional anatomy, the potential effects of fatigue, implications for recovery, individual fitness goals, and more. 

Muscles Worked by the Deadlift

The deadlift involves lifting a weight, typically a loaded barbell, using a hip-dominant lower body extension pattern. Although many variations of the deadlift exist, all deadlifts require resisted hip extension, which trains the glutes, most of the hamstrings, and some of the inner thigh muscles. Primary muscles include: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, biceps femoris (long head), and adductor magnus.

Above the hips, the trunk muscles must keep the body ridged and transfer forces generated by the hips to the upper body. “Spinal erectors” refers to muscles on the backside of the trunk that act to extend the spine — The erector spinae muscle group, quadratus lumborum, the semispinalis group, and many smaller muscles fall into this category.  Mechanically, the spinal erectors are the most significant trunk muscles during the deadlift. Albeit, the abdominal muscles are also essential, as they contract along with the spinal erectors to increase pressure in the abdomen, which further increases the rigidity of the trunk.

Depending on the deadlift variation employed (e.g. conventional versus Romanian), the quadriceps may be more or less involved. Finally, the forearm muscles involved in grip are also active in the deadlift.

The deadlift works the entire posterior chain, including muscles in the legs and back. Clearly, the deadlift does not fit cleanly into either “leg day” or “back day.” But organizing your training split was never about goose-stepping to rules about which body parts can be trained on which day. Your splits should promote the desired training adaptation, such as strength or muscle size. If you want to experience ongoing increases in strength and size, you’ll need to manage fatigue within each workout then recover for the next one.   

Effects of Intra-Workout Fatigue

Fatigue, technically, describes the reduction in a muscle’s ability to contract or produce force. Two types of fatigue occur in response to exercise: peripheral fatigue and central fatigue. Peripheral fatigue occurs at the working muscles, while central fatigue occurs because of processes at the brain and spinal cord. (1) 

To be clear, fatigue is an inextricable part of hard training. Peripheral and central fatigue amass simultaneously as we train. Put deadlifts on “leg day,” and fatigue from deadlifts may negatively affect other lower body exercises on “leg day,” and vice versa depending on your exercise order. Hit deadlifts on “back day,” and fatigue from deadlifts may negatively affect other back exercises (and again, vice versa). 

While no coach or study can definitively tell you which programming option will work best for you, we can explore the effects of fatigue on postural stability, the potential for injury, and exercise adaptations. 

Fatigue and Postural Muscle Stability

Deadlifts, squats, and rows, such as bent-over barbell rows and unsupported dumbbell row variations are considered structural exercises because they place load through the trunk. Structural exercises are typically compound, or multi-joint, movements and tend to be programmed toward the beginning of the workout.

A concern when programming multiple structural exercises in the same workout is the potential for trunk muscle fatigue. A lifter who exhausts the muscles that support the trunk may be less able to maintain stability during subsequent exercises. Moreover, it has been suggested that fatigue of the trunk muscles may predispose a lifter to injury during subsequent lifts. (2)(3)

So, how do trunk muscles respond to fatigue induced by deadlifts? 

Strang and Berg compared a well-rested control group to folks who performed deadlifts to failure. The researchers measured postural muscle activity and postural stability in response to a lateral raise. (4) Postural stability did not differ among the fresh- and fatigued participants. However, the fatigued participants demonstrated earlier onset of trunk extensor (lower back) and hamstring muscle activity. (4)

These findings illustrate the nervous system’s ability to compensate for fatigue by changing the timing of muscle contractions. Relative to the trunk-fatigue question, this study has several limitations. Although the study appears to support training deadlifts on “shoulder day,” it does not directly address our question of how deadlifts affect stability subsequent heavy “back day” or “leg day” performance. 

Another study may be more generalized, exploring scenarios when deadlifts are performed before other structural exercises (e.g. squats or bent-over rows). Healthy participants performing fatiguing deadlifts followed by structural loading via standing with 25% of bodyweight in a weight vest. (2) Trunk extensor muscle activity remained similar to unfatigued condition, but abdominal muscle activity decreased following deadlifts. (2) 

Altogether, it appears the body compensates for deadlift-induced fatigue by activating muscles earlier and maintaining activity of trunk extensors, but changes in coordination patterns between trunk extensors and abdominals may occur during subsequent exercises. 

To be clear, no definitive link between deadlift-induced fatigue and injury risk has been established. However, Breton and McGill have suggested random movement errors may result in injury. Fatigue may increase the rate of errors, albeit with a high degree of individual variability. (3)

Fatigue and Exercise Adaptations

Adaptations to exercise tend to be blunted when training is performed in a fatigued state. (1)(5) Peripheral fatigue and central fatigue reduce the force produced by working muscles. (1) Active muscle force is a component of mechanical tension, which is likely a key driver of muscle growth. (6) Ultimately, reduced force output due to fatigue could lead to less muscle gain. 

Fatigue might be an even greater enemy for those interested in building strength. According to a meta-analysis by Nunes and colleagues, the lifts performed last in the workout result in reduced strength improvements compared to those performed first. (7) The negative influence of fatigue is thought to underlie this phenomenon. (5) Fatigue cannot be avoided during hard training, but it can be managed. Managing fatigue is a priority in solving our “deadlift dilemma.”

Strategies to Manage Intra-Workout Fatigue

When programming the deadlift, it’s prudent to scrutinize your own fatigue response. Due to individual variations in fatigue and its effects, a bit of self-reflection may be in order. Here are some common scenarios and potential action plans to guide your decision-making.

Deadlifting Delivers a Massive Low Back “Pump” 

You might experience disproportionate peripheral fatigue in the spinal erectors (lower back). If you put deadlifts on “leg day,” you might be better off following them up with supported exercises, such as leg press or leg extensions instead of squats, and choosing hamstring curls rather than good mornings.

If you choose to put deadlifts on “back day,” bench-supported rows, pull-ups, and pulldowns are all great options that spare your spinal erectors.

Deadlifts Hammer Your Hamstrings More Than Anything

In this scenario, hamstrings experience the lion’s share of peripheral fatigue. You could embrace this and use the deadlift as your primary hamstrings exercise on “leg day.”

