What's going on nation? I'm here with Mike Rosa from the Anabolic Aliens and today
We're going to show you guys four exercises to help you build a bigger back, it's important
You guys train your thickness and width of [your] back to grow proportionally
So if you're not doing any of these four [exercises] add them to your routine now
All right guys exercise number one is going to be weighted pull-ups
Now whether you're at the level where you can actually use weight or not
You should certainly have pull-ups in your back routine. So if you're doing assisted pull-ups bodyweight pull-ups, or weighted pull-ups
You're going to naturally have a force that's pulling down on you and what that's going to do when you pull yourself up
You're going to be activating the upper lats as well as the Rhomboids
So this is a really great exercise to expend the width of your back
And you'll notice that I'm standing on the bench and the reason I'm doing this is because not just because I'm not necessarily
That tall but I want to set myself up where I don't have to jump up [to] the bar
Especially if I have weight on me, and I want to be able to stabilize myself
So you're going to grab [the] bar just a little wider than [shoulder] width and then you're going to come [all] the way up
and you'll notice I come as close as I can to my upper chest and then I come all the way down slowly and
Hold it a dead lockout
So you want to come down to a point where your lats are
Completely stretched and they come all the way up to that almost upper chest and then slowly back down
So you're flexing your lats the top and let them be completely stretch at the bottom so like I said guys
This is a great exercise
You got to work up to the weight
But it's really going to help you expand the width of your back
Exercise number two is going to be the Pendlay Row once again this
Exercise like the first is going to help with the overall width of your back
So we're targeting the lats hitting a bit of the rhomboids bit of the traps as well spinal erectors for stability because the pulling motion
You'll also be activating your biceps now the main difference between the Pendlay row and a regular barbell bent over row is number one
When you're doing a regular barbell bent over row you're holding [the] weight in the air the entire time so what that means is
The exercise itself is gonna be more taxing on your body
Especially in your lower back because you have to hold the weight in the air with the Pendlay row
You come to a complete dead stop after
Every single repetition and what that means is you'll actually be [able] to lift more weight and really
overload your back because you can rest in between your repetitions and
Really focus on the pull so with that being said this is definitely an exercise you want to do in the beginning of your workout
So to perform the movement you're going to get into position grab the barbell just outside of shoulder width
Then once you're in place. Keep your core nice and tight and then
Explosively pull the barbell off the ground
Just like that do another rep
Just like that and now as you guys lift heavier and heavier
It is okay to use a bit of a hip thrust in this exercise to lift a bit more weight
but you always want to make sure you're in control of the movement the entire time so if you notice [that] it's
Becoming more of a hip thrust and momentum lift as opposed to actually pulling and isolating your back
Then you've gone too, heavy
So it's a fine line between hitting your back as hard as possible and just
[doing] momentum reps
And not really getting the full benefit of the movement all right guys exercise number three is going to be the dumbbell
Seated low row so a variation to the normal low row you are used to doing but we're going to be using dumbbells
Now a lot of people neglect working the inner
definition of their back so mostly people are focusing on expanding the width of their back well this exercise is going to Target the
Thickness of your inner back so it's really going to target those will relax and as well as work the spinal erectors
So what you're going to do is you're going to set up on the end of a bench grab your dumbbells
Sit in a [bent-over] position
And you're going to slowly keep your back strict and row to the lower part of your back
You come all the way up and keep it strict now what this is doing
It's going to feel every rep feeling like a pinch in your back so like you're going fast
We're keeping our dumbbells close to our body. So we're not expanding like a fly
We're keeping them very close like a row and what you're going to notice is you're going to feel a [little] squeeze
Every single rep and now what that's going to do is it's really going to Target the middle
Definition like I said too many people neglect
[working] the inner part of their back because they're focused on getting wide well what you're going
do if you have a wide back without
Thickness in the middle so this exercise a dumbbell seated low row add thickness to your middle back
[alright] guys exercise 4 is going to be the T-bar row now when performing this movement guys
I'm using a landmine if you don't have one just jam the [barbell] into the corner of a wall [and] throw some weights on top
Of it to keep it in place now. What's great about this exercise
It's just like the one you guys saw Mike do where he was doing the dumbbell row on the bench
This is going to focus more on hitting your middle back to build overall size and strength
[you] don't want to only be doing exercises that target the width of your back which a lot of people happen to do
This exercise is going to hit your lats your teres major
It's going to activate your spinal erectors as well as your traps and because the pulling movement
We're gonna get some bicep activation in here as well now another great thing about the T-bar Row is
Because we're using this handle and our palms are facing each other to perform the movement. This is mechanically the strongest position
That you can place yourself in to lift the most amount of weight with any back exercise
So what that means is we're going to be able to really overload the muscles with a lot of weight
so when you do this exercise
It should be more towards the beginning of your routine so you can really take advantage
Of the fact that you're pulling with your palms facing in so to perform this movement what you're going to do is get into place
make sure when you do this [guys] you're not doing a stiff leg and bending over [like] this and then pulling the weight up if
You do a lot of this weight is going to transfer to your lower back, and you'll go into flexion
And you can damage your lumbar spine so you don't want that. So sit between your legs get a nice tight stance
Once you're in place pull the bow all the way up as high as you can
So you get to the top your nice tight squeeze and go back to the ground now
I like to go to the ground and do a dead stop between all of my repetitions
Just to make sure I'm [not] using momentum to perform my reps. So bring it up down
Bring it up down. Just like this now a little bit of momentum is okay
Especially [as] you start to fatigue or if you decide you want to add 5 or [10] pounds and by a little momentum
I mean getting it to the top getting a squeeze and controlling it on the way down if you guys are just doing this oh
And then dropping it shit like that might happen which obviously you can get injured
But if you're just pulling it up
And then letting it drop to the ground and you have no control on the negative you're missing out on all that muscle
Activation you could be getting on the way down alright guys that wraps up today's video now
Make sure if you can incorporate any of these exercises into your routine
Start off with like three to four sets of six to eight reps or eight to ten depending on whether you want to go for
More strength or high volume and remember also to the specific exercises here that are focused on increasing the overall
Thickness of your middle back and then there's exercise that focus on increasing overall width of your back
So just see what your routine is missing and then add these exercises in when needed
Now you're probably wondering why we didn't include the deadlift obviously that's a great exercise something
I highly recommend you start out your back workouts with but the reason we didn't put that in this video is because we're talking about
Aesthetics specifically so building your physique where the deadlift it's going to pretty much build the entire strength and size of your back
We're we're talking more about the aesthetic purposes of these specific exercises, and that's exactly right if you guys have any questions
Make sure you go [down] to the comments section below
Be sure to subscribe to anabolic aliens and as always more good stuff coming soon. See you guys