If you want a bigger back, do this — Transcript

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1. 0:00Does your back training program consist of a combination of rows
2. 0:04and pull downs, or even worse, vertical and horizontal pulls,
3. 0:08maybe with some dumbbell reverse flys sprinkled on top?
4. 0:11Then it's a good thing
5. 0:12you're watching this video because I'm here to unf*ck your program.
6. 0:21Optimal back training requires more nuance than just doing a bunch
7. 0:24of horizontal and vertical pulling.
8. 0:26As my grandfather used to say: “If you want your back to be
9. 0:29wide is a barn door that ain't going to cut it, brother.”
10. 0:32He didn't actually say that and he didn't have that accent,
11. 0:35but he was right.
12. 0:36First, you have to distinguish between the different back muscles.
13. 0:39Just training back
14. 0:40is like taking a taxi and saying you're going to Europe.
15. 0:43Starting from the bottom we have the Erector Spinae.
16. 0:46Those you typically don't train with most back exercises, you train them
17. 0:49mostly with squats, deadlifts, and then maybe some dedicated Erector
18. 0:53Spinae work like supermans or spinal extension work,
19. 0:56if you're into that.
20. 0:57So I'm not going to go into detail here on the Erector Spinae,
21. 0:59I'm going to focus on the muscles typically associated with the upper body.
22. 1:02Moving up through the middle, we have the traps,
23. 1:05and you should separate between the lower, the middle and the upper traps
24. 1:08because they have different functions.
25. 1:09The upper traps I recently made a video on.
26. 1:11So you can check that out.
27. 1:12As a quick recap, if you're doing vertical and horizontal pulls,
28. 1:15what you really want in there is the wide shrug variation.
29. 1:18For the middle traps you want scapular retraction.
30. 1:21That will be done
31. 1:21pretty well by any type of horizontal pulling exercise, typically, like rows.
32. 1:25What you really want to do for those, though,
33. 1:27if you want to maximally engage the traps, is to get full range of motion
34. 1:31and really get that nice stretch in the lengthened position.
35. 1:35Many people are taught by physios that honestly just don't have a clue
36. 1:39that you should keep the back perfectly straight
37. 1:41and don't let your shoulder blades come forward
38. 1:43because it's dangerous or something.
39. 1:44Look, nobody has ever gotten injured letting their shoulder blades roll
40. 1:48forward during a row. I also bio-mechanically don't see anything wrong with that.
41. 1:52It is perfectly safe and it is good for the traps. You want them to reach
42. 1:57high tension in a lengthened position.
43. 1:59You also train the lower traps that way, but for the lower traps
44. 2:02you probably also want some scapular depression, which means the shoulder
45. 2:06blades are going down,
46. 2:07the opposite of a shrugging movement, and that you get from vertical pulls.
47. 2:11Again, you want your shoulder blades to come all the way up,
48. 2:14at the top of the movement
49. 2:15really get that nice stretch.
50. 2:17If you do those things
51. 2:18and really get full range of motion with your pulling exercises,
52. 2:21then the middle and the lower traps are worked quite well by those exercises,
53. 2:24and whether you
54. 2:25need some isolation
55. 2:26work on top of that is highly questionable.
56. 2:29So if you add some wide shrugs for the upper traps
57. 2:31then the traps are pretty much covered in your training program.
58. 2:35Moving outward to the side, we have the rear delts, the posterior deltoids.
59. 2:38And here we can really see the suboptimality creep in.
60. 2:42Just doing vertical and horizontal rows
61. 2:44generally isn't going to cut it for optimum rear delt development.
62. 2:47And that might be a reason we see so many people with underdeveloped rear delts.
63. 2:51The problem with vertical and horizontal pulls for the delts; rows,
64. 2:55pretty much any of the popular compound exercises that people do for their back
65. 2:58is that they don't put tension on the delts in their stretched position.
66. 3:02At the end of a row, cable row or machine row, or at the end even of a pull down
67. 3:07the angle of force is directly in line with your arms
68. 3:10so it's the traps that are still producing tension,
69. 3:13but the rear delts are no longer producing any tension,
70. 3:16or at least not more than stabilizers.
71. 3:18The rear delts produce horizontal abduction and shoulder extension.
72. 3:22That means they pull your elbows back.
73. 3:24They pull your elbows back at your sides, which is shoulder extension,
74. 3:27and they pull your elbows back horizontally
75. 3:29and like a reverse fly type movement, which is horizontal abduction.
76. 3:33There's no demand for that in the end position of a row or a pull down
77. 3:36when your arms are straight.
78. 3:38And over the past years we have seen multiple studies showing that muscles
79. 3:41typically grow more when they are trained in more lengthened positions.
80. 3:45None of those studies are for the back.
