How to Build a Bigger Back

In this post were going to discuss the seven things you need to know about how to build a bigger
back.

After we cover those Im going to give you the top 10 best back exercises.

The typical gym crowd is all about the chest and biceps, but a big back is what separates the men
from the boys.

A big back is synonymous with hard work and strength. It makes you stand out. It commands
respect.

There are three major areas of the back that need to be trained- the upper back, lats and lower back.

The traps (upper, middle, & lower), rhomboids, and rear delts are primarily slow twitch muscles and
thus respond well to high rep sets. They can also tolerate quite a bit of work. Rows with your elbows
out to your sides will train these muscles. The traps can also be trained with a variety of shrugs.

The lats are a pretty even blend of fast and slow twitch fibers, and thus, respond well to a medium
rep range and workload. They are most effectively trained with chin ups and straight arm pulldown
variations.

The lower back is primarily slow twitch and should be trained with sets of 12-20 reps, using exercises
like back raises and reverse hypers.

With the quick anatomy lesson out of the way, lets cover the seven best ways to add some slabs of
beef to this crucially important area.

1) Use Lighter Weights

This goes against all the rules of strength training but its essential if you want to build a bigger
back. Most people go way too heavy on their pulling exercises. By doing so they end up working
their biceps and lower back far more than their lats or upper back.

The first step in your quest for a thick, muscular back is to reduce the weights you are using by at
least 20%. That might even be a conservative guess. Some of you would be better served by cutting
the weights by as much as 50%. Sounds crazy but its true.

Lighter weights will allow you to concentrate on actually feeling the muscle, versus just hoisting
away. Going lighter will also help ensure that you are able to fully squeeze your shoulder blades
together on every rep. Thats a very important element in proper back training.

When you can engage the muscle more effectively you increase the chances of it growing. A good
way to know if the weight you are using is light enough is trying to hold it for a full two seconds in
the fully contracted position. If you cant do that its too heavy.

2) Improve Your Mind-Muscle Connection

Many people cant feel their backs, which is a major reason why they dont grow. The first step is to
lighten the weights you use. The second step is to try this drill before doing chin ups: Bend your arm
90 degrees and extend it overhead. Now have a partner place his palm on your triceps muscle right
by the elbow. As he resists you push down, using only the strength of your lats, for eight seconds.
Slowly drive your elbow do to your side while your partner continues to provide resistance. It will
help increase the mind-muscle connection if he places his other hand on your lat. Do this for a few
reps on each side a minute or so before doing a set of chins. Try to lock in that feeling of driving
down with your elbows.

The next thing you can do is have a partner stand behind you when you are doing chins and place his
hands on your lats so that you can feel them throughout the set. Having him slap or chop them
would be an even better idea. It might look a little bizarre to other members of your gym but these
are the sacrifices you gotta make. If he gives a Ric Flair Wooooo while chopping them it wont
seem as strange. I think.

3) Use Picture Perfect Technique

Most people use horrible form when training their backs, and it shows. I constantly witness guys
flopping up and down on the chin up bar with horrendous form. Their chests are caved in and their
shoulders rounded forward in the top position. This takes all the stress of the muscles you are trying
to train. And its one of the things that leads to crappy lat and upper back development. Always keep
your chest up during each and every rep. When you do this you wont be able to get as high. Dont
worry about it, though. Your chest doesnt have to hit the bar; just come close. As long as your chin
clears it youre fine. Some bigger guys or people with shoulder issues wont even get that high. It
doesnt matter as long as your form is perfect. Trying to pull yourself too high takes the stress of the
lats and causes your technique to break down. Lat growth goes out the window when this happens.
Squeezing out a few more reps with rounded shoulders and a concaved chest is a waste of time and
will only slow down your recovery ability. So just drop off the chin up bar when you cant maintain
proper form or use a band to assist you (which is highly recommended if you cant do at least five
picture perfect reps with bodyweight). On rows you need to drive the elbows behind you and fully
squeeze your shoulder blades together on each rep. Dont explode any of your pulling exercises, but
rather do them deliberately, and with the intent to engage the target muscle.

4) Flex Your Lats

In between sets of chin ups or pulldowns flex your lats by doing a bodybuilder style front lat pose.
Really squeeze hard, almost to the point where your lats cramp up. This will further enhance the
mind-muscle connection that is essential in building a bigger back.

5) Stretch Your Lats

The lats can and do get very tight. When they do youll end up with poor posture and shoulder pain.
You should take preventative measures against this by stretching them fully at the end of your

workouts when they are pumped. The easiest way to do this is to hang from a chin up bar for as long
as you can. Record your time and try to improve slowly, each week.

