Month: October 2021

If you are looking for a shoulder workout routine, look no further.

I am going to give you exact exercises, sets, reps, video tutorials, and so much more in this guide here.

You will leave this guide feeling confident in your ability to create and execute a kick a** shoulder workout routine.

We are going to dive into some very brief anatomy here first because I believe to truly work a muscle, you need to at least have some understanding of where it it, what it does, etc.

Therefore not only will I be taking out all of the guesswork and tell you exactly what to do, but I will also be educating you along the way.

Why? Just because I’m a nice guy and I love ya, that’s why.

I also truly believe it will benefit you the most, and that is the main reason.

So buckle up, get rid of distractions, and gimme the next 5-10 minutes to hopefully educate you and take out the guesswork moving forward.

Let’s get into it.

Shoulder Workout Routine

Basic Anatomy

To truly develop the most optimal shoulder workout routine, I believe you have to know a little bit about the anatomy of the shoulder muscles.

First off, when talking about working your shoulders, there will be some overlap with the upper back muscles.

I wrote an entire in depth article about your back muscles and how to train them, so I won’t be going over those in this guide.

I can link that HERE if you want to check that out after you are done reading this one.

Your shoulder is not just one muscle. There are actually 3 heads of the shoulder that we are going to take a look at in this guide.

I can attach a picture here below.

As you can, we are going to have the

• anterior deltoid
• Medial deltioid
• Rear deltoid

These 3 heads of the shoulder perform different functions for the body and their muscle fibers are lined up differently.

Since there are 3 different heads of the shoulder, we have to train them in 3 different forms of exercise.

Where as most people just simply perform one or two exercises.

For example, a common shoulder press.

This is a great exercise for developing the anterior deltoid ( if done correctly! ) but it is sub par at developing the medial and rear deltoid.

Therefore this is why it is important to perform exercises that are going to develop all 3 heads of the shoulder.

Which can lead me right into my next point I want to make.

Your Anterior Deltoid ( Front Of Shoulder )

When talking about the three heads of your shoulder, which one do you think we do a pretty good job of developing?

Think about it.

The front of your shoulder gets worked in push ups, bench press, shoulder press, picking your kids up, putting stuff over your head, etc etc.

Very rarely are we lifting our arms out to the side in day to day life.

Or even more, are we ever randomly bringing our arms back, in exercise or everyday life.

Therefore, the anterior deltoid is typically the head of your shoulder most people seem to train.

Yet, since they don’t properly hit the other two heads, this creates a massive imbalance in not only appearance but also strength.

This also can lead to injury over time if you are doing non stop pressing movements ( ie push ups, shoulder press, bench press, etc ) and never doing any medial delt or rear delt movements.

This consistent movement pattern overuse along with the accompanying muscle imbalances that come along with that.

Ie you get over developed front delts, under developed rear delt / upper back muscles, this can over the long term lead to improper movement patterns, leading to injury.

Therefore it is, once again, massively important to incorporate different forms of exercises to hit the shoulder muscles properly.

We will touch on all those in this article. Just know for the reasons listed above, we won’t be touching too much on the anterior deltoid as most people hit that more than enough.

Shoulder Injuries

Now, I also know you may have some questions about your specific shoulder injury.

Listen, this is an article on how to properly set up a shoulder workout routine. I am not a physical therapist nor can I diagnose your injuries.

Yet I will say, if you follow what I am about to lay out in this article, just like the thousands of clients I have coached, you can have some strong, healthy, and injury free shoulders.

Often times, like a shoulder press for example, people just absolutely butcher the form and that is why you consistently get injured.

Now of course I understand some people have specific injuries ( which even then, for the most part, you can work around ).

Yet point being, even if you are someone who thinks you have an injury and can’t do something.. I would at least give what I talk about and what I recommend here in this article a try.

I will show you the proper way to perform movements to maximize shoulder strength and minimize shoulder stress.