On the other hand, programming deadlifts on “back day” may be a great option for you. This provides an opportunity to train hamstrings with non-deadlift exercise of your choice on leg day and potentially increase your overall weekly hamstring-training volume. This strategy of adding volume may be effective if your recovery is on point.

Simply “Fried” After Deadlifts

If you notice big drops in your performance of other lifts after a few sets of deadlifts, central fatigue may be overriding. Central fatigue is the type that affects exercised and non-exercised muscles. (1) So, it is likely to affect subsequent back or leg exercises. 

Perhaps counterintuitively, central fatigue has been shown to be greater following lower load exercises to failure than higher load exercise to failure. (8) Therefore, adjusting deadlift intensity and volume might be useful. Favor fewer sets and repetitions with heavier loads. To address whether to pair deadlift with “back day” exercises or “leg day” exercises, consider placing deadlifts in the lower volume workout of the two — The one that tends to have fewer total sets and reps.

Recovery Between Workouts

The deadlift has a reputation for producing lingering fatigue, delayed onset muscle soreness, and general malaise after a hard session. But is this reputation justified?  

Contrary to popular lore, there is reason to believe the deadlift may be the most “recoverable” of the three powerlifts — Squat, deadlift, and bench press. Belcher and colleagues took athletes through workouts including four sets to failure of a single powerlift with 80% of one-repetition maximum. They showed reduced mean concentric (lifting) velocity, or bar speed, for the squat and bench press at 24-, 48-, and 72 hours postworkout; but the bar speed of the deadlift was not significantly slower than in the initial workout. (9)

Delayed onset soreness was present and similar at all three timepoints following each of the three powerlifts. However, cell-free DNA concentrations — an indicator of muscle damage in this context — increased for bench press and squat following the rigorous workout, but not for deadlift. (9) These data indicate deadlifts may be more recoverable, in some ways, than the squat or bench press. 

Although the deadlift may not be the full-on menace to recovery many may have thought, it has the potential to impose substantial recovery demands. One major limitation to the Belcher study is it did not measure low back soreness or range of motion. Anecdotally, high-intensity or high-volume deadlifts can result in low back soreness and stiffness. This may affect readiness to train, especially when subsequent workouts involve other structural exercises. Recall, these exercises load the low back, and include squats, good mornings, military press, unsupported rows, bent-over rows, and more. 

In the traditional PPL split, “pull day” may occur 24- to 48-hours before “leg day, ” depending on your training frequency and structure of “rest days.” Ostensibly, programming deadlifts on “pull day” may result in lingering fatigue on leg day. On the other hand, placing deadlifts on “leg day” may provide more recovery between the deadlift and the next workout heavy in structural exercises. 

In the BP split, the effects of residual fatigue from deadlift on other structural exercises may be mitigated by separating “back day” and “leg day the routine. Slide an “arm day,” a “chest day, and/or a “rest day” between “back day” and “leg day.” When planned in this fashion, it doesn’t likely matter whether you deadlift on “back day” or “leg day,” at least from the perspective of between-workout recovery.

But we haven’t fully considered the programming considerations related to your training goal. Lifters commonly deadlift for strength or for muscle-gain (“hypertrophy”) — Let’s examine how training goals affect deadlift programming. 

Programming the Deadlift for Strength

Lifters training for sheer strength tend to gravitate toward incorporating the deadlift. It’s one of the three competitive powerlifting movements, along with bench press and squat. And among the trio, the deadlift typically allows the lifter to move the greatest amount of weight. 

If your goal is to enhance your deadlift strength, you will need to prioritize this lift and your recovery between deadlift sessions. Whether you choose to perform deadlifts on leg day or back day, consider placing this lift early in the session. Recall, it is well-appreciated that strength adaptations are greater for exercises performed earlier in the workout compared to later. (7)  

Next, ensure your program allows for sufficient volume and intensity of deadlifts and deadlift assistance exercises. Deadlift assistance exercises are intended to support deadlift performance. Common assistance exercises for the deadlift include deficit deadlifts, which improve proficiency at the bottom of the lift; and deadlifts with bands or chains; or rack pulls, which may improve lockout ability at the top of the lift. (10)(13)

The optimal number of weekly sets and intensity for improving deadlift strength will likely vary between individuals and interacts with other programming variables, such as repetition volume and level of effort. (11)(12) Informed by Peterson and colleagues, shooting for eight hard weekly sets using 85% 1RM or greater is a nice “rule of thumb.” (12) But keep in mind, anywhere between four and 14 weekly sets may elicit strong improvements in strength among well-trained lifters. (12) And if you are a novice lifter, even fewer weekly sets may be just as effective.

More is not better. Consider limiting volume per exercise to a maximum of less than 15 sets per week. (12) Note: if deadlift assistance exercises are performed with high levels of effort, they should be included in the tally of total deadlift weekly volume. 

Finally, consider recovery between sessions. Per the typical course, 72-hours or greater between sessions may be required to fully recover from a demanding deadlift workout. (9) While “full recovery” between deadlift sessions may not be essential for ongoing strength gains, extremely high-effort sessions should be programmed in a well-recovered state for best results.  

Ultimately, these objectives can be accomplished by programming deadlifts on “leg day” or “back day.” However, if you are concurrently training to improve squat strength, you may wish to place deadlifts on “back day.” This way, deadlifts can be performed early in its respective session, which is likely to maximize strength outcomes per our discussion exercise order above. Just as important, deadlifts on “back day” avoids the potential negative effects of intra-workout fatigue on squat performance. 

What about hitting deadlifts both on “back day” and “leg day?” The strategy of performing deadlifts on multiple days per week may seem unorthodox, but it may be helpful. Especially for those who notice decreased output during their final sets. Hit a few high-quality sets on “back day,” a few more good sets on “leg day,” and watch your numbers improve. 

Programming the Deadlift for Hypertrophy

If your primary objective is to build muscle, your programming should reflect this goal. Plenty of muscle can be built through full-body workouts, but many lifters elect for a training split. And programming decisions within the training split could affect outcomes. 