81. 3:47So you might argue, well, will they really apply?
82. 3:49I think probably they will.
83. 3:51We have seen research support this trend for the biceps, the triceps depending on
84. 3:55how you interpret the study, the calves, the quads, the glutes and the hamstrings.
85. 4:00Oh, and also the pecs.
86. 4:01So literally all the studied muscles so far have responded to the same criterion
87. 4:05and probably it is because there is some fundamental physiological mechanism
88. 4:08like passive mechanical tension that drives the extra muscle growth.
89. 4:12We also see that you can achieve high levels of muscle activity,
90. 4:15and there can be high levels of metabolic stress in lengthens positions.
91. 4:19Regardless of what the precise mechanism is, which remains to be elucidated,
92. 4:22the fact is that all studies that have tested this in different muscles
93. 4:25have found the same trend that muscles grow more when they are trained
94. 4:28in lengthened positions than they are trained in shortened positions.
95. 4:32And for the rear delts specifically, based on their sarcomere
96. 4:35operating lengths, which is the closest evidence
97. 4:37we have on their exact length-tension relationship,
98. 4:40they actually appear to produce the highest levels of tension
99. 4:42in lengthened positions.
100. 4:44So even if you don't put any stock
101. 4:45in the whole stretch-mediated hypertrophy thing and lengthened bias training,
102. 4:49the rear delts still should be trained with exercises that produce high tension
103. 4:54in the lengthened position because they will also likely produce
104. 4:57very high levels of active tension in those positions.
105. 5:00And there's regional hypertrophy that takes place in most muscles
106. 5:03that are more complicated. The delts definitely are one of those.
107. 5:06So it's likely that simply neglecting any part of the range of motion
108. 5:09that the muscles are capable of, not training that with exercise
109. 5:12that stimulates that region or that part of the movement very well
110. 5:16will neglect some of the muscle fibers to at least some degree.
111. 5:19How do you achieve this?
112. 5:20You can do it with cable reverse flys, not dumbbell reverse flys
113. 5:24because, again, then you have maximum tension
114. 5:26in the top position, which is the shortened position.
115. 5:28If you are using dumbbells you want something like a side
116. 5:30lying reverse fly.
117. 5:32Moving on, we have the Latissimus dorsi, commonly referred to as the lats.
118. 5:37But because I spent 6 years studying Latin in my childhood and I've been
119. 5:40waiting all my life for this one very moment to make use of that knowledge,
120. 5:44I can tell you that “latissimus” means widest and “dorsi” refers to the back.
121. 5:48So the lats actually refer to the widest muscle of the back.
122. 5:52How cool is that?
123. 5:53So how do we train the widest muscle of the back and make it even wider?
124. 5:57Well, not just with vertical and horizontal pulls, because again,
125. 6:00we have the problem that in the top position of the movement
126. 6:03or the most lengthened position, the stretched position,
127. 6:05there's no tension on the lats. Just like with the rear delts,
128. 6:09at the top position of a pull down or a pull up,
129. 6:11when you get that full stretch,
130. 6:12the lats actually are not producing active muscle tension.
131. 6:15Rows are particularly suboptimal for the lats because not only do
132. 6:19you have no tension in the stretched position,
133. 6:21the stretched position isn't very stretched to begin with.
134. 6:24The elbow doesn't go up beyond shoulder height,
135. 6:27so you are not getting much of a stretch anyway in the lats.
136. 6:30Moreover, when you pull the elbow back
137. 6:32and you pull the elbow
138. 6:33beyond the body into hyperextension, the lats at that point lose leverage.
139. 6:38The lats are no longer contributing to that part of the movement.
140. 6:41That's also a big part of the reason why you're so much weaker.
141. 6:43When you're doing rows, and you're really going for full range of motion
142. 6:46trying to hit your chest with the implement or dumbbell or whatever you're using,
143. 6:49when the elbow goes behind the body you'll notice you become much weaker.
144. 6:53It's because the lats lose their leverage.
145. 6:55Muscles pull the origin and the insertion together.
146. 6:58In the case when the elbow is behind the body, the last actually
147. 7:01reverse movement, they pull the upper arm back towards the center.
148. 7:05So that's why in a bench press, the lats in the bottom
149. 7:08position actually aid a little bit in pushing up the weight.
150. 7:12During a row that means the lats are no longer involved.
151. 7:15It would actually be
152. 7:15somewhat counterproductive to engage the lats fully in that position,
153. 7:19because they would help pull the elbow back towards center line,
154. 7:22and that would essentially constitute a push.
155. 7:25So yes, in that sense, the lats technically are a little bit of a pushing
156. 7:29muscle as well.
157. 7:30So what do you want?