If you are looking for a rehab article on shoulders, I would advise contacting a physical therapist.

Shoulder Workout Routine : Hit All 3 Heads

Now that we have laid some groundwork for the basic anatomy of your shoulders, as well as covering injury side of things, let’s dive into some exercises, reps, sets, etc on how to hit all three heads.

First, we will briefly cover the anterior delt.

Anterior Delt ( Front Delt )

As we previously mentioned, we won’t be covering a ton of anterior deltoid work, as if you are following a properly designed training program you will be getting plenty of front delt work.

Yet there are a few exercises that I thoroughly enjoy for front delts that you can work into your program.

Let’s look at those now.

Seated DB Shoulder Press

The shoulder press is the king of all shoulder exercises, and rightfully so.

It is one of the best strength building movements out there, as well it one of the exercises for your shoulders that you can load the weight up on.

It is just so many people perform this inaccurately. The most basic mistake is people tend to flare their elbows out wide.

This tends to put a good amount of stress on your rotator cuff muscles. As well as this tends to limit the range of motion you can perform before your upper arm bone ( humerus ) jams into your shoulder joint, creating some nasty grinding going on in there.

Your elbows should not be out at a 90 degree angle. This is a recipe for injury.

As well as it simply does not lengthen your anterior deltoid as much.

Rather, your elbows should be tucked at a 30-45 degree angle.

This lines up your anterior deltoid muscle to where you can fully lengthen and then get close to fully shortening it.

Each muscle has a lengthening phase ( usually the eccentric, or on the way down, think lowering a bicep curl) and a shortening phase ( usually the concentric, or on the way up, think up on a bicep curl ).

When you properly get your elbows into place, this will increase your muscular output, decrease your risk of injury, and have you feeling groovy.

The correct* way to do shoulder presses is a staple in any shoulder workout routine.

You can do these standing as well.

Sets : 2-4

Reps: 6-10

Medial Delt

The ever elusive medial delt.

When it comes to creating a shoulder workout routine, in my opinion, the medial delt is the most under developed muscle.

Notice how I said under developed, not under trained.

A lot of people attempt to train their medial delt, but just simply have poor execution, form, or exercise selection.

This leads to an array of issue, not the least being, you don’t actually ever develop that head of your shoulder.

Let’s take the most common exercise for the medial deltoid, the side lateral raise.

DB Side Lateral Raise

• Before I get into anything here, I wrote an ENTIRE guide on exactly how to perform this movement and the mistakes that come along with it.

( That is how bad people butcher this movement.. I wrote an entire guide on it.. ).

So if you want to check that out, feel free to head HERE.

Yet the main points are going to be

• Get set up in a split stance and slightly tip forward at the torso
• Do NOT push your hands directly out to the side, push them out slightly in front and to the corners of the walls in front of you
• Do NOT just fling the weights up, overcome inertia, and use momentum

That last one is huge. People get into doing this movement and all they do is pick a weight that is too heavy.

Then all they do is overcome inertia at the beginning of the movement and create momentum for the weight to just move through space at that point.

Which then means your muscle doesn’t actually ever do any work besides the first .6 seconds of overcoming inertia.

Remember what we said earlier about the more work your muscle does = the better gains you see?

Well if you are doing this exercise wrong, and most do, then you are not going to get much work done.

Therefore be sure to watch this video I put above, read that guide, and if you do this movement correctly, you can see some kick ass progress.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-12

Cross Cable Side Lateral Raise

Now, there are going to be some other exercise variations I like to throw into the mix for your medial delts ( side delts ).

This is because while the dumbbell version is good, remember how we talked about “resistance profiles” above and how much work your muscle has to do?

In cables, we can manipulate that resistance profile to make it to where our muscles have to work harder for a longer period of time.

For example, the db side lateral raise, where do your muscles have to work really hard?

At the top, right? Because you are holding the weight up, but gravity is pulling the weight straight down.

