- What's up, it's Chris Heria, welcome to another vlog.
Today I'm gonna be showing you
10 of the best exercises that you can do
to build a bigger back without the use of any weights.
And when building muscle,
regardless of whether you're using weights or body weight
there's five main things that you'll need.
The first being nutrition and having your diet on point.
If you wanna build muscle,
you're gonna need to be eating enough protein
to fuel your muscle growth.
The second thing is gonna be creating hypertrophy.
You're gonna need to reach hypertrophy
in order to tear muscle fibers
so that they can grow back thicker and stronger.
The third thing is gonna be progressional training
which is what body weight training and calisthenics
is all about.
In the gym it's done by gradually increasing the weight
of a working set over time.
But with calisthenics, you're continuously implementing
harder exercise progressions to break plateaus
and to ensure progress for strength and muscle growth.
Now, the fourth thing is gonna be consistency.
Staying consistent with the proper routine
and goal will allow you to stay focused
resulting in building more muscle over time.
And the fifth is gonna be proper rest.
That's actually when your muscles are repairing and growing.
So if you're putting a significant amount of time
into breaking down your muscles,
you're gonna need to put a good amount of time
into repairing them
and growing them back thicker and stronger as well.
Now within our back we have 40 muscles, 20 on each side
but they can be broken up into our traps, rhomboids,
lats, levator scapulae and erector spinae.
They all work together to support your body
and allow your body to bend, move
and twist in different directions.
Now the exercises we'll be doing today
are also very effective because they're compound exercises
which involve several muscles of the back
and more to work together with every rep.
This allows for heavier lifting
or in this case your body weight
which will recruit and tear more muscle fibers
allowing you to build more muscle.
Now with the 10 exercises I'm about to show you,
you can create your own back workout
by choosing your favorite ones.
So if you're ready to follow along
make sure you downloaded the Heria Pro app in the App Store
or Google Play Store.
Open up to the YouTube workout section,
you should find this routine.
Smash the like button on this video
and we're ready to get started.
All right, the first exercise
is gonna be Australian pull-ups.
It's also the first progression
that you use to build your strength up
to achieving your first real pull-up.
And even if you can already do real pull-ups,
it's still gonna be super effective
throughout your entire fitness journey
because the pulling motion and angle is different
emphasizing on different areas of your back.
And because we're not using our entire body weight,
we're able to do a lot more repetitions than pull-ups
giving us a better quality muscle contraction
and allowing us to reach hypertrophy,
tearing more muscle fibers and building more muscle,
as well as improving your pulling skill,
which will progress you to harder exercises
like explosive pull-ups
and allow you to implement
those harder exercises more frequently
into your workout regimen.
With that said,
we'll be utilizing Australian pull-ups the best way
of high repetitions, we'll be going for 20 reps.
I'm gonna use these two chairs
and we're gonna get right into it.
So when getting into Australian pull-ups,
you wanna make sure that your hips are straight
and you're in a straight line from your heels
to your shoulders.
Pull all the way up, squeeze your back, come back down.
Australian pull-ups can be done right from home
if you have two sturdy chairs,
if you're at the gym they can be done on a Smith machine
and if you're in the park,
they can be done on the side of a dip bar.
Remember the lower the angle,
the more body weight, the more difficult it's gonna be,
the higher the angle, the easier it's gonna be,
less body weight.
And as you get stronger, make sure to decrease the angle
to continue your progressional training.
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All right.
There we have Australian pull-ups
emphasizing on our lats, traps, rhomboids, biceps
and even our abs.
Now moving on to the second exercise,
it's gonna be another beginner friendly exercise
but just a little bit harder.
We're gonna be going for body rows.
Body rows are just like Australian pull-ups,
but with our feet elevated.
This is gonna change the angle
and also apply more body weight onto this exercise
making it a little harder, but not as hard as pull-ups
while still be just as effective.
For body rolls we're gonna bring the reps down
and do a little less, go for 12 repetitions.
So I'm gonna use this box to elevate my feet.
You could use a bench or anything.
Let's get into Australian pull-up position.
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12 reps.
This exercise is just like the seated cable row machine
that you would use in the gym
except with our own body weight,
it's gonna directly translate to harder exercises
that utilize your body weight like the one-arm pull-up
and doing it like this
is gonna engage a lot more core strength.
(upbeat music)
All right.
There we have rows.
Now moving on to number three,
its probably the best move with or without weights.
That's gonna be the pull-up.
And when it comes to pull-ups,
to get the most results and to advance the fastest,
you wanna make sure that you're using all grips
with perfect form and full range of motion every single rep.
So with that said, let's do five reps of wide shoulder
and closed grip with perfect form.
So let's start off with the wide grip.
No matter what type of training or support you do,
the pull up is a fundamental.
It will not only transform your physique,
it also transform your performance
and strength capabilities.
This is also another great way
to increase your pull-up repetitions
if you're struggling with that.
Training the different grips
is gonna increase her overall pulling strength.
And by strengthening other muscles in your back,
you may not be engaging as much,
by only training with one grip.
(upbeat music)
All right, there we have pull-ups.
Moving on to number four,
we're gonna be taking the pull up to the next level
with explosive pull-ups.
This is gonna boost your performance
and recruit your fast-twitch muscle fibers
which is gonna build even more muscle.
And you wanna treat this
as if you're going for a heavy lift.
So you wanna focus more
on lower reps and more power when you're first starting off.
And of course, as you get better at this,
you can increase the repetitions
and then start with low reps all over again,
by doing it weighted.
