Back is one of the hardest muscle groups to target. Most people have trouble activating and stimulating the muscles of the back and therefore get very little muscle growth response. A good back can never be too thick or too wide in physique competitions and good back development usually separates the top competitors. Getting great back development is not easy and if trained correctly; the back should be as grueling a session as legs. Because most back exercises allow the athlete to begin in a mechanically advantage leverage position, the trainee usually ends up using that leverage to lift the weight, rather than the back muscles. And since leverage advantages allow one to train with more weight, ego trainers, usually put on more weight than they can actually lift with their backs. Then in order to lift the weight they lean out of the very plane of motion most suitable for back development. An example is bent or seated rows. The most productive plane of motion for rows is at about 80-90 degrees between the torso and lower body, with knees slightly bent. You need to keep a slight bend in the elbow, just slight, and NOT unlock that bend through the stretch phase of any back movement. When you lock the arms to initiate the concentric (lifting) part in any back movement the immediate stress goes to the biceps and brachialis because by locking and unlocking the elbow in that plane of motion, you have now stretched the arm with resistance and the back will only act synergistically, but the main stress goes to the biceps. So target train the muscle and not the ego, and get the most out of that training by thinking through every inch of every rep of every set, by stretching the targeted muscle and then initiating contraction with the same muscle. With back training this takes tremendous concentration, to make sure you stretch the back properly by keeping a slight bend in the elbow through the whole range of motion and lifting the weight by contracting the back and not using leverage or momentum. For example when doing a row as you pull the weight towards you push your chest forward and then retract the shoulders back and down, don’t just lean back.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:36:18 +0000
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