Therefore it is really hard at the top, that’s really it.

Where as in a cable for example, we can manipulate it many of ways, but we can have it so throughout the entire range of motion there is more tension and work your muscles have to do.

More tension and more work equals more results in the long term.

Therefore throwing in variations like this here can be a great way to take your results to a new level.

You can use bands as well, but cables machines will be your best option.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-12

Cross Cable Y’s

When it comes to the “best” exercise for medial delts, I would have to say that the cross cable Y takes the spot.

This is the only exercise where you can get your medial delt fully shortened.

Remember, each muscle has a shortened position and a lengthened position.

Think bicep curl when you squeeze your bicep, and bicep curl as you extend your arm down.

When we talk about the medial delt, the only way you are going to fully shorten the medial delt as much as you can is by bringing your arm up above your head and at a slight angle.

You are taking the insertion of the muscle and bringing it closer to the origin.

Therefore, the cross cable Y is going to be my favorite exercise to throw into your shoulder workout routine for developing more defined shoulders.

Again, you can use bands here, but cables are most optimal.

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 8-12

Rear Delts

The third and final head of the shoulder is going to be your rear delts.

This one is also vastly under developed in peoples once again, not necessarily because people don’t train them.

Sometimes it is, but a majority of the time people just have once again, poor form and execution of the movement.

As well as they are doing movements that they think target the rear delt, but they truly don’t.

When it comes to your rear delts, you can and should be including these in some of your back training because of the function they have.

I talk about this in my back training article HERE , so please feel free to check that out.

I am going to give some more isolated rear delt moves here.

1 Arm Rear Delt Row

The one arm rear delt row is a great way to really isolate the rear delt while being able to use a good amount of load ( weight ).

Since you have the stability of being able to hold onto something, this can provide a very sturdy surface to pull through and create force.

This leads to more work being done by your rear delt, eventually leading to more gains.

The execution of this movement is important, so please feel free to check out the video listed above to make sure you got it down.

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 8-12/ea

Seated 2x Arm Rear Delt Pulldown

One of my favorite rear delt exercises right here.

When you perform this movement correctly, you can really feel a hard contraction of your rear delts at the bottom.

A lot of people have a hard time feeling their rear delts, if you watch the video above and execute this movement correctly, I promise you will feel your rear delts.

The most important thing is to take note where my elbows are finishing, as well as thinking about extending back with your elbows and shoulders.

Not necessarily thinking about squeezing your shoulder blades together super hard, more so extending the shoulders back and leading with the elbows.

You can also use the band version HERE.

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 8-10

1/2 Kneeling Cross Body Rear Delt Pull

This exercise is great because it is one of the only ones that trains your rear delts from a fully lengthened positioned.

See how my arm is coming across my body, reaching towards my opposite ear?

That is a great way to get the rear delt fully lengthened.

The form and execution for this guy can be a bit tough, so make sure you watch the video.

Once again, you can use band version HERE .

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 10-12/ea

Shoulder Workout Routine : Example Workout

Alright, now that we have laid out some anatomy, you learned the three heads, we went over some exercises.

Let’s work to put it all together.

Typically speaking, I don’t have “shoulder days” when I workout myself or program for my clients.

I usually intertwine shoulder work into either upper body days.

Let’s say you are following a 4x week workout program, with a upper / lower split.

Two days of upper body, two days of lower body.

Your shoulder workout routine across the week could look something like this, intertwined with other upper body exercises.

Upper Body Day One

Shoulder exercise one – DB Seated Shoulder Press 3×6-10 reps

Shoulder exercise two – 1 arm rear delt row 3×8-10/ea

Shoulder exercise three – Cross cable y’s 3×10-12

.

Upper Body Day Two

Shoulder exercise one – Seated 2x arm rear delt pulldown 3×8-10

Shoulder exercise two – Standing db side lateral raise 2×10-12

.

Then, obviously combined with other upper body exercises, that would round out your shoulder training for the week!

