Hey guys, so this is the second installment of the form articles. Today we will be looking at back. Yes, I know some people qualify certain lifts as back and others qualify them as legs. This is why I like having WB Fitness. Fuck what you’ve heard. We do things the WB way here — and we get results.
Here is a complete list of the lifts we will be using that target the back in WBF V: 73024724:
Barbell Row
Barbell Row (Reverse)
Cable Row Incline
Cable Row Close Grip
Cable Row Wide Grip
Carble Row (Low)
Cable Row Decline
Cable Row
Bent Over DB Row
Lat Pulldown
Lat Pulldown (Close Grip)
T Bar Row
Straight Arm Cable Pulldown
Back Flyes
Bent Over Underhand Row
Lat Raise
Incline DB Row
Reverse Pec Dec Fly
I feel that the following video is an excellent and easy to follow tutorial on how to do a barbell row and the technique translates to a reverse grip as well as to dumbbell rows and T Bar Rows. One thing to pay special attention to is when he talks about pushing your elbows to the sky. I cannot stress this enough and it will be the topic for its own article at some point….DO NOT LIFT WITH YOUR FUCKING HANDS. Your hands are there to attach your body to the weight. You lift by engaging the muscles that are to be targeted. If you are doing a bent over row you aren’t grabbing a barbell with your hands and lifting it to your chest. You lock your hands as tight as you can around the barbell and then forget them. By pushing your elbows back until the barbell hits the top of the lift you have maximum engagement of the back muscles. Whether this is leading with your thumbs on a bench press or contracting your biceps in a curl you are never lifting with your hands. They are just the hooks that hold the weight. Even with cable rows, do not think of your hands pulling the cables back, think of your hands gripping the handle and moving your elbows (which are as close to your torso as possible) moving back.
So here is the video on Rowing:
Reverse row has hands in the reverse grip like this
Here is a great video for form on the incline rows, lat pulldowns (this one is a really great video and has so much useful stuff in it) and
Here is a good form video for back flyes. Back flyes are a lift I still struggle with, but they are so important as their isolated targeting really brings pop to the back.
And Finally here is one of my favorite lifts, the straight arm lat pull down. We will be doing a lot of these, they are simple but do not let that make you feel you can skip studying up. They say most car accidents happen close to home. The thinking is that if you are just about home you stop paying attention to the road. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I do know that many lifting injuries come from lifts we all know and take for granted because we don’t focus on them and just assume we got it.
So that is the back lifts for Season 5. Feel free to leave questions about the lifts in the comments or to message me directly if you want further explanation. Tomorrow we will have the next installment.