158. 7:31You want an exercise like Lat prayers for the lats.
159. 7:33And I'm happy to see that, since some ten years ago
160. 7:35I gave the exercise a name and explained why it's so good,
161. 7:38it has become a lot more popular.
162. 7:40The big benefit of Lat prayers
163. 7:42is that you get very high tension throughout the entire range of motion,
164. 7:45as I explained in the following clip:
165. 7:47So this exercise gives you
166. 7:48nice constant tension on the lats throughout their full muscle length.
167. 7:52So you see, he bends forward.
168. 7:54You get a nice stretch, like here,
169. 7:55now you have a good muscle stretch.
170. 7:57And now you get a nice peak contraction.
171. 8:00Full stretch, peak contraction, full stretch...
172. 8:03If you do like only a
173. 8:04normal pullover, then you only get one or the other.
174. 8:08Because if you stay standing upright,
175. 8:11if you stay standing upright like this
176. 8:12you don't have that good stretch.
177. 8:14In a lot of programs for the lats they neglect stretch mediated hypertrophy.
178. 8:18So if you think, you know, deadlifts, rows,
179. 8:21they don't train the lats in the position of... ...at long muscle lengths.
180. 8:25So you don't train them...
181. 8:26You don't put them on a high tension in a stretched position
182. 8:29and you don't get much stretch mediated hypertrophy,
183. 8:32so leaves a lot of gains on the table.
184. 8:33Some key technique points, because a lot of people mess this up.
185. 8:35You want your arms to remain either perfectly straight,
186. 8:38which I think is the safest and most rigorous way to do them, or
187. 8:41you want your arms to stay at a consistent level of bending.
188. 8:45It's fine
189. 8:45to have your arms bent a little bit, but then you don't want them to bend more.
190. 8:48If you do that, many people
191. 8:50start turning it into a pulling exercise, and that's not the goal of the exercise.
192. 8:54You want to really emphasize the lats and you'll also feel it in your triceps.
193. 8:57Generally, that is fine.
194. 8:58It's actually a big benefit of the exercise
195. 9:00that you also train the long head of the triceps.
196. 9:02It is a shoulder extensor and it compensates
197. 9:05for all the volume you get for the other heads of the triceps.
198. 9:08Typically, people undertrain the long heads of their triceps
199. 9:11and they overtrain the medial and the lateral heads,
200. 9:12as I explained in this video.
201. 9:14Lat prayers are distinct from standard pullovers by their body movement.
202. 9:18You're supposed to lean into the movement
203. 9:20to really get a nice stretch in the stretched position.
204. 9:23So you lean forward as you go into the stretch position,
205. 9:26and then you lean a bit backward to get full contraction.
206. 9:29That way you can use your body position to get very high
207. 9:32mechanical tension on the muscle fibers throughout the entire range of motion.
208. 9:36When the exercise is too easy at the top you need to lean forward more.
209. 9:40If it's too difficult at the top you lean back a little bit.
210. 9:42This way you can maximize, just like with an ISO kinetic machine,
211. 9:46but without the need for such a machine,
212. 9:48mechanical tension throughout,
213. 9:49again, the entire range of motion.
214. 9:51You could also do pullovers instead of Lat prayers.
215. 9:54Lat prayers have two distinct advantages over pullovers.
216. 9:57First, with pullovers, you actually don't get the same level of stretch.
217. 10:01It seems nice that you get even more emphasis on the lengthened position,
218. 10:04but because the scapulae are pinned against the bench
219. 10:06when you are doing a dumbbell or a barbell pullover,
220. 10:09you actually don't get the same level of stretch in the lats.
221. 10:11Remember that lats span from the back, part of the pelvis, part of the spine,
222. 10:16and a little bit of the scapula to the upper arm on the humerus.
223. 10:20So if you move the upper arm further upward or further away from the spine,
224. 10:24basically, you get a bigger stretch. Moving the scapulae,
225. 10:27your shoulder blades, achieves that purpose.
226. 10:30So you don't get a lat stretch just because of the shoulder
227. 10:33extension movement or the shoulder flexion movement,
228. 10:36you get a bigger last stretch as well
229. 10:38when you move the scapulae. When you let the scapula drift all the way
230. 10:41upward, or at the end of a row when you let it come forward
231. 10:45and let your shoulder blades roll forward as much as they come,
232. 10:47that actually increases the stretch on the lats.
233. 10:49You cannot do that as well with a dumbbell or a barbell
234. 10:52because your scapula are fixed in place, they are pinned against the bench.
235. 10:56Same benefit that pushups have over the barbell bench press.
236. 10:59The scapulae are free to move.
237. 11:00Also tends to be a bit easier on the shoulders for a lot of people.
