Thread: Back workout...too much????

if you mean the t-bar pulldowns behind the neck - do your rotator cuff, and your shoulder in general, a HUGE favour and don't do anything behind the neck.

as for the volume, it does seem quite high. my adivce would be to split your "back" work into 2 seperate days such as a horizontal pull (Db rows, cable rows, t-bars...) and a vertical pull (pullups, lat pulldowns, chinups...). choose 2 movements from each plane. first off though, I'd look at the stickies in this forum because they have excellent advice and go further into depth about what I just typed out.

I agree with scarface,
it does seem like a lot of volume, especially if you're just starting back after a long lay off.

ya maybe split it into 2 days

here's a workout that centers on the back. it operated on the premise of vertical & horizontal. maybe built could chime in, it's her program.

Weight Training and Body Building - Baby Got Back

If you are taking all your work sets to failure, I don't think you need anymore than 11-12 sets for lats and 4-5 for low back.

Thanks for the imput!

B

I agree with scarface and the others in that it is a good idea to stay away from anything behind the neck. Breaking your back training up into two sessions can be beneficial as well, but it is important to ensure that your split allows for proper recovery time for other bodyparts if you do this.

I am a huge fan of basic barbell deadlifts. This past offseason I loved em and will always do these once per month or more. I did implement smith machine deads... hated them the first workout, got a hell of a pump the second time I tried, them, and after that twice a month I was killin my back with them. They are definitely looked at as "wimpy", lol, compared to regular deads, but rotating the two back and forth seemed to work.

I figured I would just throw a different exercise out there you might want to use to shock things up...

I've not tried smith deads so I'll reserve comment.

I would strongly recommend barbell deads, rack pulls and RDLs though, as well as weighted chins and one-arm dumbbell rows - a widely underrated exercise IMO. My over-forty, unassisted husband does these with 120-lb dumbbells and they've done wonders for his back development. <drifts off into her happy place>

For the weighted chinup work, even if you can only crank out a few reps, you can set up with a bench so you can self-assist with your toes to get back to the "up" position, then lower slowly to take advantage of the negs for the rest of your set.

Echoing the others - please, nothing behind the neck.

Likewise, avoid wide grip work - it doesn't build width, but it DOES build rotator cuff damage.

One-arm lat pulldowns at the end are really good for a pumping exercise though, nice for flushing the trained area with blood and they actually succeed at what wide-grip work promises - but fails - to deliver - a full ROM and a great stretch.

PS hoot, thank you.