Expert consensus for hypertrophy training recommends most individuals perform 10 to 20+ high-effort sets per week per major muscle group. (14) But clearly, not all high effort sets are equal. To help explain how some exercises are more taxing than others, practitioners commonly discuss a phenomenon called “stimulus-to-fatigue ratio.” Although the term “ratio” makes this concept sound measurable, the appropriate method for quantifying stimulus is a controversial topic. (1)

Therefore, most practitioners discuss this concept qualitatively — Exercises with a high stimulus-to-fatigue ratio are thought to subject the target muscle(s) to more training stress, while sparing the lifter from high levels of fatigue. On the other hand, exercise with a low stimulus-to-fatigue ratio still trains the target muscle(s), but the lifter tends to experience disproportionately greater fatigue as a consequence. 

The deadlift is notoriously claimed to have a low stimulus-to-fatigue ratio. While the deadlift undeniably allows for effective loading of the glutes and hamstrings, it also demands coordination throughout the body and hammers muscles of the trunk. Although findings from the Belcher study discussed in the “Recovery Between Workouts” section fail to support the claim of disproportionate fatigue from deadlifts, lifters know they can be downright exhausting. As such, the deadlift is typically programmed sparingly in bodybuilding-type programs.

If you wish to include the deadlift in your hypertrophy routine, consider it may affect your  training, and program it accordingly. Performing deadlifts close to failure with moderate to light loads characteristic of typical hypertrophy programs (e.g. 65 to 80% 1RM) is likely to produce appreciable peripheral- and central fatigue.

If you’re hitting deadlifts to build your glutes and hamstrings, peripheral fatigue local to muscles is expected and may be welcomed as part of the training process. But buildup of peripheral fatigue in non-target muscles, such as the spinal erectors, grip muscles, or lats may ultimately reduce performance in subsequent exercises targeting these muscles. Central fatigue may be an even greater concern because it reduces output of muscles throughout the entire body. (1)

Keep in mind that deadlifts aren’t the only exercise that produces central fatigue. All exercises result in some amount of central fatigue. High-repetition lifts involving multiple joints, large muscles, and high demands for coordination or stabilization are likely to result in substantial central fatigue — Squats, rows, and presses are guilty too. 

High-volume deadlifts have the potential to put a damper on your entire hypertrophy workout. So, it pays to be strategic. Reduce overall volume of deadlifts by substituting exercises with a more favorable stimulus-to-fatigue ratio, such as leg curls for hamstrings and hip thrusts for glutes.

If your body and brain are cooked after long leg days, shift deadlifts over to “back day.” Or, if you like to perform a lot of unsupported or bent-over rowing variations on “back day,” it might be best to leave deadlifts on “leg day.” 

A growing body of research indicates total weekly volume is a stronger determinant of hypertrophy than volume during individual workouts. (15)(16)(17)(18) This has two implications: First, lifters who experience undue fatigue with the deadlift may consider breaking up the sets across “back day” and “leg day.” Second, lifters struggling to reach adequate training volume for glutes and hamstrings might add additional sets of deadlifts when split across two sessions. Increasing the training frequency of an exercise such as the deadlift can be a potent strategy for muscle gain.

The Deadlift Decision

The deadlift is a high impact, high-fatigue exercise. It not only hammers the target muscles, but also affects the entire body. Fatigue from deadlifts appears to alter trunk muscle activity and may decrease performance in other lifts. Perhaps surprisingly, recovery from deadlifts tends to be similar, if not faster than other “big lifts.” Deadlifts are great for building strength, and despite claims by “stimulus-to-fatigue” naysayers, can be a productive exercise in a hypertrophy program.

To maximize their use, deadlifts must be programmed sensibly. For some, this may mean hitting deadlifts on “back day.” For others, it may mean keeping deadlifts on “leg day.” And for those who can resist the urge to classify the deadlift, there’s the option of splitting difference — Hit a few sets of deadlifts on “back day” and a few more sets on “leg day.” 

In any case, track your progress and see how you respond. Don’t hesitate to modify things if your plan doesn’t end up doubling your pleasure and only delivers a double whammy with too much stress and too few results.

References

1. Alix-Fages, C., et al. (2022). The role of the neural stimulus in regulating skeletal muscle hypertrophy. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 1-18.
2. Hoseinpoor, T. S., Kahrizi, S., & Mobini, B. (2015). Trunk extensor muscle fatigue influences trunk muscle activities. Work, 51(4), 793-797.
3. Brereton, L. C., & McGill, S. M. (1999). Effects of physical fatigue and cognitive challenges on the potential for low back injury. Human Movement Science, 18(6), 839-857.
4. Strang, A. J., & Berg, W. P. (2007). Fatigue-induced adaptive changes of anticipatory postural adjustments. Experimental Brain Research, 178(1), 49-61.
5. Spiering, B. A., et al. (2022). Maximizing strength: the stimuli and mediators of strength gains and their application to training and rehabilitation. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 10-1519.
6. Wackerhage, H., et al. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 126(1):30-43.
7. Nunes, J. P., et al. (2021). What influence does resistance exercise order have on muscular strength gains and muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(2), 149-157.
8. Farrow, J., et al. (2021). Lighter-load exercise produces greater acute-and prolonged-fatigue in exercised and non-exercised limbs. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 92(3), 369-379.
9. Belcher, D. J., et al. (2019). Time course of recovery is similar for the back squat, bench press, and deadlift in well-trained males. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 44(10), 1033-1042.
10. Swinton, P. et al. (2009). Contemporary training practices in elite British powerlifters: survey results from an international competition. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 23(2), 380-384.
11. Mattocks, K. T., et al. (2017). Practicing the test produces strength equivalent to higher volume training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 49(9), 1945-1954.
12. Peterson, M. D., Rhea, M. R., & Alvar, B. A. (2004). Maximizing strength development in athletes: a meta-analysis to determine the dose-response relationship. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 18(2), 377-382.
13. Belcher, D. (2017). The sumo deadlift. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 39(4), 97-104.
14. Schoenfeld, B., Fisher, J., Grgic, J., et al. (2021). Resistance training recommendations to maximize muscle hypertrophy in an athletic population: Position stand of the IUSCA. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 1(1), 1-30
15. Colquhoun, R. J., et al. (2018). Training volume, not frequency, indicative of maximal strength adaptations to resistance training. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 32(5), 1207-1213.
16. Hamarsland, H., et al. (2022). Equal-volume strength training with different training frequencies induces similar muscle hypertrophy and strength improvement in trained participants. Frontiers in Physiology, 2374.
17. Franco, C. M., et al. (2021). Influence of high-and low-frequency resistance training on lean body mass and muscle strength gains in untrained men. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 35(8), 2089-2094.
18. Gomes, G. K., et al. (2019). High-frequency resistance training is not more effective than low-frequency resistance training in increasing muscle mass and strength in well-trained men. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 33, S130-S139.

