Back Routine!

[Oregonstrong]

Brothers,
I am struggling putting together the ultimate back routine. Post up yours for some ideas!!

I thinking 5x4, lower reps on compounds higher on isolations. Usually do bent over rows, pull-ups, db rows, cable low rows, t-bar rows, lat pulldowns. Also have a nice chest supported row machine and a seated row machine in my gym. Also do some rear delt work and shrugs for traps.

Something to consider is I will be taking one day res then hitting legs with squats and deads so want to go somewhat easy on the lower back.

Give me some ideas for the perfect back routine brothers!

 

[Oregonstrong]

Whoops, put this in wrong subforum.

@millard maybe you can move this to the training subforum? If not no biggie. Thanks.

 

[HuckingFuge]

Dead lifts
Dorian dead lifts
heavy dumbbell rows
hammer strength rows
cable rows
wide grip pull downs
chin ups ( usually first )
hyper extension or my lower back becomes weak.

 

[Oregonstrong]

Thanks HF. I usually do Deadlifts on leg day............. I like the chinup addition.

 

[HuckingFuge]

I feel deadlifts are a back day exercise myself. if you don't want to work the legs as much do Dorian deadlifts, they are great for isolating the back more and less leg work.

 

[Oregonstrong]

Hmmmmm, maybe Dorian deads or just deads on back day and SLDL on leg day. Too much for lower back?

 

[HuckingFuge]

yeah, I never do both leg and back day close together. I usually do
Sunday- chest
Monday-back
Wednesday-shoulders
Thursday- bi's and tris
Friday-legs
Saturday-off

 

[Oregonstrong]

I like that routine brother. You have time to lay out all of the exercises, sets, and reps?

 

[HuckingFuge]

I like that routine brother. You have time to lay out all of the exercises, sets, and reps?

I'll try to work on it tomorrow.

 

[HuckingFuge]

yeah, I never do both leg and back day close together. I usually do
Sunday- chest
Monday-back
Wednesday-shoulders
Thursday- bi's and tris
Friday-legs
Saturday-off

Sunday- Chest- every week I'll switch up which angle I start with, so I'm starting fresh from different angles. I like doing pyramids as far as reps go 8x6x4x6x8. flyes I usually just do strait sets of 10.
Flat Bench
Incline Bench
Decline Bench
Incline Dumbbell Press
Flat Dumbbell Press
Flyes

Monday-Back- I try to hold the weight to my belly on every set for a second or two. hard to do with heavy weight, but I still try.
Chin Ups- strait sets 3x10
Dorian Deadlifts- pyramid
Dumbbell Rows- pyramid
Cable Rows- pyramid
Hammer Strength Rows- pyramid
Hammer Strength Pull Downs- palms in and palms out for 3 sets each. get the hold and squeeze at the bottom.

Wednesday-Shoulders- pyramid presses and strait sets on raises
Dumbbell Press
Front Lateral Raises
Side Lateral Raises
Rear Lateral Raises

Thursaday- Bi's & Tri's
Skull Crushers EZ Bar
Close Grip Press EZ Bar right after doing Skull Crushers
Cable Push Downs
Weighted Dips

Strait Bar Curls
Incline Dumbbell Curls
EZ Bar Curls
Standing Dumbbell Curls

Friday- Legs- I usually switch up starting with Squat and Leg Press every other week, pyramids again. accept leg extensions and curls. I'm going to start doing 20 reps per set on leg day every other week.
Squat
Leg Press
Lunges
Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Leg Extensions
Leg Curls

 

[Oregongearhead]

That looks like a pretty good routine there Fuge , that goes back to Shredded's routine of one workout per muscle group weekly .

I hit the back today . Supersetted kneeling lat pulldowns w/ cable rowing, 4 supersets w/ little rest . Only used 120/140lbs but did it slow w/ negatives , about 12 to 15 reps each. Then 2-3 sets cable row w/ 170lbs to failure. It took a solid hour for my lats to deflate.Try that OS ......~Ogh

 

[Oregonstrong]

Sunday- Chest- every week I'll switch up which angle I start with, so I'm starting fresh from different angles. I like doing pyramids as far as reps go 8x6x4x6x8. flyes I usually just do strait sets of 10.
Flat Bench
Incline Bench
Decline Bench
Incline Dumbbell Press
Flat Dumbbell Press
Flyes

Monday-Back- I try to hold the weight to my belly on every set for a second or two. hard to do with heavy weight, but I still try.
Chin Ups- strait sets 3x10
Dorian Deadlifts- pyramid
Dumbbell Rows- pyramid
Cable Rows- pyramid
Hammer Strength Rows- pyramid
Hammer Strength Pull Downs- palms in and palms out for 3 sets each. get the hold and squeeze at the bottom.

Wednesday-Shoulders- pyramid presses and strait sets on raises
Dumbbell Press
Front Lateral Raises
Side Lateral Raises
Rear Lateral Raises

Thursaday- Bi's & Tri's
Skull Crushers EZ Bar
Close Grip Press EZ Bar right after doing Skull Crushers
Cable Push Downs
Weighted Dips

Strait Bar Curls
Incline Dumbbell Curls
EZ Bar Curls
Standing Dumbbell Curls

Friday- Legs- I usually switch up starting with Squat and Leg Press every other week, pyramids again. accept leg extensions and curls. I'm going to start doing 20 reps per set on leg day every other week.
Squat
Leg Press
Lunges
Stiff Leg Deadlifts
Leg Extensions
Leg Curls

Thank you for laying that out brother. Pretty solid routine right there.