You are hitting your anterior delts with shoulder press.

Your medial delts with cross cable y’s and standing side lateral raises.

Then your rear delts with a 1 arm rear delt row and seated 2x arm rear delt pulldown.

Bam!

Shoulder Workout Routine : Capping It Up

Do you get the pun there?!

We all train to get that shoulder “cap”.

Capping it up instead of wrapping it up?! No?! I should stick to writing educational fitness content and not comedy?…

Note taken.

Either way, hope you got some value from this guide!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out or check out some of my other content.

If you are someone who is like “F*CK this, I would much rather you just tell me what to do”

Feel free to check out all of my training programs HERE.

Look to chat soon 🙂

-E

If you happen to be looking for an in-depth, no BS, straight the point guide on how to train your back muscles, consider this your lucky day.

In this article you are going to learn everything you need to in order to create your own back training routine.

If you are going for that lean, defined, muscular, or “toned” back ( all of those words mean the same thing by the way ) then this article is for you.

Just be sure to stick with me here. If you are reading this, commit to reading ( and watching ! ) the whole thing.

Don’t skim it or half read it. It won’t bring you any value that way and I want to be sure you learn something from this article.

Therefore read every section, watch every video, and no skimming around.

I promise this will be one of the best, if not the best, guide to training your back you have ever read.

We got a deal? Rad, let’s do this then.

How To Train Your Back Muscles

What Are Your Back Muscles?

Before we get into exactly how to train your back muscles, we have to know what and where your back muscles are.

We also have to know what your back muscles do from a function standpoint.

All of this will help you understand the exercises we are going to go over today as well as create your own routine based on what you want to work more.

We won’t be getting too in depth, but at least having a general baseline knowledge of what these muscles do can help you train them that much more efficiently.

I like to break the back up into two divisions when it comes to training it for hypertrophy ( Again, that “lean”, defined look you are going for ).

That would be the upper back and the lats.

Let’s cover both right now.

** Disclaimer, a lot of the information I have learned through this article has come from the knowledge and platform of N1 Education. In my opinion one of the best educational sites out there, if you would like to check them out, you can do so HERE ** .

Upper Back Muscles

When talking about the upper back muscles, there are 3 main muscles I like to focus on.

Those are going to be

• Rhomboids
• Rear Delts
• Traps (Upper, Mid, and Lower )

You can find some pictures of each one here below.

I also included a picture of your scapula. We will be referring to this a lot, so be sure you are just simply aware of what that is.

Think of your scapula as your shoulder blades primarily.

When it comes to the rhomboids, the rhomboids main job is to help retract the scapula and move it upwards slightly.

The rear delts are located on the back of your shoulder right on top of the ridge of the scapula. These muscles help move your shoulder into shoulder extension and somewhat retraction.

Your traps have 3 different divisions to them, the upper, the lower, and the mid traps.

The mid traps we don’t directly train too often as they are mainly used as a pivot point for your pressing and pulling motions ( think Chest press, rows, pull downs, etc).

The upper trap helps with retraction and elevation of the scapula, where as the lower trap helps with stabilization of downward rotation of the scapula.

Again, we don’t need to go through a whole anatomy class ( though if you want to learn a ton about this, I highly suggest checking out N1 education courses ), I just want you to have a solid understanding of where these muscles are on your body and what they do.

Lat Muscles

The second grouping of muscles is going to be your lat muscles.

Some people may think the lat is one muscle, and it is, but there are different divisions of the lat muscles.

There are 3 distinct divisions of your lat muscles. These are going to be

• Thoracic
• Lumbar
• Iliac

I will attach a picture here below of the lat.

Your lat inserts into your humerus ( your upper arm ).

Remember this as this is going to play a huge role when talking about how to bias your lats in exercises.

For the thoracic lats, those are responsible for pulling the humerus ( the upper arm ) at the most horizontal motion.

