What's up, guys, Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.com. So, we continue the Only 2 Exercise series today,
this time we're focusing on the upper back. Of course, there's not just one of us,
but there's two, Swede Burns, who s going to help me to actually target Jesse's upper back.
Swede: One of my favorite exercises to build a big upper back, get a nice yoked upper back,
is an exercise I call throat pulls. I'm going to show you two different variations of it right now.
If you have access to a cable machine, you just want to get it on a very low setting here.
A rope attachment is a good way to do it, you can also use an easy curl bar attachment.
Okay, so for this one, all you need to do is set it low.
Kind of step back a little bit like this, you want to get a good 45-degree angle with the cable
and then bring the hips back. Then the idea is you're going to just row it towards your throat.
It's not really that you're going up like that, like a shrug.
Jess: You're shrugging back. Jeff: Right, shrug back.
Swede: Yeah, exactly. You're pulling those clavicles back as far as you
can. If you think about just ripping the clavicles back, it's that simple. Yeah,
just hammers the traps really good. Jeff: Jesse's actually got a pretty
good upper back development, clearly way better than it used to be.
Swede: I see that. And you actually don't need to flare your elbows much on this,
so go ahead and row that up towards your throat. Good. There it is. Good. You feel that? Just like
you're pulling the clavicle back. Jesse: Yeah.
Swede: Good. Jeff:
Really trying to squeeze his traps, right? Swede: Yeah, that looks great.
Jeff: And it's hitting more than just the upper traps.
Swede: Right. Oh, absolutely. It's hitting all the muscles of the scapula. Basically,
I just try to think about using everything from on the top side of the scapula when I'm doing this.
Even posterior deltoids are involved in that. Jeff: Cool. Now you got one other variation in
case they don't want to use a cable, right? Swede: This is actually my favorite variation.
The problem is on some of these, sometimes you'll run into an incline bench in most gyms
where it's difficult to get an easy curl bar to fit in because just the nature of the way
these things are set up. But if you have one, if you have access to one like this, it's a great
way to do it. What I do is I set the bottom pad up so I can kneel on the pad and then I kind of
go like this so I can get over there, lean over a little bit,
and I initiate by just straightening up my upper back, see what I'm doing there.
And then I'll start to push back and activate my lats. As I let this swing, I'm going to start
rowing it up towards my throat again. Jeff:
Mostly driving right through here. Swede: Yep.
Jeff: Through the traps. Squeezing and pulling the shoulders back.
Swede: Yup, you really feel that in your upper traps.
Jeff: So, we have an exercise we call like the High Boy Row, pulling out with higher elbows,
but the idea being to hit that upper back hard. Swede: Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yup, so just
start by pushing it back and then as you release, pull it up towards your throat. Good. Keep those
elbows in. And your back. Looks great. Jeff: Good, Jesse.
Swede: Yeah, buddy. Jeff:
The second exercise is obviously the one that I'm in love with, but for good reason. We're talking
about a Face Pull. Obviously, we want to use a rope attachment. Sometimes people don't have
an extra-long rope like we're going to use here, so I suggest actually attaching two ropes. What
are you doing juggling those? Jesse: Two ropes like these?
Jeff: Listen, just take the double rope just like this and then, of course, now you've got
one long rope in each hand. And there's actually a slight difference of what I want to focus on, too,
because we can take that upper back we're not just talking about upper traps we're talking about rear
delts, we're talking about middle traps, lower traps, we can hit it all if we do this a slightly
different way. So, the way that I like to teach the Face Pull is with that underhand grip for
these to get external rotation at the shoulder. But then we obviously pull keep those elbows at
90 degrees, right? Trying to think about taking those thumbs and pointing them back behind us.
At that point, though, we can engage the lower lats by going and raising our arm up. So, with
that extra raise there, we're going to get the lower traps and mid traps engaged too. So down,
controlled, out, pull, squeeze all the way back, rear delts, upper back, lower traps, down and out.
You got to have good control, not just through here, through the upward raise, but also through
the return back. These muscles can be overloaded eccentrically very easily, they're usually very
weak. So, the eccentric is going to be a little bit stronger, and it gives us an opportunity to
strengthen them a little bit more. So good control up, good control down,
and then all the way out. Do you like it? Jesse: Loved it.
Jeff: Swede, do you see anything here that you want to point out?
Swede: These would make a really good superset. Actually, yeah, Face Pulls and
Throw Pulls were one of my favorite super sets. Jeff: Not only are we talking about the only two
that you could use and need, however you put them together and it sort of becomes the only
one superset you need to do. Swede: You can really get it all
knocked out at one time. Jesse: So, I have a question
for the both of you. Why is it important to have a strong developed upper back?
Swede: In the sport of powerlifting when most people fail on a bench press, if you watch
somebody fail, they lose a shoulder, right? And it's usually because of upper back weakness or
underdevelopment of the upper back, and not because their pecs weren't strong enough or
because their shoulders weren't strong enough. So, it's one of the most important assistance
exercises for the press that there is. Jeff: And of course, PT wise, I mean,
posture is huge, right? And thoracic extension, which will bite them in the squat and the
deadlift is going to be lost because a lot of times we just don't have good upper back
strength. And a lot of times they don't even have good stamina up there. They can't hold
it long enough. They don't even necessarily need top end levels of strength, but just stamina.
Swede: Right. So, it's actually the roles of the muscles of your back entirely throughout
the deadlift, for example, are static, right? But if you don't have a really strong upper back,
then you buckle and you come out of your bar path and that's what causes you to fail
in a deadlift. The same thing is true for a squat. Most squats people don't fail on the
squat because their legs aren't strong enough. They fail because their upper back is too weak
and so they buckle and come out of path. So, it becomes a technical issue in that way.
Jeff: So obviously, guys, these two exercises are the two that actually should matter a lot to you.
Of course, go check out the Only 2 Chest Exercise video here also. But make sure you do these two.
If you want to check out Swede Burns, guys, I mentioned him in my favorite YouTubers video.
You can find him actually on Instagram where he's got a lot of great content. Please go
over there and check him out. Meantime, Jesse, thank you, nice job on that upper back.
Jesse: Thank you. Jeff: If you guys are looking for a full
program you can find it at Athleanx.com. And if you haven't done so, click Subscribe and on turn
your Notifications so you never miss a video when we put one out. All right, guys, see you soon.