Featured Image: DmitryStock/ Shutterstock

The post Should You Train the Deadlift on Back Day or Leg Day? What to Know for Results and Recovery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

It’s a movement that can truly separate the beginners from intermediate and advanced lifters based upon competency. But even for experienced lifters, pull-ups can be challenging. And they can be tough to learn, also. 

Aside from basic muscular weakness, there may be a laundry list of reasons why you can’t do bodyweight pull-ups. The smallest old injury, mobility restriction, or joint issue could frustrate your ability to take advantage of this lift. And that’s when it’s handy to have equally effective options to this classic exercise.

Best Pull-Up Alternatives

• Flexed Arm Hang
• Eccentric Pull-Up
• Lat Pulldown
• Rack Pull-Up

Flexed Arm Hang 

This isometric exercise is a prime alternative to pull-ups for a couple of reasons. First, the amount of time spent under tension in a full lat contraction is unmatched when compared to traditionally performed reps. Normal pull-ups only see this peak contraction for an instant. This variation also reduces the possibility of the biceps entering the picture, making it a more efficient back exercise.

It also allows a lifter to address a common sticking point. Many lifters are weaker in the top position than in other portions of the lift. Many lifters can get halfway up, but start to fade as their chin approaches the bar. Spending a period of time set in that position can remedy the problem, train the upper back muscles, and translate to better pull-up performance.

When to Do It

The flexed arm hang can improve muscular endurance and “closing” strength in the peak contraction of classic pull-ups. In addition to training all the target muscles of the pull-up — the lats, upper back, and biceps — your core works hard to maintain a steady lower body. Since the movement is isometric in nature, there is relatively less potential for injury or risk, since the skeleton is hardly changing position while under tension and your joints can remain stable. It’s a fantastic option for building pull-up strength.

How to Do It

To perform a flexed arm hang, position yourself under a bar, with your in closer-than-normal proximity to the bar itself. This is typically accomplished by standing on a step or box, or jumping into position and locking your body into position. Hold the fully contracted state for the desired amount of time. 15 to 30-second holds is a good place to start.

In this position, it’s easy to allow the shoulders to creep out of position (elevated and with protracted scapulae), so the emphasis must be on maintaining a “proud chest” and a “long neck”.

Once fatigue sets in, it’s common for a lifter to simply let go and forfeit all tension. Instead, allow your body to slowly lower toward a full hang. This will reap the benefits of a heavy eccentric (lowering) rep, which is a great technique for strength gains in and of itself. 

Eccentric Pull-Up 

Adding time to an eccentric (lowering or stretching) portion of any exercise can strengthen a lifter’s ability on both halves of a lift — the concentric (lifting), as well as the eccentric. (1) Exhausting muscle fibers in the concentric portion of an exercise still leaves a large amount of a lifter’s capacity untapped.

Everyone possesses more eccentric strength (strength on the lowering phase of a movement) than they do concentric strength. Because of this strength bias, working hard to exhaust and “train” that portion of a given lift can improve a lifter’s total strength in that movement while also exposing the lifter to plenty of muscle-building time under tension. (2)

To illustrate: If a lifter’s one-rep max effort bench press was 315 pounds, you would naturally conclude that loading 320 or 325 pounds on the bar would leave them unable to press the weight from their chest. However, if that same lifter was asked to only lower a 325-pound barbell to their chest without pressing it up afterward, their possibility of success would be very high.

When to Do It

Focusing on the lowering phase of the exercise places much more emphasis on time under tension, which is ideal for strengthening muscles and stimulating growth. The eccentric pull-up, in particular, is also great for building grip strength. When a lifter has a bigger frame, their issue might not be a technical element of the lift, it could be the frustration of their overall size making it difficult to possess the strength to complete reps.

For big, heavy lifters, their relative strength will be exploited with this exercise. Even if they perform well in movements like the squat and deadlift, their chin-up or pull-up performance often suffers. There’s no other major explanation to be made, other than the sad truth that those are sometimes the breaks when you carry a whole lot of mass. 

As a back-dominant exercise, the basic pull-up should generally be a movement that a lifter can perform for reps to tap into the muscular endurance of his postural muscles. It’s up to the lifter to choose the right exercise choices to make that possible, and the eccentric pull-up can be a key player in getting there.

How to Do It 

Set up a box or step under the pull-up bar, slightly behind, to the side of, or in front of your body. Stand on top of the box with your head fairly close to the bar. Grab the bar with an overhand grip, outside of shoulder-width and “jump” yourself into the top position of a pull-up — with your elbows near your ribs and your chest close to the bar. Set your shoulders down and back.

Lower yourself slowly with control, while attempting to “brake” your free descent, until the arms are fully extended and you’re in a true dead hang. When you’ve reached the bottom position, step back onto the box and repeat from the top. Focus on sets of three to six reps, with each rep taking five to 10 second for a full descent. Never sacrifice full range of motion, and be sure to do zero work on the concentric phase of the movement — only jump into the top position, don’t try to pull yourself up.

To make this more challenging, add “eccentric isometrics” by pausing for three to five seconds at various segments throughout the descent — at the one-quarter point, the halfway point, and the three-quarters point.

Lat Pulldown

The lat pulldown might be considered more of an “assistance” exercise than a true “alternative,” but it can be highly effective when pull-ups aren’t an option. The movement is somewhat more isolated in nature, as its seated starting position eliminates many core muscles normally involved in a pull-up.

