Back Development for Rookies

Zach Bashore

May 17, 2006

Training the back muscle to a decent size will give you a "Hulk" like

appearance and give people the impression that you bodybuild. You are going

to learn what the back muscle is, the two primary portions of the back,

exercises for these two portions, and the best way to incorporate your back

workout to your training routine. Don`t expect to perfect your workout right

away, but as you gain experience, you should have a good idea of what needs

to be done with your back.

The upper back consists of twelve vertebral bodies in the spine. The

upper back is not designed for motion and injuries to the thoracic spine are

rare. The thoracic spine provides stability and structural support for the

upper back, and allows very little motion. The lower back is a complex

structure of disks, vertebrae, nerves which include the spinal cord and

nerves, small joints, six shock absorbers called disks, and five bones call

lumbar vertebrae.

Training the upper back is the same as training any other muscle group.

Low reps build mass and high reps to tone up. The following exercise are the

best back exercises to achieve whatever goal you are aiming for:

MACHINE:

Smith Machine Bent Over Row

T-Bar Row

Lying T-Bar Row

DUMBBELL:

Middle Back Shrug

One-Arm Dumbbell Row

Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Row

Palms In Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Row With

CABLES:

Seated Cable Rows

BARBELL:

Reverse Grip Bent-Over Rows

Bent Over Two-Arm Long Bar Row

Bent Over Barbell Row

Bent Over One-Arm Long Bar Row

The lower back is very small and simply cannot handle as much weight as

that of the upper back. The following lower back exercises are useful in

developing your lower back:

Stiff-Legged Dumbbell Deadlift

Hyperextensions

Superman

Stiff Leg Barbell Good Morning

Stiff-Legged Barbell Deadlift

Smith Machine Stiff Legged Deadlift

When choosing your upper back split, you need to take into

consideration that the upper back is considered a large muscle group and

should be separated from other large muscle gorups such as the chest and

quads. The lower back can either be trained alone or with your glutes and

hamstrings. Most lower back exercises target portions of the hamstrings

which is why it is best to train them on the same day. In fact, your first

training split should use this sort of split and alter it a bit if you don`t

see the results that you are looking for.

*http://www.muscleblitz.com/back_muscle.htm

*http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/back/a/back1.htm

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category%3ABack_anatomy

*http://onoffonoff.org/imma/usability/back/anatomy_detail.htm