Your Back Will Never Be Huge Without These 4 Movements

Four Categories of Back Exercises for Complete Development00:00

There are four core types of back exercises that should be checked off the list to make sure the back gets as jacked, resilient to injury, and strong as possible. These four categories should be cycled through and checked off over any given 6 to 12-month period for complete development, as many of these exercises maintain the gains of the others.

Straight Arm Pulls00:31

The first class of exercises are straight arm pulls, including cable lat prayers and every kind of pullover such as dumbbell, barbell, EZ bar, or machine pullovers. This class of movements targets almost exclusively the lats and the teres major parts of the back. They also toast the rear delts and can engage the long head of the triceps.

These exercises tend to be not very systemically fatiguing, allowing training to or beyond failure very safely for higher reps and the ability to pile on volume. Many other exercises that focus on the lats have a higher degree of systemic fatigue and hit other parts of the back as well. These lat isolation movements allow focus on the lats and teres major to get a much wider back. They serve as an excellent tool to get even more lat training than the amount of volume the rest of the back can handle from exercises that tend to involve more components of the back than just the straight arm pulls.

Vertical Pulls03:01

Vertical pulls are composed of every single kind of pull down, every single kind of unweighted pull up, every single kind of assisted pull up, and every single kind of pull down. There are literally dozens and dozens of variations. The important thing is to use very good technique with a big stretch at the top and a full contraction at the bottom and progress logically with good technique over time.

The details on which one of these to use are really minor and only context specific. There is no battle between weighted pull ups and lat pull downs. It is all good depending on the context. If training is between five or 30 repetitions close to failure, there are no wrong answers. Because there is so much variation, there will never be a shortage of vertical pulls to do. Just a simple grip switch from any one of these is really a brand new exercise.

These vertical pulls will take care of the lats like crazy and they will take care of the rear delts, the teres major, and some other parts of the mid and maybe even upper back as well. They are really lat focused. The lats can take a pounding in volume, so as many exercises for them as possible are needed because of the lots of sets that will be done over time.

Rows04:30

The rows train the lats to some extent, but they train muscles of the mid back substantially more. To some degree the spinal erectors, but mostly muscles like the rhomboids, the mid traps, the lower traps, and even the upper traps. This is a massive thing for back thickness.

There are many different kinds of rows, but they generally separate into just a few categories: barbell rows, underhand EZ bar rows, dumbbell rows, machine rows, and cable rows. The details are just the details and are very specific to the individual's requirements at the time that they are doing the row. All the rows are really good as long as a big stretch and a good range of motion are ensured and good technique is used where the weight is not being swung around and the back is actually being used.

Rows tend to be a bit more systemically fatiguing, so they must be dosed out intelligently. One cannot just row their way to overall back size because at some point systemic fatigue will occur, but the lats, which don't experience a big stretch and thus don't experience the biggest growth from rows, will be left unattended to relatively speaking. This is one of the reasons why rows are not the only exercise that are good for the back and why vertical pulling is needed.

Spinal Erector and Mid Upper Trap Moves06:03

The last category consists of spinal erector and mid upper trap moves. These are moves that essentially train the muscles that uncurl the back and make it upright and rigid. The spinal erectors run all the way from the hips all the way up to the neck and form giant cables in the middle of the back. Thickness cannot be had without them, injury resilience cannot be had without them, and real world back strength as it is measured in most ways cannot be had without massive gnarly spinal erectors.

Many of the exercises in this category, though not all, also stress the traps to a significant extent. There are a couple of different kinds of exercises in this category. One are the deadlifts. Every kind of deadlift stresses the spinal erectors tremendously. Rack deadlifts, regular deadlifts, and deadlifts from a deficit can all be done. These are very systemically fatiguing for this category of exercises, but a complete back means getting systemically fatigued every now and again, especially potentially earlier in one's career when building the foundations.

Another category are the stiff-legged deadlifts and the good mornings. These are hamstring exercises and glute exercises, but they stress the spinal erectors like crazy and will help build a thicker back. Lastly are the flexion row variants. Starting from exercises that look like stiff-legged deadlifts that were done wrong, the Jefferson curl is still massive for the spinal erectors, and then of course various flexion rows, dumbbell, barbell and cable flexion rows. These dynamically train the spinal erectors. They are not as dangerous as deadlifts, though deadlifts are quite safe if done properly. These build a ton of injury resilience and mass for the mid back into the physique.

It is a big deal to be doing at least some dynamic flexing and extending to keep super healthy, super injury resilient, and become even more jacked. These exercises might be done as infrequently as once a week like deadlifts, stiff-legged deadlifts, or good mornings, which typically are only done one or two of in every week. All three would not be done together, and certainly not for multiple sessions a week. These really beat one up as the spinal erector complex tends to experience a lot of fatigue, but it is fatigue well worth it because a gnarly sick looking back can be obtained.

Structuring Back Training Program09:02

To structure this into a back training program, generally speaking, pick from at least two of the categories in any given week of training. More specifically, pick from some combination of straight arm pulls and vertical pulls as one category and rows and flexion components as another category. There are four kinds of back training, but two groupings. There are the groupings that mostly hit the lats and the groupings that hit mostly the mid back and the spinal erectors and train for back thickness.

If using at least one of these in every week from one of these categories, that is sufficient. All four categories do not have to be used every week, but every time one of the one and two categories and one of the three and four categories are picked, switch every now and again. If a lot of rows have been done, try some flexion rows or some deadlifts on the back day. If a lot of vertical pulling has been done, try some straight arm pulls instead.

With this method of varying the back training situation, and because each one of these has dozens and dozens of options inside of its own category, there will never be a shortage of amazing back training. It will never get stale, and if it does, just switch to another exercise or another class of movement.