Transcription
Baki, Yujiro Oji. You know, we all want those savage demon bags. When trying to build my back as a beginner, I tried doing rows and deadlifts. Then my grip started giving out at anything over 100 lbs, so I stopped doing them. But that's okay, because I could do my shitty pull-ups, where I hit my head on the roof. Actually, I swapped those out too, for momentum lat pull-downs.
After a few months of work, my back was still shitty. And arguably, a few months isn't long enough to become Baki, but there sure as hell was so much more room for improvement. After fixing my [__] and learning how to do rows, my back vastly improved over the next few months, and I gained a ton of strength on all my back movements.
But rows are not optimal. You see, they have a core stability demand that can lead to your low back taking over and failing the move. The angle of pull doesn't optimally align with the traps and lats; it just misses both sides. Instead, you need to take a bench at the crowded cable station in the gym and do single-arm pull-downs. [__]
Back training is definitely more complicated than other muscle groups, but you can still make back gains by doing simple, effective things and not [__] up like I did. What muscles make up the back? A lot of us refer to all the back muscles as just "the back." That's like calling the chest, front delts, and abs "the front."
Starting at the top of the back, there's the rear delts on the back of the shoulder. In the middle of them are the traps, comprising of the upper, mid, and lower portion. Below the rear delts are the rhomboids, teres, and infraspinatus. Rhomboids and teres are hit well enough if you do your basic back movements correctly, but the infraspinatus (aka the rotator cuff) can benefit from direct targeting. Below those are the lats, comprising of the upper and lower fibers. And lastly, acting as the abs of your back are the spinal erectors, which don't pull your arms back like the others; rather, they extend the spine.
So there's four major muscle groups on the back that you need to worry about targeting: lats, traps, rear delts, and spinal erectors. Rotator cuff as well, as a bonus, but I'll get to that later. So we have the muscles, but how do we target these effectively?
Deadlifts for the spinal erectors and traps; barbell rows for generally the entire back with trap emphasis; pull-ups for lat emphasis; and a rear delt exercise, since they're usually underdeveloped. Why are these exercises so effective?
Deadlifts force the majority of your back muscles, especially the traps and spinal erectors, to work extremely hard isometrically to keep you from collapsing like a shrimp, while also growing your hamstrings, abs, and glutes—insane return on investment. The movement allows you to get strong very quickly, which allows you to expose the back to more and more loads so much easier. Other deadlift variations work; I personally like Romanians, since they can be used at much higher volumes.
Barbell rows provide a great stimulus to the back as a whole, especially traps, as well as to the core and spinal erectors to keep you stable. That's seen as a downside by many, but I think this added need for stability really helps bulletproof your low back and carries over better to other exercises like the deadlift. These are also especially great since you can get stronger relatively quickly on these. Other standing row variations work; I personally like pendlay rows, and if you have to, you can use laying-down variations where you're against the bench.
Pull-ups provide a great stretch to the lats at the bottom and also involve some core demand to keep you in a somewhat neutral posture. Like before, you can get strong on these relatively quickly and look sick as [__]. You can use a variety of grip styles or even do a lat pull-down; however, I would only recommend a pull-down if you have to.
Lastly on this list is just any rear delt exercise. The point is to target them directly, since they are often neglected by most lifters. You can't get stronger on these super fast like the others, but generally over months you should be able to put up more weight with this exercise. You can add or rotate in additional exercises like shrugs, lat raises, etc.; however, these four are all you will truly need. Sean can back me up here. Learn how to make the basics work, and then you can advance. Don't advance when you're still only a beginner. A rotator cuff exercise would be handy for injury prevention, and I recommend including one; however, it's not going to really do much for the look of your back.
So we have the exercises, but there's a good chance you're still probably making a few of the following mistakes, which are [__] on your back gains. I know at least once in your training career you had to stop a set of an exercise because your grip gave out. I know the feeling; it's been a huge problem for me with my baby-ass hands. If your grip is giving out first, that essentially turns whatever exercise you're doing into a suboptimal grip exercise, since your grip is what's being challenged rather than the target muscle. So here are my top three tips for preventing this:
Learn a stronger grip. Yes, this is as possible. There are actually multiple grip styles out there. The most common and natural grip is the double overhand grip; however, this grip gets harder to continue using once you reach a certain level of strength, unless you have a porn-star-level grip. If you try to progress this grip past the 3-400 range with deadlifts, you'll usually just end up plateauing on grip failure because it's just not a super secure grip for deadlifts. You have two options: you have the mixed grip and the hook grip, which both have their pros and cons.
With the mixed grip, it's very easy to learn; you literally just flip one of your hands, and you have a secure grip. However, you can start developing back imbalances over the course of months and years, depending on which side is overhand and which one is under. You risk a bicep tear on the underhand side, even if it's super rare; just be aware. And this can only be used on barbell deadlifts realistically, since your arms are just hanging down and not actually moving themselves to pull the weight. Literally just think for a second how goofy mixed grip pull-ups and rows would feel with dumbbells. The whole point of the mixed grip is also defeated because both hands need to be making contact with the object you're holding for it to work. Other than that, it's a solid choice for deadlifts. For anything else, I recommend the hook grip. It very closely resembles the double overhand grip, works with pretty much any back exercise where the equipment is being pulled in your hands, and no imbalances are developed since both of your hands are overhand. However, it's pretty hard to learn, and for people with small hands it's even harder. It requires a lot of practice and getting used to. You also risk tearing your thumb. Other than that, I think it's the best grip style to learn since it can be used with all back movements.
