the back is made up of many different muscles all working in different planes of movement
so you need to train them from different directions but this makes the back especially
prone to injury so instead of training heavy you need to train smart this video will show
you how using exercises that deliver maximum gains while protecting your back from injury
first it's a body weight pull up to fire up the whole back
the train smart method is to use a neutral grip palms facing each other
a wide grip here could overload the lats
instead you're working all the back muscles upper middle and lower and you have more control
the narrow grip is smart because it sets your shoulders wrists and elbows in a more natural
position reducing strain on the joints later we'll come back to a wide grip movement to target
those lats but doing it the smart way back day should always include lower back a lot of people
automatically turn to the full deadlift for this the train smart version is to go for rack poles
targeting that lower back you're basically using the rack to take out the lower part of the
deadlift by just doing the upper half of the movement you're significantly reducing
the risk of injury this allows you to go heavier if you need to keep good form with the straight
back head up shoulder blades together rack pulls are also smart because strengthening
your lower back will help protect you from injuries across a range of other exercises
this is a standing low cable row a pulling movement for the middle back
again most people's go-to exercise would be a seated cable row those are fine but the standing
version is smarter because you're taking the shoulders and traps out of the equation
focusing right in on the middle back keep the core engaged back straight
don't shrug the shoulders pull from the elbows the stance also allows you to
bring the handles right into the hips for a full squeeze on to a standing cable pullover
a lot of back movements also engage the shoulders or biceps this exercise is smart because it uses
only the lat muscles specifically in that up and down movement a true isolation exercise
we love this exercise because the cable gives you constant tension
and you get a complete range of movement across the muscle
but that up and down movement is only one direction the lat muscles work
to train really smart you also need to pull down to the sides so the next exercise is
cable pull down with a wide grip the close grip pull up we did earlier worked the whole back
this one is all about width so it's an overhand grip back straight
focus on bringing the elbows down in line with the body pulling downwards not backwards
bring the bar to the chin not behind your head as you don't want to strain your neck
hold for a second in front of you then slowly back up with control so that's the smart way to train
all the back muscles from all the different angles safely and effectively you'll find
many more back exercises with full explainers on correct form and techniques
on fit media's complete exercise database follow the link for more