Moreover, the weight being lifted can be adjusted from as low as the weight stack offers (typically 10 or 20 pounds) to the full stack itself, potentially more than the lifter can manage with good form. The makes the muscular demands on the body potentially too low or excessive. But when used properly, with appropriate loading and programming, the lat pulldown can help to target the back, shoulders, and arms in a vertical pulling movement comparable to a full pull-up.

When to Do It

One mistake many people believe about “back exercises” is that that any movement is a good one when it comes to muscular development, shoulder health, and postural correction. With good intentions, some people double-up on their pulling movements, which can include pull-ups, thinking that they are premier strengthening exercises that deliver a positive impact on posture and shoulder health.

However, kyphosis is a significant condition affecting the thoracic spine (upper and middle back) which causes a rounded, “humpback” posture. Most people think that it only affects the spine, but this change in spinal shape has an impact on the rest of the back and ribcage, also. Kyphosis also affects the shoulder blades, pushing them higher and outward into a dysfunctional “winged” position.

This can contribute to shoulder pain, and more importantly, it can mean pull-ups cause your joints more harm than good. Many lifters don’t have great shoulder mobility, and this can be very valuable information to learn before doing pull-ups. It’s a key reason why pulldowns may prove to be a safer, more effective alternative for those with shoulder or upper back issues.

The lat pulldown can allow your torso to lean at a more comfortable angle for the overhead pull, with less shoulder flexion than hanging your full body weight from a pull-up bar, can be a saving grace to shoulder health for those to whom these contraindications apply. 

How to Do It

It’s essential that you take the time to position yourself on the seat at the appropriate height. Most lat pulldown setups allow you to adjust to the height of the seat, so you should be sitting far enough that you can just barely reach the bar.

Set your hands in an overhand pull-up grip (around shoulder-width apart should be fine for most lifters), secure your legs under the leg pads, and lean your torso back very slightly.

The starting position should be one where the weight is lifted off the plate-loaded stack when the bar is in your hands and your arms are stretched overhead. In other words, at the top of each rep, the plates shouldn’t crash on top of one another, which would indicate insufficient range of motion.

Set your shoulders by lowering them toward the ground and make your neck long. Focus on driving your elbows down to move the bar toward the torso. Pull with your elbows as far as you can, to feel a deep contraction in your upper and mid-back. Done properly, the bar should stop on or near your upper chest or collarbone area. Pause very briefly before returning to the stretched position.

Rack Pull-Ups 

When someone isn’t too great at pull-ups, they can end up doing “whatever it takes” to get up to the bar. As a result, some unwanted and potentially dangerous swinging of their entire body can become an issue.

For that reason, gently resting your feet on an object like a box or bench can be a game-changer to establish muscular control without overwhelming the lift with “too much” assistance.

The idea with the rack pull-up, sometimes called a rack chin, is that your legs to take some of the loading off the body, which can result in a stricter pull-up with more focus on your upper and mid-back. This can be a great option for any lifter concerned with adding size whether or not they’re not great at standard bodyweight pull-ups.

When to Do It

Rack pull-ups create a modification from the full pull-up since some of your body weight is removed from the picture. However, the exercise also allows you to focus more on muscular contraction than core stability through each rep. Add that to the probable reality of being able to crank out more reps per set due to the improved leverage and decreased loading, and you have a wicked tool for hypertrophy.

How to Do It

Set up a flat bench or step near a Smith machine or power rack, with the bar set high enough to allow your body to create a 90-degree angle when your arms are fully extended and your feet are on top of the bench. Grab the bar with an overhand grip beyond shoulder-width. Keep your upper body mostly vertical and your lower body mostly horizontal or angled throughout each repetition. Don’t allow yourself to lean back excessively, turning the exercise into a horizontal row.

You can press gently into the bench with your legs as you pull toward the top position. This adjusts the amount of assistance and control necessary to complete the lift with maximum focus.

Benefits of Pull-Up Alternatives

Choosing an exercise comparable to pull-ups may be necessary for a number of reasons, and each alternative can provide a variety of benefits that can either work around resstrictions or help work toward a full pull-up.

Decreased Strength Requirement

Performing a bodyweight pull-up can be an incredible challenge for many lifters, whether it’s due to a significant body weight, a lack of upper body strength, or a combination of the two. The most effective pull-up alternatives can provide a significant training stimulus regardless of the lifter’s current strength level or overall conditioning.

Adjustable Range of Motion

If shoulder or upper back mobility restrictions prevent full overhead extension, you won’t be able to safely or efficiently display enough force through a full range of motion to benefit from pull-ups. By accommodating an adjusted range of motion, some exercise variations allow you to build strength and muscle size without putting your back and shoulders into a compromised position.

No Pull-Ups, No Problem

Pull-ups are an amazingly useful and productive exercise, but they’re not for everyone. If you can’t yet manage a pull-up, or if you have mobility issues that prevent you from working through a pain-free range of motion, you’re now loaded with plenty of equally effective choices to build your back, shoulders, and arms while addressing the full pull-up in your own time.

References

1. Walker, S., Blazevich, A. J., Haff, G. G., Tufano, J. J., Newton, R. U., & Häkkinen, K. (2016). Greater Strength Gains after Training with Accentuated Eccentric than Traditional Isoinertial Loads in Already Strength-Trained Men. Frontiers in physiology, 7, 149. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2016.00149
2. Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. K., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200

Featured Image: Onward Milwaukee / YouTube

The post The 4 Best Pull-Up Alternatives for Back Strength and Muscle appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Pulling in a vertical pattern strengthens your back, shoulders, and arms, while also building the muscles that support and stabilize your shoulder blades. This maintains healthy joint function which, in turn, keeps your entire upper body strong. 

However, the lat pulldown isn’t enough to build thickness in your entire back and it’s not the only way to keep everything strong, healthy, and balanced.  Eventually, you need to make some adjustments. Over-focusing on classic straight bar lat pulldowns without any change in angles, grip, or technique won’t be enough to for complete development.

If you know which muscles and attributes you’re looking to address, you can wisely choose the right exercises for better results. Here are 12 of the best alternatives to build a bigger, stronger, more complete back. 

