Your back is important. Treat it right, and it will treat you well, give you a powerful V-shaped frame, and even prevent shoulder problems. Neglect it, and you court a beanpole frame, upper and mid-back pain, shoulder problems, and a hunch-back. Keep reading unless you want that.
Why men should pursue a V-shaped frame: it gives you that look of a powerful upper-body. A wide, powerful back makes you look powerful, imposing, and badass.
Why women should pursue a V-shaped frame: width up top makes your waist look smaller. It’s the top half of the hourglass. (As I’ve said multiple times before: women should not worry about getting huge. Unless you’re juicing, stop worrying.)
1. Weighted wide-grip pull-ups: three sets of 10. bring the bar down past your chin; at the bottom, retract your shoulder blades and touch the bar to your upper chest. If you can’t do weighted pull-ups, do a variant that you can do: three sets of 8 without weight, for example. Or, to recruit some help from your biceps, switch to chin-ups.
If you can’t do pull-ups, try doing them using bands to support you. Is that still not enough? Try getting a friend to give you an assist on your way up, and then do controlled negatives. Your worst-case scenario: use a lat pulldown machine. If you can’t do a single pull-up or chin-up, though, regardless of your fitness goals, getting yourself up to that point should become one of your top priorities. In that case, you should adjust your set-rep scheme to do more weight and less reps per set.
2. Seated Rows: 3 sets of 10. Be sure not to lean with this movement; that’s bad for your lumbar region. Instead, keep your spine straight and focus on pulling in toward your lower chest.
3. Face Pulls: 3 sets of 12. For how to perform this, I’m just going to shamelessly quote a strength coach from T-Nation: “Face a pulley machine and grab the rope with an overhand grip. Pulling through the elbows, take the middle of the rope in a straight line towards the bridge of your nose. The key is to make sure you fully retract the shoulder blades at the midpoint, squeeze, and then return to the starting position.” These are great for your external rotators, meaning that they can help prevent back problems. W00t!
4. Fighter’s pulldowns: 3 sets of 12-15 per side. I just learned about these, and they kick ass. Go to a pulley-based lat pulldown station, remove the bar, and attach a D-shaped handle (or any handle that lets you pull down with one hand). Pull your elbow all the way down to your hipbone, combining the pulldown with a side crunch. Unfortunately, I don’t have any good pictures of this one in action. As for why they are called fighter’s pulldowns: they are highly recommended for martial artists.
Give this a try, and go heavy. By the you’re done crying about how much your lats and rhomboids hurt, you’ll notice some real progress, both in terms of appearance and performance.
