Thread: Hitting rhomboids

Deadlifts

Any rowing exercise. Ensure to really squeeze and contract the muscles on each rep.

I do a ton of both, guess im not contracting the muscles properly, will make a mental note to concentrate more on that....thanks.

It's been a while since I've had a human anatomy class but I'm pretty sure the rhomboid pulls the scapula down and toward the spinal column. Kind of the opposite to the traps. So you would want to do a movement opposite the shrug.

I would try hopping on a lat pulldown or pullup bars and just hang there and try to just pull yourself up/the weight stack down with your rhomboids. Keep your arms straight and just kind of squeeze your shoulder blades together and push your chest out.

That's all theoretical, I've never tried it before but it should work.

Rows will hit them directly the best.

Also, deadlifts (and all variations), rack pulls, cleans, face pulls, farmer's walks, static holds and to a lesser degree bench/chest presses where they're involved on the eccentric portion of the lift (i.e. "pinching" the shoulder blades on the bench for stability).

I've been reading a lot lately on proper powerlifting bench technique and every article advocates pinching the shoulder blades, which requires strong upper back muscles (rhomboids are part of that of course). So, they say if your sticking point in bench is the bottom few inches off the chest it's not a pec/tricep/shoulder issue but more back muscles.

My point is, in addition to obvious direct back exercises and indirect ones like deadlifts you should also be mindful of using your back on bench.

Originally Posted by Phineas

Rows will hit them directly the best.

Also, deadlifts (and all variations), rack pulls, cleans, face pulls, farmer's walks, static holds and to a lesser degree bench/chest presses where they're involved on the eccentric portion of the lift (i.e. "pinching" the shoulder blades on the bench for stability).

I've been reading a lot lately on proper powerlifting bench technique and every article advocates pinching the shoulder blades, which requires strong upper back muscles (rhomboids are part of that of course). So, they say if your sticking point in bench is the bottom few inches off the chest it's not a pec/tricep/shoulder issue but more back muscles.

My point is, in addition to obvious direct back exercises and indirect ones like deadlifts you should also be mindful of using your back on bench.

hmmm, thats pretty interesting. the body is amazing. Its cool how working out one part of your body affects a whole other part.

hey man,

Do you know who jeff cavaliere is? He is the mets former physical therapist?

He has some interesting videos on the rhomboids and lower traps

VERY unique stuff...

Worth a look:
youtube.com/user/JDCav24#p/u/45/2xaMyfupq64]YouTube - JDCav24's Channel

Also here is an article by the redsox physical therapist mike reinold on how to use the lat pulldown in a certain way to bring in more lower trap activation:

mikereinold.com/2010/09/lat-pulldown-how-to-maximize-latissimus.html