Bombproof Back

 

Unless you’re a lumberjack or a WWF star, you’re probably not too keen on having a part of your anatomy grow to resemble a cluster of reptiles. Still, the competitive bodybuilder’s or nba three-point specialist’s pronounced development illustrates a couple of important points about the architecture of your back muscles: There’s a lot more to it than merely your latissimus dorsi, the fanlike muscles spanning up from your waist to your armpits. And all of it needs to be developed if you want to improve your all-around athletic skills level while bomb-proofing your back against injury.

 

The problem with back training, of course, is that you can’t see what’s going on back there. Most guys have a vague sense that whenever they do a pull-down, pull-up or some kind of rowing movement, they’re supposed to be working something called the lats, but here more than anywhere else on your body, the devil is in the details.

 

For example, the back of your neck and the upper half of your torso are overlaid with a muscle called the trapezius, or traps. Your upper back also includes a number of smaller, deeper muscles that you need to somehow recruit into your back training. Specifically, along the outer border of the shoulder blades lie a couple of muscles called the teres major and teres minor, and along the inner border lie the rhomboids.

Hitting all of those muscles and regions in one workout requires considerable forethought and a thorough understanding of both anatomy and kinesiology. (The lower back, including the spinal-erector muscles, isn’t targeted in this discussion, because from a functional standpoint it’s more closely related to your abs than to your upper back.) To provide you with just that, we enlisted the expertise of David McWhorter, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy at the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine in Kansas City, Mo.

Final Four

McWhorter came up with four exercises that, done in succession, amount to something you may have never experienced before: a total back workout. His first call, the venerable pull-down, primarily hits the lats, which move your arms toward and behind your body. To also recruit the teres major and minor, he recommends pulling the bar in front of and then behind your neck in alternating fashion, rep to rep. “When you bring the bar to your chest, your arms rotate inward, which also works the teres major,” McWhorter says. “And when you pull the bar to the base of your neck, your arms rotate outward, which also works the minor.”

 

 

Although commonly thought of as a chest exercise, his second drill, the EZ-bar pull-over, hits your lats again while also recruiting the teres major and rhomboids. Since they help bring your shoulder blades together, the rhomboids get hit particularly hard by McWhorter’s third exercise, the seated cable row, which also recruits the lats and most of the other upper back muscles. That leaves only the traps, which raise and lower the shoulder girdle while also helping to retract the shoulder blades. To light up that kite-sized sheet of muscle, McWhorter concludes the workout with the dumbbell shrug.

 

Don’t feel restricted to using just these back exercises. Variety is almost always beneficial in training, if only because you’ll get bored as hell doing anything, no matter how effective, ad nauseum. But when you need a workout capable of covering all of your back country—top to bottom, side to side—let this quartet be your guide.

 

The Workout
Warm up on a cardio machine for five to 10 minutes before every back workout.

Select weights that allow you to complete a number of reps that fall within the range given. Once you’re able to complete more than 12 reps, increase your weight by five to 10 pounds. Rest one or two minutes between sets and exercises. Perform this routine twice weekly, taking three days off between each session