6) Do More Horizontal Pulling Than Vertical Pulling

That means you need to load up on the rows. Chins and pulldowns are great for building the lats, but
to keep your shoulders healthy you need more rows.

If your shoulders bother you it might even be a good idea to cut chin ups out completely for a month
or two and focus on row variations until the pain subsides and you strengthen the upper back.

7) Sweat the Small Stuff

To maximize back development and maintain shoulder health you need to include small isolation
movements for the middle and lower traps, the rhomboids and rear delts.

Its essential to train these small muscles with exercises like YTWs, face pulls, scarecrows, reverse
flys and band pull aparts. Compound movements will often leave these muscles under-stimulated
and underdeveloped.

By including these key exercises in your weekly program you will ensure that doesnt happen and
youll help prevent any possible shoulder injuries. These exercises can be done twice per week for a
few sets of 12-20 reps.

Ok, now you know the essentials of back training. Below is a list of the top 10 best back exercises.

TOP 10 BEST BACK EXERCISES

1) Chin Ups

Nothing builds up the lats more effectively. These are best performed on rings or a Jungle Gym XT.
Doing so alleviates the wrist, elbow and shoulder stress that comes from doing them on a straight
bar. If you dont have access to those implements I recommend doing them on neutral grip handles.

Dont have the strength to do chin ups? Use a band to assist you or simply keep your feet on the
floor and set the rings or Jungle Gym XT to about chest height.

2) Inverted Rows

Again, you want to perform these on rings or a Jungle Gym XT. Great for strengthening and
thickening up the mid back.

3) 1 Arm Dumbbell Rows

This is my favorite weighted rowing variation. It can also be done with kettlebells. Keep the
movement fairly strict and minimize cheating. Be sure to pull with the lats and drive the elbows
behind you powerfully on each rep.

4) Hang Cleans

Do these with a sandbag or kettlebells 1-2 times per week for 2-4 sets of 8-20 reps and watch your
upper back blow up.

5) Rope Climbs

This is an awesome functional exercise that packs slabs of muscle on the lats and biceps.

6) Hand Over Hand Rope Rows

This is so much more than just a back exercise. It basically works your entire body from head to toe.
Attach a 1.5-2 inch thick rope to a heavy sled and row the sled toward you. Sit back to
counterbalance the weight and try to minimize rotation of your torso.

7) Farmers Walks

Great for beefing up the traps and all of the muscles that run the entire length of your spinal column.

8) Romanian Deadlifts

Do these with kettlebells or dumbbells to strength the lower back, glutes and hamstrings. Be sure to
get a full range of motion and stretch the hamstrings fully at the bottom of each rep.

9) Front Lever Iso Hold

Nothing else activates the lats while simultaneously strengthening your entire core like front lever
isometric holds. Add 4-6 sets of 10 second holds to the beginning of your workout 1-2 times per
week.

10) Back Extension

Spine expert Stuart McGill has said that lower back endurance is more important than strength for
maintaining a healthy spine. This is a great way to train high reps and long duration sets. I
recommend starting with isometric holds of up to sixty seconds. Once you have those nailed start
doing sets of 20-30 reps 1-2 times per week. Be sure not to overextend your back in the top position.

What About Deadlifts?

Well, to address this question I have to start by saying that I dont program regularly program barbell
lifts at all anymore. On some rare occasions I do, but for the most part its all bodyweight,
dumbbells, kettlebells, cables and bands. And even when I was regularly programming barbell lifts I
had stopped giving deadlifts to athletes nearly a decade ago. That was simply based on risk vs
reward. The deadlift took too much and didnt give enough back.

Now, what about if YOU still want to deadlift

Contrary to what most hardgainer authors and I, personally used to believe, deadlifts are actually
not the greatest muscle building exercise. I am not alone in this contention, and many smart coaches
and trainers have said the same, long before I did.

A decade ago I used to steer hardgainers in the direction of deadlifts in an effort to simplify. And also
get all the skinny guys off the isolation movements and doing some more manly exercises.

If a 130 pound guy is doing stiff arm pulldowns and the rear delt machine for his back work, then
yes, he should trade them in for deadlifts. That would be a better option (assuming he can do them
with perfect form).

But at this point I have been in the Iron Game for over 25 years and have smartened up on certain
things. Ive also stopped writing strictly for the twenty something hardgainer and now have a lot of
beat up readers in their late 30s and 40s.

So I cant make a blanket statement anymore that deadlifts are the single best exercise there is for
building mass. Many of the greatest backs in history have been built without deadlifts, like the
current Mr. Olympia, Phil Heath.

At the end of the day you have to figure out what works for you and what your body can tolerate
when it comes to picking up heavy objects. Injury prone lifters often get more pain than growth out
of the conventional deadlift.

