What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
I just finished a new back workout and I figured, you know, this could be helpful if I could
somehow retrace my steps, put it on video here for you guys
so that you can learn and see from just one example of an ATHLEANX type training video
and workout, how you can benefit much more than you might be benefitting now.
And it all starts with the mindset when you go into your workout.
First of all, I broke this workout down into zones.
I tried to be very focused on an upper back zone
and a mid to lower back zone.
And when I say low back, I think that might be the most important zone that we're talking
about because an underdeveloped low back,
or a low back that doesn't get paid attention to in your major back workout, is going to
undermine your ability to perform at your best through all of your other back exercises.
It's going to sap away all of your potential strength that you could be building on your
big back exercises.
So, I find a way to incorporate it into the workout itself so there's never an excuse
of,
'Oh I don't have enough time to incorporate it, or I just didn't have enough time if I
had to choose one or the other, I'm going for the big, wide lats and upper back, and
skipping the low back.'
So, as I take you through, watch what we do,.
First of all, we target the mid back.
And with the mid back, the first exercise up is a classic Lat Pull Down.
Again, here, we're working on sort of the width or the V Taper of the lats.
And we do that by performing 3-4 sets, heavy, as heavy as I can control.
Remember, it's not about momentum but controlling the reps.
We move on from there to one of my favorite exercises, the Barbell Dead Row.
This is just a classic power exercise starting from the ground up.
It's a combination of a Row, it's a combination of a Deadlift.
The Barbell Dead Row is an awesome way to build back strength, but look at the key focus
here.
Look at the positioning of the low back.
If the low back is not strong enough, can you see what would happen to your ability
to actually lift heavy weights on the exercise itself?
You're going to be limited.
So, we want to make sure that we're working our low back and we're going to do that here
in this indirect way, but watch more importantly where we go from here.
Once I'm done with those reps and sets, I go to the next exercise which is over at a
Hyperextension machine.
Here I'm demonstrating on a Glut Hand Raise,
and we do a Static Hold, and we do a Y Raise.
And the Y Raise is just basically the angle that I'm creating here with my arms in relation
to the rest of my body.
So, I'm basically forming a Y.
And caution here.
I'm not going very heavy at all, and you won't either.
I'm using 5 pound plates.
But i'm holding that Static V hold,
and I'm working on that all important endurance factor when it comes to the lower back.
The muscles of the low back are postural in nature and are supposed to be able to hold
you up,
upright, with good posture, and withstand the forces of those heavy back exercises when
you go to perform them.
So we want to work on our ability to do that and work on our endurance.
And it makes a whole hell of a big difference when we can do it.
But we're not done.
Now we've got to go to the Upper back portion of our exercise.
Targeting that upper back zone.
Zoning a weaker area than our midback doesn't mean that we don't have to work on them.
We probably have to work on it extra hard.
So, the first exercise here, I go back to the Row, but we change it a little bit.
We do a High Boy Row.
And the High Boy Row is just the bar path.
The bar path stays a little bit away from my body and it arcs up towards my upper chest
and it kind of arcs back down.
You can see this natural arc.
I'll even slow it down for you here so you can see that the bar path is actually going
up higher.
When we pull up high, we're obviously pulling more with our elbows and we're pulling higher
up on our back on the opposite side.
So you can see that those muscles are getting a bit more work here from this tweek to the
Row.
You won't be able to go as heavy, but it doesn't matter.
It's heavy for those muscles, and that's the point.
We move on from here to what we call a Perpendicular Landmine Row.
So, I've demonstrate before the benefits of a Landmine Row when you do it parallel to
the bar standing side-by-side next to the bar.
That's great, and that's a different exercise.
It has more of a core, front side core focus on obliques than what I'm showing you here.
This now allows me to get that elbow up and away from my body so we're getting that higher
portion of our upper back involved and we could load up the weight again here.
I'm trying to go heavy.
I'm trying to stabilize my core so I'm trying to go heavy and follow that proper bar path
up and high.
We work on both sides, and guess where we go?
We go back to the Hyperextension machine, or the Glut Hand Raise, and we work on a different
version of the Static Hold of the isometric hyperextension.
And this time we're going to hold a pair of dumbbells.
And right here I've got 20s, and we're going to try to Row as long as we can.
Row for 10-15 reps without breaking the isometric hold.
Continue to work on that conditioning and that ability of your low back to hold you
when you feel the most fatigued
because that's when it's going to be alive and that's what's going to wind up hurting
you.
so then we go back and we finish with one final sort of coup de gra on that whole posterior
chain low back side.
We're going to tie in the gluts.
We're going to tie in the hamstrings.
We're going to tie in the lumbar spine.
We're going to tie in the upper back.
All this gets done through a Superman Hold, but we're going to hold those dumbbells in
our hands to do what we call here the Angel of Death.
You know the snow angels when we do this move?
Well, we're still doing that move, but we're calling it the Angel of Death here because
it's a hell of a lot harder
and a lot more unpleasant than the snow angel you might have done as a kid.
And here, you're just trying to follow that path all the way down, all the way up,
keeping your chest off the ground, keeping your legs and thighs off the ground and seeing
how many reps you can do.
So guys, you see here that when you, first of all, if you're going to start training
like an athlete, you've got to start training and not just working out.
Don't just go the gym and do the things that you think you might want to do that day.
Go there with a plan in mind, attack that plan very systematically,
and start allowing yourself the ability to command what it is that you're doing.
Be in control of what you're doing.
You'll be instantly surprised at how much stronger you can get
when you have a clear focus and a clear path on how to get there.
My path was to attack this thing in zones and really work on making sure that
the portions of my back that I'm going to need the most when it comes to building strength
throughout the rest of my back,
the more glorified areas of the back, right, the width and the thickness, I have to make
sure that i start with maybe the stuff that not a lot of people want to do, but we all
know we need to do.
And guys, if you're looking for an entire program that puts that all out for you, step-by-step,
and allows you to actually even forget that
you're doing the things that you don't necessarily want to do because you're enjoying the way
there, guys, the ATHLEANX Program is geared exactly for that.
And I'll coach you through every single day.
I want to make sure that I'm there to keep you on the path to looking like an athlete
by training like one.
You can get that at ATHLEANX.COM right now.
In the meantime, if you like this video and you found it helpful,
leave your comments and thumb's up below and let me know what you want to see here, guys.
Four times a week now we're making videos.
I'm sure I can cover what it that you want to see.
You've just got to let me know.
Alright, I'll talk to you guys soon.