For the lumbar lats, those are responsible for pulling the humerus at somewhat of a horizontal motion and down to your lumbar spine ( lower back ) .

For thoracic and lumbar lats, think row variations are the prime movement for those two ( we will get into some more as we continue in this article ).

Then the iliac lats are most responsible for pulling down from a vertical position, so think exercises like pulldowns.

Keeping in mind that all 3 parts of your lat will be working at all times, it is just certain exercises can target certain portions better than others.

Which, is what I will show you in this article.

Once more, I don’t need you to be an expert on this stuff, just a brief overview of what is going on from an anatomy standpoint will help things make sense and we start to get into exercises.

How To Train Your Back Muscles : Upper Back

Now that we have some basic understanding of where these muscles are going to be located on our body and what they do, let’s get into how to train them.

This is important because if you want to bias a particular area of your body when you are training it, picking the proper exercises can do just that for you!

Let’s start with upper back first, primarily rear delts.

Rear Delts

When looking at rear delts, you want to try and make sure you are training them in their proper movement pattern.

A lot of people have tried to do this exercise below for their rear delts.

And a lot of people, me included, never really got their rear delts more developed.

Why? Because this movement doesn’t train the muscle through the complete range of motion or it’s function.

Just simply pushing your arm out to the side doesn’t complete the shoulder extension that we are looking for when we are wanting train rear delts.

Therefore picking proper movements that allow for this can be incredibly helpful in developing a physique.

One of the main aspects of back training that you are going to see pop up again and again, whether you are training upper back, rear delts, lats, whatever, is your elbow positioning.

I will touch on this various times because where your elbow ends up is a huge indicator of what part of your back is working.

For any upper back training, your elbows are generally speaking going to end up a bit father away from your body at an angle.

When we are looking at training rear delts, you want your elbows to end up at about a roughly 45 degree angle. Like this here below.

This will make sure your form is going to bias the rear delts and get work done, as opposed to just hitting a combination of everything.

Which, isn’t a bad thing, but if you are looking to isolate your rear delts, this is a great option for you.

Now, let’s get into some exercises of what this may look like. I will give you 3 of my favorite rear delt exercises here below.

DB Chest support 45 degree rear delt row

The chest support 45 degree angle rear delt row gives you a great rear delt workout with a fairly simple set up.

This movement is going to allow you to stretch the muscle at the bottom, while fully contracting the muscle on the way up by going into that 45 degree ish shoulder extension at the top.

Really think about driving with the elbow and finishing in that position where you found earlier from the video.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-12

1/2 kneeling 1 arm cross cable rear delt pull

This is a great exercise for fully stretching the rear delt as you are going to be having your arm come across your body.

It will also allow you to shorten and contract the muscle by bringing it through into shoulder extension.

Be sure to watch the video for proper form tips.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-12/ea arm

1 arm rear delt cable fly

This movement I like to get more of a fly variation into the mix.

This is a much better exercise in my opinion than the reverse pec dec machine I put above.

You can get the muscle fully stretched while bringing it into shoulder extension still.

Really think about leading with the elbow and pulling back with the shoulder at the bottom.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 10-12/ea

That basically covers it for rear delt training, now let’s move onto rhomboids and traps.

Rhomboids & Traps

When it comes to training the rhomboids and traps, we have to remember their functions.

Your elbow position is going to be finish a tad bit higher than what it would in a rear delt row for example. See below.

Your intent is also a bit different. In a rhomboid based row, you are looking to retract the scapula a bit more than you would in a rear delt row.

Also, your upper trap is going to get worked in rhomboid based row movements as well as somewhat of collateral damage.

You could do the old shrugs for your upper traps, there is nothing wrong with that.

Yet most people’s upper traps get worked in a ton of row variations so I will show you one of my favorite exercises for those lower traps.

Let’s cover some exercises that you can throw in to get some work done.