Best Lat Pulldown Alternatives

• Behind-the-Neck Pulldown
• Rhomboid Pulldown
• Stiff-Arm Pulldown
• Lying Cable Pullover
• Crossed Band Pulldown
• Supinated-Grip Pulldown
• Weighted Pull-Up
• Mechanical Drop Set Pull-Up
• Inverted Row
• Ultra-Wide Grip Bent-Over Barbell Row
• Landmine Row
• Single-Arm Face Pull

Behind-the-Neck Pulldown

“Scapular control is as cool as a really wide back,” said no person ever. Maybe you don’t do standard pulldowns to target the muscles that control your shoulder blades, but the basic movement does train muscles that control and rotate them. Pulling the bar behind your neck creates an even more efficient path.  

Why Use the Behind-the-Neck Pulldown

By slightly altering the mechanics and path of this vertical pull, you train the supporting muscles of the shoulders and shoulder blades through a more complete range of motion. If you have suitable shoulder mobility and can perform the motion without pain, pulling behind your head allows you to target the muscles that rotate and lower the shoulder blades. 

The kicker here is that when your shoulders and scapulae (shoulder blades) are well-positioned, with the behind-neck movement, your body can create higher levels of strength and develop more noticeable upper-back muscle.

How to Do the Behind-the-Neck Pulldown

Set up on a lat pulldown machine as you normally would. Use a long bar attachment and grab it with an overhand grip beyond shoulder-width. Sit with your arms straight overhead and shoulders “shrugged” up. Keep your forehead, chin, and sternum in line as you lean slightly forward. Let your arms be pulled slightly back, in line with your hips. Keep your body forward as you pull the handle down. Ideally, aim to touch the bar to the base of your traps, near your neck, but pull to a comfortable depth based on your overall mobility.

Think about trying to shrug your shoulders “down” as you bend your arms and drive your elbows down. In the bottom position, squeeze your shoulder blades down before straightening your arms and controlling the weight up. Let your shoulders rise as the cable pulls you into a controlled overhead lat stretch. Start with light weight and a full range of motion, and increase slowly without sacrificing form. 

Rhomboid Pulldown

This movement may feel a little funky at first, but it’s a simple and effective way to shift focus from your big lat muscles to the smaller muscles of your upper and mid-back. To do these, you’ll use close or neutral-grip attachment and a very specific body angle. 

Why Do the Rhomboid Pulldown

The rhomboids are deep muscles between the shoulder blades that pull your upper back together. If these supportive muscles don’t function well, there’s a good chance you will eventually deal with some shoulder dysfunction, pain, or injury. The rhomboid pulldown targets these muscles while also building muscle in the center of your mid-back, which for many, is lacking thickness and development.  

How to Do the Rhomboid Pulldown

Grab the a close-grip attachment with your palms facing each other. Lock your legs under the pads, but lean your torso back to create a roughly 45-degree angle between your upper body and the floor. Pull your hands to your sternum and allow your elbows to flare out at a 90-degree angle to your shoulders. Keep your trunk braced and stable as throughout the exercise.

In the bottom position, think of pulling your shoulder blades together and your shoulders down to the ground. Control the weight on the way up, but keep your torso angled backward for the entire set.

Stiff-Arm Pulldown

This single-joint (isolation) exercise is arguably better at building lat thickness than traditional pulldowns because the work it done only by the lats with minimal assistance from the shoulders and arms.

Why Do the Stiff-Arm Pulldown

The stiff-arm pulldown, also known as a straight-arm pushdown, is great at building lat size and general mobility because the muscle has to overcome resistance through a long range of movement. You need to control the resistance through a long arc that puts your lats in a significant stretch toward the top. This is one of the few exercises that actually strengthens shoulder extension (raising the arm) along with training your shoulder blades to slide downward into a stable position.  

How to Do the Stiff-Arm Pulldown

Attach a straight bar or rope to a cable near the top of your head. Stand tall, grab the bar or rope with your elbows slightly bent and your palms facing down (on a bar) or facing each other (with a rope). Maintain a bent-arm position as you “sweep” the attachment toward the top of your legs.

At the bottom, imagine pulling your shoulders behind your torso before you let the weight pull your arms back up. Control the weight and let your arms come all the way up for an active stretch at the top. 

Lying Cable Pullover

Dumbbell or kettlebell pullovers are sometimes used as an alternative to pulldowns or, more specifically, an alternative to stiff-arm pulldowns, but expecting people to do those free weight exercises light enough to limit the contribution of the chest, arms, and shoulders is like asking them not to look at themselves in the mirror after a good arm pump. Lying cable pullovers are a more effective way to emphasize the contraction of the lats and other back muscles with relatively light weight and high tension.

Why Do the Lying Cable Pullover

This exercise gives you all the same benefits of stiff arm pulldowns — increased lat recruitment with limited additional muscles — while also increasing the duration that the muscle held under tension. And the longer the muscle is contracting under tension the more muscle and strength can be built. (1)

How to Do the Lying Cable Pullover

Lie on a flat bench with a cable set slightly above head-level. Use a rope attachment to allow for more range of motion. Grab the rope with your hands facing each other. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows and pull the rope toward your legs while keeping your lower back flat against the bench.

Keep your hands facing one another and try to touch your pinky fingers to the floor. In the bottom position, squeeze your shoulders together and think of pushing your triceps through the floor before controlling the resistance all the way back. Let the resistance pull your arms as far back as you can tolerate, above and behind your head.

Crossed Band Pulldown 

This movement is perfect for using resistance bands rather than a cable machine because the tension of the bands combines with the long range of motion to target the smaller muscles of the back. The crossed band pulldown can also be called a “banded rhomboid pulldown” because it works those smaller upper back muscles similar to a rhomboid pulldown.

Why Do the Crossed Band Pulldown

By pulling the bands in a cross-body motion, you are training the muscles that move and support the scapulae with a specialized effort you wouldn’t be able work with cables. These supportive muscles not only keep your shoulders functioning properly, but they provide the stability needed to build high-level pressing and pulling strength, and they contribute to unique thickness of the back musculature.

The resistance bands allows for more tension at the end range (peak contraction), which is where most people need to build more scapular control. As you pull the band, it becomes more challenging and the muscles have to create more tension, compared to steady resistance with cable pulleys. 

