A large, well-developed back not only conveys an image of strength and power, but it’s crucial in creating balance to your physique and bolstering the strength of the entire upper body. In many ways, training your is back is more important than the ego boosting chest and arms. All too often, you will see well developed chests, shoulders and arms on guys in the gym, but their back development pales in comparison. This just looks ridiculous and it also puts them at a greater risk for injury due to the muscular imbalance.

I’m of the opinion that you can never build your back too big.  Arms & legs, sure they can become overdeveloped and look disproportionate,  but not the back.  When you see somebody in the gym with a massive back, you just know that this motherfucker has put in his time – it’s a very impressive bodypart.  Proper back training is NOT for the faint of heart or sissy boys.  This is serious business!

With that said, I would like to share a few tips which have been instrumental in my back development over the years:

One arm lat stretch. My favorite.

1. STRETCHING – To achieve complete muscular development, you need to train the muscle throughout it’s entire range of motion and increase the mobility in the lats. This is achieved by deep stretching in between sets by either hanging from a pull-up bar or grabbing a pole or machine with one hand or both and leaning back deep to achieve a proper stretch.

2. MIND-MUSCLE CONNECTION – Since you can’t see the back muscles working while you train them, it’s imperative to develop the proper mind-muscle connection. Focus on full, deep stretching as your arms move away from the body.  With the contraction portion of the movement, focus on the lats pulling the weight. Think of your hands only as hooks for which you are attached to the bars / handles. When using both hands, visualize touching your elbows together on the squeeze portion of the movement.

3. USE A VARIETY OF GRIPS & ANGLES – The back is the second largest muscle group, and it benefits greatly from a variety of grips and angles. When using machines with both bars and handles, there are many different grip positions including: underhand grip, overhand grip, wide grip, narrow grip, etc. In terms of angles, pulldowns can be performed with your torso at 90/60/45-degree angles, etc. With rowing movements, you can pull to your sternum, your belly button or your hips. Each one of these angles will help stimulate different areas of the back.

4. TRAINING VOLUME – Just as your legs require large volume, your back is the same and should be trained with a ton of volume and intensity. This is probably one of the main reasons you see so many guys lacking back development. Back work is absolutely brutal, and just like legs, if you’re training the back correctly, you should be sucking wind after a hard set and setting up a bench to rest on in between sets.  As you rest, your attention should be focused strictly on killing your next set.  No cell phone, no distractions, no bullshit.

5. DEADLIFTS – The deadlift is the base for which back strength is built. Deadlifts build the thickness in your lower, mid, and upper back that keep you stable and strong during just about every other movement. Deadlifts are very taxing on the body, and I’ve always preferred to cycle them over 3-4 weeks, then take 3-4 weeks off, then repeat.

Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney demonstrating a perfect bent over barbell row.

6. ROW, ROW, ROW – Much attention is always paid to pull-ups and pull-downs to “increase the width” of the back. This is great practice and required for overall back development. However, rowing movements are where you will achieve your greatest gains in both thickness and width. I cannot stress this enough… if your back development is lacking, at least 3/4 of your workout should be comprised of rowing movements. Bent over barbell rows are king. Followed by one arm dumbbell rows, t-bar rows, chest supported rows, seated cable low rows, and a variety of plate loaded (Hammer Strength, etc.) row machines.

Below, I’ve included two sample routines to get your back on track to growth:

Routine #1 – performed in the following order:

• Hyperextensions, 4 sets, 12-15 reps
• Bent Over Barbell Rows, 5 sets, 8-15 reps
• T-Bar Rows, 3 sets, 8-15 reps
• Seated low cable rows, 4 sets, 8-15 reps, v-grip handle
• Lat pulldowns, 3 sets wide overhand grip to clavicle, followed by 3 sets close v-grip pulldowns to lower sternum, 8-15 reps
• Dumbbell pullovers, 3 sets, 8-15 reps

Routine #2 – performed in the following order:

• Deadlifts, 4 sets, 12-15 reps
• 1 arm dumbbell rows, 4 sets, 8-15 reps
• Chest supported T-bar row machine, 4 sets, 8-15 reps
• Pull-ups, 4 sets, do your best to get 8-15 perfect reps
• Lat pulldowns, 4 sets, underhand grip, shoulder width grip, pull to lower sternum, 8-15 reps
• Dumbbell Pullovers, 3 sets, 8-15 reps

If you need a boost in your back development, put these tips to use and watch the gains come rolling in!