Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Right Way To Develop A Wide, Muscular Back

By Ricardo Daryans

It never ceases to amaze me how incredibly misguided the vast majority of the population is in the gym. Everyone is desperate for that wide, powerful and muscular physique, yet very few understand how to properly channel their efforts to get there.

And if you are not training your back in the right way because that's an area you cannot check in the mirror or because you think it's just doesn't worth the effort, then its clear that you doesn't know how important that area is.

70% of your upper body muscle mass resides in the back area! Nothing can replace the upper body thickening effect of big, bulging lats and a set of wide, tall trapezius muscles. That's how important your back is. I am, of course, talking about the major muscles of the back: the lats, traps, spinal erectors, rhomboids and lower back.

There are 4 major movements that you must perform to properly develop your back. And here they are:

1) Deadlifts. There is not a single exercise out there that can even come close to matching the effectiveness of a basic, bent-legged barbell deadlift. This should be the most important part of your routine.

2) Vertical pulling movement. Examples of vertical pulling movements are chin-ups (overhand or underhand), lat pulldowns and v-bar pulldowns.

3) Horizontal pulling movement. There are a ton of different rowing movements to choose from: bent over barbell rows, dumbbell rows, seated machine rows and cable rows just to name a few.

4) A shrugging movement. A basic barbell or dumbbell shrug will be enough for this part. Why is it necessary to perform this movement after your workout? To develop that mountainous, diamond-shaped look from behind.

So, all you have to do is to perform 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps of every single exercise i mentioned before. That will do the job.

Perform this workout once per week with full effort and I guarantee that your upper body will appear thicker, wider and more muscular than ever before. What about specific routines for the chest? What about the biceps, triceps and shoulders? How about the thighs, calves and abs? Don't worry, i will write about them in future articles.

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