Upper Back Pulldown

For this movement, even though you are pulling from above, you can emphasize your elbows out wide and pulling down to hit more of your upper back.

People think this is a “lat” movement, it really isn’t, and we will explain why in the ladder sections.

Really think about driving your elbows out as you pull down, then as you finish think about them pulling together at the bottom.

Keep a slight arch in your upper back.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-12

Seated Cable Row

Now you may have seen this video before, but take note of the handle I am using.

Most people try to use this handle when they do this movement.

I would advise against this simply because your range of motion is going to get cut short. You can’t drive your elbows back as far.

If your range of motion gets cut short, then less work gets done by your muscles.

To optimize this movement, be sure to pick a handle that allows you to have your elbows travel farther back. Anyone of these below will work.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-10

Cross Cable Y’s

This movement is first off a great movement for your medial delts first and foremost as this gets them in the most shortened position.

Yet it is also great for the lower traps because as you raise your arms up, your lower traps have to do a ton of work stabilizing this movement.

Therefore it makes it a great way to work your shoulders and lower traps in the same exercise, winner winner chicken dinner!

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 10-12

The movements we just listed pretty much covers the upper back training portion part.

Remember us talking about elbow position? Remember this.

For upper back training, your elbow is going to drive past the midline of your body.

Now when it comes to how to train your back muscles for your lats in particular, let’s dive into what that might look like.

How To Train Your Back Muscles : Lats

Remember when it comes to training lats there are 3 divisions you can target.

I am going to give you exercises for all 3 yet just remember, your entire lat will work at some point in these movements.

We can simply just bias a bit more of what we work in certain exercises.

One of the other main points when training your lats in particular is for the most part, we are not going to be bringing the arm past the midline of your body.

Once you bring your arm back past that, your upper back is going to do most of the work.

If we are trying to bias our lats, we are going to really think about driving the upper arm down and then back.

As well as keeping the elbows close to our body.

Remember in the upper back work, our elbows were veering out farther away from our body.

For lat work, we want to keep things tight to our body.

As well as thinking about keeping a neutral spine and our core braced.

The minute you start to arch your lower back, it is going to turn into less of a lat movement and more of an upper back movement.

Your lats need that neutral spine, core braced, and proper ribcage position to pull on.

This goes for any row or pulldown. Let’s take a closer look here below.

Iliac Lats

Let’s first cover the iliac lats.

Remember this division of your lats does a great job of pulling things down from up above.

A big emphasis on down.

With this being said, doing movements that are pulling things down from above is going to be most advantageous for this part of your back.

Now, this isn’t necessarily directly above your head. This is more at an angle out in front of you and above your head.

Think about reaching your arm up directly above your head, then going down about 15-20 degrees in front of you.

I can include 2 of my most favorite exercises here below for that.

Seated 1 arm cable lat pulldown

This begins supreme in my opinion to the regular lat pulldown, shown here below.

The regular lat pulldown is actually quite good for your upper back. It is not advantageous for your lats because again, we want our elbow to not cross the midline of our body and pull down instead of pulling back.

In the seated lat pulldown video I have above, you can see I am pulling the weight from slightly out in front of me and down.

I can keep the angle down the entire time, as opposed to having to lean back and pull past my body.

With this movement, think about driving your upper arm down and that your elbow is a spear going down to your hips.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-12/ea

Rack Chins

This is a great exercise for those at a home gym ( or even a regular gym! ).

It is not easy by any means, but it is a great way to get those iliac lats involved from pulling down.

Remember, the intent here should be you are trying to drive the elbow down, not pull yourself up.

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 6-10 ( or as many as you can! )

1/2 Kneeling Cable Lat Pulldown

This is yet again another great option to hit the iliac lats.

If you do not have a bench, this is your go to right here.

You can also perform this with a band HERE if you want to!


Sets and reps would stay the same.

Again notice how the elbow in all of these is getting pulled DOWN to the hips, not back behind the body!