All right, number two: use lifting straps. I know some of you guys think using straps makes you a [__]; it doesn't. Don't be a [__]; it's just a tool in the toolbox that can help you stop your grip from failing so you can continue making back gains. However, using straps regularly will, down the line, cause your grip to become weak and make you reliant on straps. I would recommend both learning a stronger grip style and using straps if your grip has become limiting. You can take the first set of your back exercises to dedicate to your new grip style, and then the rest of your sets can be done with straps to ensure you will get back rows. Don't use straps for every set, and if you must, make sure you add in some direct forearm work on the side to keep your grip up to par, like dead hangs and farmer's carries.
All right, lastly, three: keep your wrist neutral. I know some of you, by accident, end up wrist-curling the weight during back movements, trying to get that little extra inch of range of motion. Stop doing that. Try to keep your wrist and forearms as aligned as possible. To help with this, don't think about pulling with your hands; think about gripping the weight hard and dragging your elbows back instead. However, if you start to slightly wrist-curl the weight as you get more fatigued during the set, that's acceptable. But if you're really wrist-curling the weight, it forces your forearms to work much harder, which overall just weakens your grip. I've already told you why that's a no-no. That's about it for the tips. The most obvious thing to do, though, is to just train your grip more with direct work, but I don't think that needs further explanation. So with a stronger grip, you're ensuring that your back muscles are properly stimulated in each set without your forearms taking the stimulus away. All right, let's move on to the next mistake.
A common cue that's spread around is to pin your shoulders back and squeeze your scapula together, like you're trying to do a standing bench press. While that works fine on a bench press, a bench press isn't a back movement, and your back is up against the bench, which isn't the case for pretty much all back movements. When doing back movements like a row or pull-up, let your arms extend forward on the way down. Just because it rounds your back doesn't mean you're going to demolish your spine. The rounding this causes is on the thoracic spine, not the lumbar spine, so there's far less risk. You can still keep a stable core while letting your arms come forward; trust me. What this extension and rounding actually does is stretch your target back muscles way more, which triggers much more growth because of the larger range of motion your back muscles have to go through. So rather than hovering in this little area, let your arms come forward and then initiate the pull. Make sure you continue having a controlled descent. When your back muscles are getting stretched more on deadlifts, make sure you do not move your scapula during the movement nor try to keep your scapula pinned back. However, do ensure that your scapula is tight and rigid by locking your shoulders down.
All right, those are the two main mistakes, besides obvious things like bad form. Let's move on to what will actually be the driving force of building muscle in your back when you use these four [Music] exercises. When I was talking about the four main back exercises, I kept bringing up that you can get stronger at them very quickly. Why is this so important?
Progressive overload (aka getting stronger). What separates the guys with monster backs to those with conga-pencil syndrome is that the guys with monster backs can row and pull up a lot of weight. I know a lot of people are going to tell me that somebody bigger isn't automatically stronger than somebody who's smaller, and that's true, but size and strength are very directly correlated on an individual level, meaning that you, who has a big back, will be guaranteed to be much stronger at back movements than you with a small back. Getting stronger has always been a time-tested way to get bigger, and vice versa. Here I will cover two basic progressions for getting stronger, which will work especially if you're a beginner:
Rep ranges: This is usually shown as start reps to end reps, so like 8 to 10, 8 to 12, 5 to 10, etc. The idea is that you pick a weight for an exercise which you can only do for the start reps of the range. Then every following training session for that exercise, you try to do one more rep until you can do the end reps of that range. The next step is to just add 5 to 10 lbs, which will lower the amount of reps you can do, hopefully to the starting rep, and repeat the cycle over and over.
That simple.
Two: Linear progression. This is an even simpler way to get stronger than the last. Choose a weight you can do for the target reps, let's say five reps. Every following session for that exercise, you simply just add 5 lbs and do it for the target reps and repeat. Due to how fast-paced this progression is, I only recommend it on things like deadlifts and barbell rows. For the deadlift, this usually works up until the 405 mark, and for rows it's usually the 185 mark. Most other lifts don't progress fast enough to warrant using this progression, but it's the best you can do if you're able to get away with it, which beginners usually can.
And that's about it for progression. Without the intent to get just a little bit stronger each session, your back, or any other muscle group for that matter, will not grow optimally. None of my previous tips will matter in the grand scheme of things if you are not trying to progress. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
And that's about all I have to share with you in this video today, brother. There will be a link to two free back and biceps targeting pull days in the description, which you can use and/or modify. There will also be a link to the Discord server, which you can join if you want direct help from me and others. I know I rambled a lot about progressive overload being the most important thing, and it is; however, in order to know what weights to use to consistently get stronger, you must be keeping a log book of your workouts. You don't need a fancy workout tracking app or anything like that; a note on your phone's Notes app works; hell, even a pencil and paper if you want. A more detailed explanation? I have just a video for you right here. So what are you waiting for? Go start working and take action. You can like and subscribe if you like, and I hope you have a great day.