 

[Oregonstrong]

That looks like a pretty good routine there Fuge , that goes back to Shredded's routine of one workout per muscle group weekly .

I hit the back today . Supersetted kneeling lat pulldowns w/ cable rowing, 4 supersets w/ little rest . Only used 120/140lbs but did it slow w/ negatives , about 12 to 15 reps each. Then 2-3 sets cable row w/ 170lbs to failure. It took a solid hour for my lats to deflate.Try that OS ......~Ogh

Thanks OGH. I like that superset combo.

I'm hitting chest, shoulders, and triceps tonight. Still working on setting up my back routine........

 

[pmac928]

I'm a one body part a day kinda guy always have been.
Sat- chest
Sunday-bi-s an triceps
Monday-legs
Tues- off
Weds-back
Thurs- shoulders
Usually 16 sets per body part and on the fourth set of each exercise I do a double drop set. That's if it's not to hard a day at work and I can push thru

 

[weighted chinup]

I would say you really only need 3 kinds of movements to hit all major points in your back: a vertical pull (for lat development) a horizontal row (middle back & rhomboids) and a reverse fly (rear delt development).

Once you have these three lifts down you can start adding additional lifts for variety and to address anything that wasn't hit during these movements or to address weak points in your back development.

For your vertical pull I would do a shoulder extension lift personally. My vertical pull of choice in this case is the Weighted Chinup.

For Horizontal Row I feel like taking your lower back / legs out of the equation is beneficial so I wouldn't bother doing a bent over barbell row or similar lift. Its a great lift for putting on a lot of mass but I would say its better for beginners because intermediate/advanced lifters can address their back development using 2-3 lifts instead of just 1.

I like doing Chest Supported Rows for my row. My gym doesn't have the machine for this, so I just use dumbbells on a really long incline bench. Seated rows work good here too, whatever grip / setting you prefer, ideally something that targets your middle back.

For rear delt I like doing a reverse pec deck fly.

So the 3 main lifts I would do for back are:

Vertical Pull: Weighted Chinup
Horizontal Row: Chest Supported Row
Reverse Fly: Reverse Pec Deck Fly

You can add in additional lifts for variety at this point, like Weighted Pull Ups (good for lats and extra exercise variety), and Seated Rows ( more volume for middle back development).

My personal pull day looks like:

Weighted Chin-up
Weighted Pull-up
Chest supported dumbbell row
Reverse Pec Deck Fly
Seated Row
Lying Cable Curl

Also one thing to note is I hit legs the day after I do pull/back and I start my leg day off with heavy RDL's and my lower back hasn't been an issue once doing my back routine like this

 

[dper726]

Back is truly a beautiful piece! All I can tell you is two things... First try to build a body to mind connection for back. Otherwise you will easily be doing arms before back. And two, do not neglect traps. Alot of people thin they are simply muscles in your neck when in reality they make the overall back appearance.

Goodluck OS

 

[pmac928]

Back is truly a beautiful piece! All I can tell you is two things... First try to build a body to mind connection for back. Otherwise you will easily be doing arms before back. And two, do not neglect traps. Alot of people thin they are simply muscles in your neck when in reality they make the overall back appearance.

Goodluck OS

Agreed. I find if I'm not thinking about squeezing the back muscles I'll be working my arms. I like doing slow slow negatives. It seems to hie me a better pump on back days!

 

[4leafclover]

I do lower back during leg days. Other than that, it's 3 exercises for back currently for me. High volume technique. I do switch them out occasionally (like t bar row).

Yesterday was
4x sets, 50 wide grip chin ups
8x sets, 8 reps barbell rows (bent over)
8x sets, 8 reps dumbbell rows (bent over)

Do good mornings once a week, and deadlifts on legs day.

Alternate sets, reps, and tempo for muscle shock.
Either I do 5 sets of wide grips to failure, or 4x sets, 50 total reps
barbell rows, dumbbell rows, or t bar rows
4x sets 30,15,12,10 reps
4x sets, 12,10,8,6
4x sets, 10,8,6,4
4x sets 30,8,6,4
10x sets of 4
8x sets of 8

You get the idea.

 

[pmac928]

Good stuff 4leaf! Sounds like an intense workout!

 

[TANGO.ECHO.KILO]

I need to throw some of these suggestions in my routine there are lots of good tips here.

Start with 3-4 sets of chin ups to failure.
Lat Pulldowns (wide, straight bar underhand, tbar,)
T-bar rows
Seated cable rows (wide, straight bar underhand, tbar, rope)
DL

Then I switch it up and finish with some supersets of higher reps:
straight arm pushdowns
hammer strength lo row (single arm alternating)
hammer strength hi row ( " " )
-either these exercises simultaneously or throw in some farmer's walk, shrugs, or my favorite for traps is basically like a straight leg hang clean with BB or DB single arm