When it comes to how to train your back muscles, I hope you are seeing the elbow path is super important.

Thoracic Lats

The thoracic lats will require mainly rowing movements.

I am going to drop some of my most favorite movements here below you can try on for size!

1 arm landmine row

This movement is a great movement to work the upper part of the lat fibers.

Be sure to again keep your core braced and do NOT arch your lower back.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-10/ea arm

1 arm thoracic lat db row

This movement is similar to the one above, just with a dumbbell instead of a barbell!

All the same mechanics, sets, and reps apply.

Lumbar Lats

Last but not least we have the lumbar lats. These are going to attach down towards the lumbar spine.

There are a few main ways to train these, I will put some exercises here below!

1 arm db row

You have probably seen this exercise before, but to make it a bias of the lower lumbar lats, follow along the video I have here.

The main thought process here is to drive the elbow down and back to the hip, again not past the midline of your body.

Your upper arm going down and back, not straight back.
Also, you want to be mostly parallel to the ground as you pull.

Sets : 2-4

Reps : 8-10/ea

1 Arm cable lat row

This movement provides a great way to train your lower lats because you can angle yourself and your body with the cable.

Everyones structure will be different, but as you see in the video, you can set yourself up to have that cable and arm path exactly where you need it!

Remember to once again drive the elbow down and keep a neutral spine.

Sets : 2-3

Reps : 8-12/ea

How To Train Your Back Muscles : Sample Workout

Alright, phew.

That was a lot thrown at you on how to train your back muscles, I know.

Let me try to quickly recap and put together a sample back workout you could do!

First, remember that your elbow path helps decide what part fo your back is going to work.

Having your elbows at an angle and going past the midline of your body, for the most part, is going to work more upper back.

Your elbows can stay close to your body and if they go past the midline of your body they will be working upper back, but for the most part, the farther away your elbows are from your body the more upper back you are working.

Having your elbows travel down and then back, as well as NOT past the midline of your body is going to work more lats.

Now, let’s say you wanted develop a sample workout routine.

Well, I would first recommend hitting back on 2 separate days throughout the week.

One because a frequency of two times per week has been shown to be optimal for muscle growth.

Two because there are going to be multiple things you have to train and trying to fit it all into one day could be a nightmare.

Let’s say you are doing a 4x per week upper / lower split. Essentially meaning you are hitting an upper body workout 2x per week and a lower body workout 2x per week.

On your two upper body days, for your back in particular, it could look something like….

Day 1

Exercise 1 – db chest support rear delt row 3×8-10 reps ( upper back / rear delt movement )

Exercise 2 – 1/2 kneeling 1 arm lat pulldown 3×8-12/ea ( iliac lat focus movement )

Exercise 3 – 1 arm db row 3×10-12/ea ( lumbar lat focus movement )

.

Day 2

Exercise 1 – seated 2x arm cable row 3×8-10 ( thoracic lat focus movement )

Exercise 2 – Upper back pulldown 3×8-12 ( rhomboid focus movement )

Exercise 3 – 1/2 kneeling 1 arm rear delt pull 3×10-12/ea ( rear delt focus movement )

.

Bam, that right there would cover all of your bases when it comes to back training!

You are hitting every part of the back throughout the week in 6 exercises.

If that isn’t efficiency, I don’t know what is.

How To Train Your Back Muscles : The End

I hope you enjoyed this journey of how to train your back muscles.

I know this stuff can be complicated at first, so don’t be afraid to go back and check things out one more time.

Or, I also have an article on how to create a workout program HERE.

Or if you are feeling like “Dude, f this, just tell me what to do and I will do it” I can put my membership site here below which holds all of my training programs that I have ever created.

Check out my training programs HERE!

I can take the guesswork out of it for you and tell you exactly what exercises, sets, reps, etc to do so you won’t have to wonder.

Just do work and see results!


Any questions don’t hesitate to reach out.

Chat soon,

-E