How to Do the Crossed Band Pulldown

Anchor two resistance bands to the top of a squat rack, pull-up bar, or other high and stable structure. Space the bands to be just outside the width of your shoulders. Grab the left band with your right hand and vice versa, and sit on the floor between them.

Keep a neutral spine, not arched or rounded, and pull the bands across the front of your body. Try to drive your elbows toward the floor behind you. Hold and squeeze the contacted position for one second before controlling the bands into a stretched position with straight arms. 

Supinated-Grip Pulldown

To keep your shoulders healthy and your upper back strength balanced, you need to do vertical pulls with your palms both facing away (pronated grip) and facing toward you (supinated grip). The supinated-grip pulldown, or “chin-down” (as opposed to a bodyweight chin-up), is a great option to build this supinated-position strength whether you can do chin-ups or not. 

Why Do the Supinated-Grip Pulldown

This hand position doesn’t magically make it a biceps-only exercise. This grip variation trains the connections between the biceps, delts, and upper-back muscles differently from a pull-up or pulldown. (2) It also builds more balanced upper back stability and more shoulder mobility.

How to Do the Supinated-Grip Pulldown

Use a straight bar attachment and set up just as you would for a standard pulldown. Grab the bar with palms facing you and hands placed right at or a little wider than shoulder width apart.

Pull the attachment down by driving your elbows to the ground and try to touch it right below your collarbone. Squeeze the elbows down before controlling the cable back up. 

Weighted Pull-Up

Most don’t think that pulling exercises that target the upper back should ever really be loaded heavy, but that line of thinking is a big mistake.

If you’re looking to build your back as big as you can, you need to combine high-rep sets with heavy weights. The weighted pull-up is an extremely effective, if slightly advanced, way to get the job done.  

Why Do the Weighted Pull-Up

Pull-ups are typically done to build muscle size using only your body weight for as many reps as possible. But they can and should sometimes be loaded as heavy as possible and performed in rep ranges as low as three to five per set. This will expose you to new types of muscular stress that leads to muscle growth. 

How to Do the Weighted Pull-Up

Take an overhand grip with your arms at, or just a little wider than, shoulder-width. Pull from a straight-arm hang to your chin or neck reaching bar-level. Warm-up with bodyweight-only sets and then add a weight using either a dip belt or a weighted vest. Start with a weight that you know you can do at least five reps with.

Perform multiple sets of three to five reps, adding just a little weight after each set. When you reach a very challenging weight and feel like you can only grind two or three reps, stick with this weight and try to do two to four more sets.

Mechanical Drop-Set Pull-Up

It’s important to do vertical pulling exercises with a variety of hand positions – overhand, underhand, and neutral-grip. Each grip is mechanically different in terms of difficulty and muscle recruitment, and this can be exploited to do more quality volume, which results in greater strength and muscle growth. (3)

Why Do the Mechanical Drop Set Pull-Up

A pronated (palms away) hand position is most challenging and prioritizes the lat muscle and upper back. A supinated (palms toward you) hand position is slightly easier and emphasizes the biceps and shoulders, and a neutral position (palms facing each other) offers the greatest leverage and is least challenging, recruiting the brachialis and shoulders. (4)

A “mechanical drop set” is a specialized technique that allows you to do as many reps as you can with the most difficult hand position. This causes the emphasized muscles to work hardest. You then continue to add more tension to the same muscle groups with a supinated grip, and finally using neutral-grip hand position. In total, you are able to do more volume than you could normally achieve using exclusively any one grip.

How to Do the Mechanical Drop Set Pull-Up

Take a shoulder-width overhand grip on a pull-up bar and lift yourself from a straight-arm hang to your chin near bar-level. As you reach muscular fatigue, let go and reset your grip to take a shoulder-width underhand grip. Continue performing additional repetitions until you reach fatigue again. Let go and finally take a neutral (palms facing) grip. Continue the last phase of the set with more reps.

One effective approach with this method is to pick a pre-determined rep count for each hand position. For example, if you can do five standard (overhand) pull-ups, you may choose to do two or three reps of each grip. This increases your pull-up volume significantly because you end up doing a total of six to nine repetitions instead of only five.

Inverted Row

The inverted row is often done with your body parallel to the floor, with your feet elevated to make it a true horizontal rowing motion. While this is a great variation to build the entire mid-back and lats, doing these at a 45-degree angle with your feet on the ground may be an even more efficient way to strengthen your back muscles similar to a lat pulldown. 

Why Do the Inverted Row

This is a great option to replace or add more bodyweight movements. Strong or experienced lifters tend to neglect bodyweight training, maybe throwing in a few push-ups here or there, but that’s short-sighted. Bodyweight pulling movements, in particular, demand trunk stabilization and good scapular control which carry over to strength and stability in nearly all exercises.

If you can’t do bodyweight pull-ups, you need to find other ways to train your pulling muscles. The 45-degree inverted row uses your bodyweight to build strength and muscular coordination. This moderate angle makes it a different and effective way to strengthen the scapular muscles and still build the lats, comparable to a traditional pull-up or pulldown.

How to Do the Inverted Row

Set a barbell on a rack somewhere around ab-height. You can also use a Smith machine. You may have to adjust this higher or lower once in position depending on your arm length. Grab the bar with an overhand grip, with your arms a little wider than shoulder-width. Slide your feet out until your body is at roughly a 45-degree angle with the floor.

Keep your legs straight and pull yourself toward the bar. Aim to touch your chest to the bar before lowering under control and repeating for the set number of reps. 

Ultra-Wide Grip Bent Over Barbell Row 

The wide-grip barbell row might be one of the best exercises to increase thickness in your lats and traps while building strength that carries over to other big lifts. If you see someone who does this exercise often, heavy, and well, you can count on them having a big and powerful back. 

Why Do the Ultra-Wide Grip Bent-Over Barbell Row

The ultra-wide grip row not only makes your lats wider, but it builds thickness in the mid-back better than many other exercises. The challenging wide grip also taxes your forearm muscles, making them bigger while building a stronger grip. The bent-over position requires your hips, trunk, and hamstrings to stabilize you body and create tension to support the weight. This total-body recruitment makes you stronger for pretty much anything else in the gym or on the field. 