And that's another way you can use
to continue your progressional training.
So I'm gonna go for just five reps.
We wanna keep it as powerful and perfect as possible.
Let's go for it.
And whenever you get used to training explosive
your normal force is gonna be a lot easier to do
naturally increasing your repetitions
and building more strength
and doing anything explosive is one of my secret weapons
to start building superhuman strength.
All right, there we have explosive pull-up.
Moving on to number five, we have archer pull-ups.
With this exercise,
we can start to work towards going beyond the pull-up.
As we start to isolate each side of our back
and increase the overload.
So let's go for six by alternating each arm,
keep your body straight.
And this is one of the first progressions you would use
to build your strength
to be able to do what you were doing before with two arms
now with one.
This is a pretty difficult exercise
so when you're first starting off,
you wanna really just focus on your form
and go for a moderate amount of repetitions.
All right, there have it.
Now we're ready to move on to number six,
inverted row pull-ups.
This exercise is very similar to the body row
with the same pulling angle.
We're gonna go ahead and go for eight repetitions.
You wanna grab the bar,
bring your legs all the way up like a Tosta bar.
From this position you wanna row.
Of course if this is too difficult,
you can always tuck in and continue to row as well.
(upbeat music)
All right, there we have it.
Moving on to number seven,
its gonna be reverse leg raises or back lever raises.
I'm gonna go for 10 reps, it should look like this.
First you should start off with reverse leg raises
and get really strong with those.
You can also hold the top position
of a reverse leg raise for time
and mix that up within your repetitions as well.
And once you've trained it for a while
and you've developed a significant amount of strength,
you can go ahead and go for back level raises,
it looked like this.
(upbeat music)
All right, there we have back lever raises.
And now we're ready for number eight,
which is front lever raises.
This is a pretty difficult exercise
that involves lifting your body with our lats.
So we're gonna be keeping our arms straight
for this exercise.
You're gonna be making the motion like a lat pull down
as if you're using the machine in the gym,
except we'll be using our own body weight,
staying in a straight line
from the tip of our toes to our shoulders.
And to maintain a straight line with your body,
you wanna make sure that you're pushing through
with your lower back
as you squeeze your glutes and your core
with a tight grip on the bar,
pushing away from you.
Now a lot of people have trouble
keeping form with this movement,
so we're gonna keep the reps low
and focus on perfect form.
One of the main problems is that
people don't push through with their lower hips
and don't retract their scapulas
giving them a rounded out shape instead of a straight line.
So make sure that you're doing both of those things.
It should feel like you're at the top of a deadlift
when you're at the peak point of your front lever raise.
So with that said, let's go for five reps.
You can also try going with one leg tucked
and one leg straight out.
If this is too difficult, alternate both sides
eventually you'll be able to do it with two feet.
So let's start off with a strong grip,
lean back with your feet together,
control up and down.
And you'll see even the most advanced lifters
struggle to do this exercise correctly with the right form,
let alone if they can do it at all.
So it's important to train these exercises
to be a well-rounded athlete.
There we have front lever raises.
To another exercise that can translate
to the lat pull down machine
but it won't work the other way around.
Now moving on to number nine, we have commando pull-ups.
This is a great grip for building your back.
Being able to pull directly to the middle of your chest,
engaging the middle of your back.
And with this grip,
you can emphasize with your dominant hand
and work your strength up to building one-armed pull-ups
without actually having the strength yet
to pull up with one arm.
So when I do commando pull-ups,
if I put my head on the right side,
I'm gonna put my right hand on the outside.
This is gonna simulate more of the one-arm pull-up position
while your other hand is in a chin-up grip
to assist the movement.
We'll do five with one hand,
then we'll switch and do five on the other.
Let's go for it.
(upbeat music)
Now if you notice, I'm really emphasizing
pulling on my right side
trying to get my right side as high as I can.
(upbeat music)
Let's switch over and do five on the other side.
(upbeat music)
There we have it, commando pull-ups.
the more you do your commando pull-ups like this,
the stronger you're gonna get on each limb individually
and on both sides of your back
making it easier to pull on one side
and eventually you can start letting go
of how many fingers you're using in the chin-up position
using less assistance, developing more strength
and getting you closer to when I'm pull-up
and building a bigger back without weights.
Now we're ready for level 10.
That's gonna be L-sit pull ups.
Now keep in mind any of the exercises that you can't do,
you can always modify them
and do them with a resistance band
but your goal should always eventually be
not only to do them without the resistance band
but to start applying weight onto your body
while doing them.
Now these L-sit pull-ups are really gonna shred up
and grow our back
because of our legs sticking out right in front of us.
This distribution of your weight
is gonna be a lot more difficult
and it's gonna require more balance and stabilization
and recruits even more muscles
from your lower back to your upper back
while engaging even more of your core.
Now if this move is too difficult,
you can always try doing it in a tuck position first,
master that, then you can start trying it
with your legs fully locked out,
so let's go for six reps.
With the L-sit pull up you wanna give power
and also perfect form.
So you wanna first master a low amount of repetitions
with perfect form and then grow those perfect reps.
(upbeat music)
There we have L-sit pull-ups,
a killer and game changer for growing your back
without weights.
And that's gonna be the 10 best exercises that you can do
to build a bigger back without any weights.
And even if you lift weights,
you're still gonna wanna incorporate these exercises.
They have a lot of benefits to them.
They're definitely gonna take your training
to the next level
and you're gonna have that competitive edge
over everyone else.
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mad love, peace out.
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