the biggest mistake people make when training back is utilizing too many isolation exercises and not targeting all of the back musculature which includes both superficial and deep muscles the four main muscles that make it the bulk of the back and the ones we want to focus on developing or the trapezius which has an upper and lower portion the rhomboids which lady'd to the trapezius muscle little to Smith's dorsi or lats and the erector spinae which are the lower back muscles there are also a few smaller muscles that serve an important role such as the teres muscles and the infraspinatus we want to focus on these muscles as well as they will strengthen our shoulder through stabilization and also provide an aesthetic appeal and when it comes to building a powerful and attractive looking back I think that most of us want the following large but not over developed upper traps for thickness wide strong lats that extend down load to create that elusive v-taper strong lower traps and rhomboids for mid-back thickness clear development and separation in the teres major and infraspinatus muscles and a well-defined Christmas tree structure in the lower back created by the erector spinae we can achieve these features and train all these muscles by choosing the right exercises to include in our back workouts in this video I'm going to go through a back workout consisting of five of the best back building exercises based on current scientific literature and our anatomical understanding of the back muscles now before we get started on the exercises I want to briefly talk about muscle activation it's important that you have a solid mind to muscle connection with your back muscles during each of the back exercises you perform or else you'll be training the wrong muscles in fact one study by Schneider at I'll examine the effect that cueing had on untrained athletes who were performing lat pull-downs the study found that activation of the lats were significantly higher after coaching them before some helpful cues I personally use are to think about pulling with your elbows as opposed to thinking about pulling with your hands and bring your shoulders down and away from your ears to depress your traps before starting each movement another thing I also do for most back exercises aside from the deadlift is I'll remove my thumb from underneath and put it over the grip with my fingers also known as a thumbless grip as I find this makes it harder to engage the bicep and makes it easier to feel your back using these cues will help you maximally activate the muscles that should be working in the following exercises if deathless currently aren't somewhere in your lifting routine that I highly suggest you start doing them it's a great compound movement to target pretty much all of your upper and lower back muscles which will add more width and depth to your back and help you get that Christmas tree shape and it also works several lower body muscles in addition to the large hormonal responses exercise elicits when compared to isolation exercises it's also very easy to progressively overload this exercise with weight given that you're doing the exercise with proper form which of course is essential and although I'm not going to explain how to perform the deadlift properly in this video I highly recommend you do a little bit of research as to the proper way to do them before trying it out I personally prefer including deadlifts on my back day as opposed to my leg day and I suggest starting with this exercise first year in your workout as it's a very energy demanding exercise this is probably my favorite back exercise for several reasons first of all not only does it work pretty much all of your back musculature like your lats lower traps and rhomboids they also greatly increase the role of your shoulder and scapular stabilizers like the terry's muscles and the infraspinatus and the fact that it's a closed chain I should say as meaning that the hands are held at a fixed anchor point means that it may result in greater motor unit recruitment as demonstrated in several studies that compared open chain exercises like lat pull-downs with closed chain exercises like the pull-up now as for whether you should do pull-ups or chin-ups research such as this study by Otis Adel tends to show that both pull-ups and chin-ups provided equal lat activation however this same study showed that the lower traps and infraspinatus had greater activation in the pull-up when compared to the chin up whereas the chin up had greater pectoralis major and biceps brachii activation given that we are focusing on maximizing back growth pull-ups seemed like the better option for this reason however I urge you not to immediately draw conclusions directly from literature especially solely from EMG studies as all studies have flaws and we all have individual differences in our anatomy and body structure so try them both out and see which feels better for you and you can always include both in your workout I find that a fairly wide overhand thumbless grip pull up best activates my back and as for a progressive overload once you can comfortably perform 10 to 12 clean reps of the bodyweight pull-up I suggest starting to gradually add weight by using a weight belt or holding a dumbbell between your feet in order to continuously get stronger this exercise and if you're currently unable to do a pull-up I suggest using an assisted pull-up machine and focusing on negatives until you build the strength to do bodyweight pull-ups next you want to move on to a horizontal rowing movement one study by laymen that I'll actually found that the seated row provided similar levels of lat activation as lat pull-downs but more activation in other areas of the back like the traps and rhomboids so I definitely suggest you include a rowing type movement into your back routine to hit these other muscles whether it be t-bar rows bent over barbell rows and so on I pervert this variation of the chest supported row where you put a bench at an incline and pull the weighted bar towards your chest which works the majority of your back muscles with more emphasis on their mid-back musculature I prefer this exercise because it minimizes the involvement of my lower back in the movement which has already gotten a good workout for my deadlifts now although the pull-up is a superior exercise when compared to lat pull-downs the lat pulldown is an excellent supplemental open-chain exercise that targets pretty much the same muscles I previously showed in the pull-up just with less involvement of the shoulder stabilizers as for the best variations to perform them in my opinion overhand middle and wide grip front pull downs with a slight lean back are likely the best options front pull downs have been showed in numerous studies such as this one by barrows at all to be superior in terms of lat activation when compared to other variations like behind the neck pull downs and another bonus is it doesn't place your glenohumeral joint in a compromised position as behind the neck pull downs do so stick to front pull downs as for hand grip one study by lusca IL concluded that a pronated grip had significantly higher lat activation when compared to a supinated grip during lat pull downs which is why I recommend using an overhand grip I also suggest a slight lean bag during the pull downs based on the conclusions of this study which demonstrated that a slight lean back at 135 degrees led to it an 11% increase in lat activation as long as no momentum is used so a slight lean back may be optimal but you don't want to be swinging every rep as for grip with this study by Anderson I'll examine the activation of various back muscles using three different grip widths narrow medium and wide the researchers concluded that the three different widths exhibited very similar lat activation but the biceps were most activated with the middle grip and in addition subjects were able to lift the most weight with the middle grip however the same study also showed that during the eccentric portion of the movement the infraspinatus one of our rotator cuffs was better activated during the wide grip and given that a wider grip will also involve more of your teres major muscle due to its anatomical position and function I think we can conclude that using a combination of both the middle and wide grip is best in terms of bag training as opposed to just sticking to one grip with this last exercise is something I highly suggest you add into your back training routine they're called scapular pull-ups and mainly strengthen your lower traps while helping with your scapular stability and keeping your shoulders healthy you simply want to be hang from a bar to press your shoulders down and away from your ears and pull your body up without allowing your elbows to bend as you get stronger with this exercise you can always progress it by using a weight belt or alternatively perform the exercise on your knees and use the handles on a cable machine so to wrap this all up here's a sample workout what you can do using the five exercises I discussed you want to stick with this routine for a couple months and focus on progressively overloading these exercises but I guarantee that if you get strong as hell with these exercises you will develop a well-rounded and powerful looking back video useful I know it's a lot of information to take in our first but I honestly believe that if you implement what I go through in the video so you'll be able to maximize your Factory and see a lot more back growth and with that being said I've put in a lot of time and effort into this video so I'd really appreciate it if you hit that like button and leave some comments below as to what you liked about the video what you think I could improve on in the future and also if you have any questions about the videos that you like me to answer and as always please don't forget to hit that subscribe button as well as it really motivates me to continue making informative content like this in the future and I also highly suggest that you check out some of my other videos that I made as I think you guys will find it useful as well and that's basically it for today guys I'll see you next time [Music]