Here are three other reasons the deadlift may not be the best choice for mass building:
The deadlift is a mainly concentric only movement, lacking the eccentric component required for
hypertrophy.
No muscle is taken through a full range of motion during the execution of a rep.
Deadlifts take a long time to recover from, and you just cant do much volume on them without
getting completely fried. When that happens the rest of your training suffers.

Thats not to say that deadlifts suck by any means. Theyre a great exercise for building overall
strength.

Romanian deadlifts are one of the best hamstring exercises you can do, if your back can tolerate
them. I recommend doing them with dubbells or kettlebells.

But for building a big back you dont necessarily need conventional deadlifts from the floor. You may
even get better results and feel a lot better without them. Just look at the back development of an
Olympic gymnast for proof. Or go to Tompkins Square Park (or somewhere similar) in New York City
and check out the backs on those dudes.

Shrugs and farmers carries can take care of your traps. Back raises and reverse hypers do a great job
of building up the erector spinae muscles of the lower back without frying you. The rest is covered
by the all the rowing and chin up variations we discussed above.

If you do decide to include deadlifts in your program Id recommend doing them after you have
already done several sets of chins and/or rows so you are thoroughly warmed up and well prepared
for them. Then set the bar at a place where you can keep your spine neutral. For most people this
will be a few inches off the floor, in a rack or on rubber mats.

Going around your knees is what causes the most stress. So if you set the bar just above knee height
and dont go insanely heavy this can be a great way to include some deadlifts that dont destroy you.

Another great option is a single leg kettlebell deadlift. Or, if you have heavy enough loads you can do
single or double kettlebell sumo deadlifts. Doing this with a 203 or a pair of 120-150 pound
kettlebells can prove quite challenging. And its often all you need.

Work up to a few moderately heavy sets of 5-8 reps and call it a day. No need to go ultra heavy or
near failure if youre trying to gain size and stay fresh.

Your New Back Workout

Heres a sample training week incorporating these principles.

It follows the classic Renegade Upper/Lower split.

The upper body training days, Days 1 and 3, have a heavy bias towards back movements, with just a
small amount of pushing. And the lower body day, Day 2, incorporates exercises that indirectly hit
your back on top of training your core and lower body. Ones like RDLs, ab rollouts, and Farmers
Walks.

Finally, the optional Day 4 adds extra lower body and ab volume with movements that also build up
your lats and upper back.

As you can see, you hit your back in some way on every training day. This increase in frequency will
pack some serious strength and size gains on you.

On Day 1, look to set rep PRs on the pull-ups. Track the total number of reps you get across all four
sets and look to beat that every week.

On Day 3, your main pulling exercise is the 1 arm DB Row. You can use a little body english, but I
dont want you hucking the weight around. If you cant feel your back working to row the DB up,
reduce the weight and work on your lat activation.

That goes for all the rowing exercises. Use weights you can squeeze at the top for a 2 second pause.
Thatll be way more effective than throwing around weights 20lbs too heavy for you.

Be sure to check out the video demos for the hyperlinked exercises, and follow me on Instagram
(@JasonFerruggia) for my best training, nutrition, and motivational tips.

Day 1

1) Pull Up- 4 x AMAP* x 90

2) 30 Incline DB Row- 4 x 10-12 x 60
3a) KB or DB Clean & Press- 4 x 8-10 x 10
3b) Rope or Band Face Pull 3 x 12-15 x 120
4) Pinwheel Curl- 4 x 8-10 x 60
*Use band assistance if you cant get at least 10 reps on 1st set

Day 2

1) Glute Ham Raise- 3 x 8-10 x 90

2) Squat- 4 x 6-8 x 120
3) Romanian Deadlift- 3 x 10-12 x 90
4a) Farmers Walk 4 x 60s x 45
4b) Swiss Ball Ab Rollout- 3 x 8-10 x 45

Day 3

1) 1 Arm DB Row 4 x 8-10 x 60

2a) Ring Pushup 3 x 8-10 x 60
2b) Neutral Grip Chin Up*- 4 x 10-12 x 45
3a) Parallel Bar Dip- 3 x 10-12 x 45
3b) 60 Degree Incline DB Shrug** 3 x 8-10 x 45

*Use band assistance if you cant get at least 10 reps on each set. Or do pulldowns.
**Hold for 2 seconds at top of each rep.

Day 4 (optional)

1a) BW or Band Leg Curl 3 x 12-15 x 60

1b) Reverse Lunge 3 x 12-15 x 60
1c) KB Swing- 3 x 20 x 60
2a) Medicine Ball Prone Toe Touch- 3 x 20 x 10
2b) Feet to Sky- 3 x 20 x 60
3) 1 Arm Farmers Walk- 3 x 30s x45