238. 11:03The second benefit is that while pullovers seem like they are great at emphasizing
239. 11:08the lengthened position,
240. 11:09because you have peak tension there, in fact,
241. 11:10the only part of the movement where the dumbbell or
242. 11:12the barbell is as horizontal as they get, you get high tension in that position,
243. 11:16you can also achieve that where Lat prayers by just leaning forward more.
244. 11:20So you actually don't have a benefit,
245. 11:21you're just omitting the first half of the movement.
246. 11:24Based on the latest studies showing that training purely with lengthened
247. 11:27partials does not outperform training
248. 11:29with a full range of motion in trained individuals,
249. 11:31plus the fact that lats actually have the highest potential for tension,
250. 11:35based on their length-tension relationship, when the elbow is at the side
251. 11:38I think you should not omit the first part of the movement. With a pullover
252. 11:43you’re only doing the stretched part of the movement. With a Lat prayer
253. 11:47you're also going all the way down and when the elbow, again, is at your side
254. 11:51that's when the lats actually achieve the highest active tension.
255. 11:54Whether the passive tension or whatever the mechanism is for stretch mediated
256. 11:57hypertrophy or lengthened bias training,
257. 11:59whether that compensates for that somewhat remains to be determined,
258. 12:02but I don't think there is a good reason to skip it when you can essentially
259. 12:05get that free volume and still get very high active tension.
260. 12:08Moreover, for a lot of people, it's a bit easier on the shoulders
261. 12:11when you're not just emphasizing the lengthened position because for
262. 12:14some people the shoulder is in a bit of a precarious position
263. 12:18when you're maximally loading it at the end range of motion.
264. 12:20So I think Lat prayers should be an absolute staple in your back training arsenal.
265. 12:24However, they are not the only exercise you want. The lats typically achieve
266. 12:28the highest levels of muscle activity, at least based on EMG research
267. 12:31during shoulder extension and, biomechanically speaking,
268. 12:34that does seem to be their primary purpose,
269. 12:36but you also want to have some adduction exercises which you get with wider
270. 12:40grip lat pull downs.
271. 12:41It's a slightly different function,
272. 12:42and there is evidence for functional differentiation within the lats.
273. 12:46The upper fibers seem to be more involved with shoulder extension,
274. 12:49like a Lat prayer, and the lower, more horizontal fibers have better leverage
275. 12:53and therefore seem to be more involved with more wide
276. 12:55grip pull down exercises or pull ups.
277. 12:57I don't think you should go super wide though.
278. 12:59For one, for some people it causes shoulder problems.
279. 13:02It also reduces the range of motion and the stretch you get in the top position
280. 13:06if you go super wide and it just feels very awkward
281. 13:08and it can reduce the biceps activity, although that effect is actually
282. 13:12a bit overrated, as I explained in this video.
283. 13:14But all in all, multiple good reasons not to go with a wide grip
284. 13:17and also not to go with a behind the neck grip
285. 13:19because research shows that the muscle activity is no greater
286. 13:22with behind the neck, and for some people it causes shoulder problems.
287. 13:25If it's fine with your shoulders you can do it,
288. 13:27but I don't see the benefits.
289. 13:29So the risk reward, in my view, is not positive.
290. 13:31On a final note about the lats, we also have the Teres major muscle,
291. 13:35which is actually quite significant,
292. 13:37but because it shares complete functionality with the lats,
293. 13:39if you are optimizing your Lat training program,
294. 13:41it will also optimize the training for the Teres major muscle.
295. 13:45So all in all, for the lats and the Teres major, what I recommend
296. 13:48is Lat prayers should be a staple of your training program.
297. 13:51Rows are not an exercise I typically like to do for the lats.
298. 13:54I like to do more high row type exercises to focus on the traps
299. 13:58and the rear delts, rather than use rows for the lats.
300. 14:01If you do use a row variant then try to lean forward a lot to make it
301. 14:05more of a diagonal pull and try to let the shoulder blades also come forward.
302. 14:09Unilateral exercises are great
303. 14:11for that purpose because you can really let the shoulder
304. 14:13drift forward a lot and therefore get a nice stretch in the lats.
305. 14:17So those type of exercises I like. Pull downs.,
306. 14:19I like a little bit of a wider grip, not super wide,
307. 14:21also great.
308. 14:22And I think that combination is really effective overall for the lats.
309. 14:26I hope this helps you train your back more efficiently
310. 14:28by knowing which individual muscles you're actually targeting
311. 14:31and which exercises are best to achieve that specific purpose,
312. 14:34rather than just trying to mix it all together
313. 14:36and try to train your “back” with an exercise. It should be more
314. 14:39targeted, more optimal, and therefore you should get better gains.
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326. 15:11I hope you'll enjoy it.