How to Do the Ultra-Wide Grip Bent-Over Barbell Row 

Stand over a barbell with your feet hip-width apart. Hinge forward at the hips, squat down, and grab the bar with a palms-down grip as far wide as your grip will allow. The bar should be difficult to hold, but be sure you can keep it in your hands for the entire set. Stand straight up with the bar in your hands and your arms straight. Slightly bend your knees as you hinge from your hips.

Keep your knees slightly bent and bend forward until your back is close to parallel with the ground. Hold this position with your elbows locked and keep your back flat and your abs braced. Row the bar toward the bottom of your sternum. Control the weight back down to a straight-arm position, and repeat for repetitions.

Landmine Row

The landmine row can train the lats more without causing, or worsening, any potential shoulder problems because it places a unique demand on the body compared to other barbell or dumbbell exercises. The angle and leverage of the landmine create a different stress on the muscles and joints. It allows the lifter to adjust their body position and change the pull of the weight.

Why Do the Landmine Row

This exercise is done using a “v-bar” attachment, which requires a neutral-grip. This helps you contract your lats through a full range of motion while allowing the shoulder blades to move into a natural position. This not only helps to reduce shoulder pain but also reinforces and builds the shoulder-stabilizing muscles.

Because landmine row moves though an arc range of motion rather than a straight line, it creates different leverages for your muscles. For that reason, the weight typically feels heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top, which is the opposite of most exercises. This “reversed” strength curve means that the landmine row can train the lats differently by placing them under greater tension at the bottom position. 

How to Do the Landmine Row

Put one end of a barbell in a landmine unit, or in the stable corners of a squat rack. Attach a neutral-grip v-bar handle around the free end of the barbell just below the collar. Straddle the bar, squat down to grab the handle, and stand up supporting the bar with straight arms. Make sure your back is almost completely parallel with the floor and your legs are slightly bent.

Row the bar up and try to touch your wrists somewhere between the bottom of your sternum and your abs. Lower the weight by straightening your arms under control. Try not to “hitch” or bounce as you lift the weight. The more strict the movement, the better it is for building muscle and strength. 

Single-Arm Face Pull 

Standard lat pulldowns are usually done in hopes of building wider backs, but it’s not really just about building back width. You need to build muscle on your upper back and across the backs of your shoulders, as well. There are more focused ways to develop these key areas than just using the simple pulldown.

Why Do the Single-Arm Face Pull

The single-arm face pull targets the rear delts (back of the shoulder) and the upper and inner parts of your back. These muscle groups not only need to be strong for optimal shoulder health and stability, but they need to be well-developed if you want your back to look as thick as possible.

Training one are at a time helps you narrowly focus on properly moving your shoulder and shoulder blade. Single-arm exercises like this also train your trunk to resist rotation so, as an added benefit, you’re also training core stability.

How to Do the Single-Arm Face Pull

Attach a single handle to a cable pulley at forehead-height. Grab the handle palm-down with one hand. Straighten your arm and step back until the cable slightly pulls on the weight stack to lift it up. Stand tall with your knees slightly bent and your feet about hip-width apart.

Keep your palm facing down as you pull the handle toward your ear. Think “chicken wing” to keep your elbow high and pointed out. Focus on pulling your shoulder blade in toward your spine. Hold and squeeze at this end position for one second. Don’t let your shoulder shrug upward. Control the weight back without letting it pull your shoulder too far forward as your arm straightens. 

Benefits of Lat Pulldown Variations

There are three basic reasons to include this vertical pulling motion in your training: muscle size, muscular strength, and musculoskeletal health. Whichever reasons are on your goal list, there are plenty of effective movements to get the job done.

Increased Muscle Recruitment

Many people want to build their lats thicker and wider. Bigger lats give an athletic look many people want. Whether it’s on a bodybuilding stage, at the beach, or just for your own personal physique goal, a well-developed back includes wide lats as well as a solid upper and mid-back.

The lat pulldown, on its own, isn’t sufficient for targeting the multiple muscles involved in building complete back size.

Improved Strength Development

The more overall back strength you have, the more weight you can lift. Back strength is essential for a strong, stable upper body. This strength and stability carries over to big lifts like the deadlift, when maintaining proper position for efficient technique.

A stronger back even carries over to lower body exercises like the squat, to help your upper body transfer power from your legs through your core and upper body.

Joint Health

Healthy, well-functioning shoulders and shoulder blades (scapulae) are essential for any lifter. If you press weights overhead (up), you need to pull weights down. Basic muscular symmetry helps to reduce the risk of shoulder and upper body injuries. (5) Vertical pulling trains coordination and control between your shoulders and the scapulae, and it reinforces the postural muscles surrounding your scapulae and the entire middle back.

Get Down with All the Pulldowns

The lat pulldown is one of the most popular vertical pulling exercises for building muscle and strength. It’s an effective and time-tested exercise, but you still need to stress the upper and mid-back muscles with different angles and demands to create a maximum training effect. You can’t haphazardly add variations and hope for the best, because that can be a counterproductive waste of time. Review the exercises above, figure out which suit your specific needs, and plug them into your training plan. Soon enough, you’ll have all the variety you need for a well-rounded, and well-widened, back.

References

1. Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. K., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
2. Lusk, S. J., Hale, B. D., & Russell, D. M. (2010). Grip width and forearm orientation effects on muscle activity during the lat pull-down. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(7), 1895–1900. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181ddb0ab
3. Leslie, Kelly & Comfort, Paul. (2013). The Effect of Grip Width and Hand Orientation on Muscle Activity During Pull-ups and the Lat Pull-down. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 35. 75-78. 10.1519/SSC.0b013e318282120e.
4. Plantz MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Brachialis Muscle. [Updated 2022 Feb 22]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK551630/
5. Drigny, J., Gauthier, A., Reboursière, E., Guermont, H., Gremeaux, V., & Edouard, P. (2020). Shoulder Muscle Imbalance as a Risk for Shoulder Injury in Elite Adolescent Swimmers: A Prospective Study. Journal of human kinetics, 75, 103–113. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2020-0041

Featured Image: Wood Water Wall / Shutterstock

The post The 12 Best Lat Pulldown Alternatives for Back Size appeared first on Breaking Muscle.