My Back

[killerdude494949]

Well, if you all may or may not have noticed by now from my posts, I have a slight bodybuilding bias to my views. I have a slight "bodypart" mentality when it comes to training. But still, I'm all for strength training and I absolutely adhere to golden rule of progressing on heavy compounds first and foremost. Anyway where I'm getting at with this is that I just felt like recording a quick video of my favorite bodypart, my back, to just show people some of the progress I've made, and any constructive criticism is welcome.

[ricepower]

It actually looks best/biggest when you are standing normally. All your contorting just makes you look your possessed by a demon.

You have some really impressive width in the lats area. That is something im struggling to develop. I have really wide hips so about a year of training has only just managed to balance things out a bit. Id love to get the really wide back thing.

Also in terms of photo's/video's - Use a sideways light source like the sun/a window and do higher resolution video or pics, youll be able to see the definetion in all the muscles a lot better.

At the moment, all your posing is not actually making any muscles more visible at all.

[luco]

Impressive back and even more impressive face pose at the end.

[killerdude494949]

This wasn't the first posing video I've taken but I must admit that it was the first that appears I'm having weird spasms. Haha thank you both.

As for developing the lats, mine responded very well to training from day one so maybe thats my genetics because I've been training a year or so as well. Best thing that worked for me was all variations of chins done for volume.

[Sam277]

Lats are looking solid.

[mpetry]

I have also noticed that daily training helps my lats a great deal. a few months ago I did 50 pullups a day for a few weeks and it seemed like overnight, my back increased in width and thickness. not sure if it works for everyone, but if you want to help your back, I can say that daily pullups are worth a shot.

nice work!

[killerdude494949]

I have also noticed that daily training helps my lats a great deal. a few months ago I did 50 pullups a day for a few weeks and it seemed like overnight, my back increased in width and thickness. not sure if it works for everyone, but if you want to help your back, I can say that daily pullups are worth a shot.

nice work!

If I have a good workout, the next day I am almost always toast, so doing 50 pull ups would never cross my mind. lol

Despite my back development, I find I cannot do too many pull ups in a row or do them with much weight added. This might be because I always do them last in my workout, and also I weigh 230 lbs and I have longer than average arms. Because of this, doing pull ups and chin ups is extremely physically demanding.

Since I can't make PR's on them too often, so I usually just do a few sets of them at the end of my workouts as a finisher. I find this brillant because chin ups really do work almost everything in the upperbody in unison with the lats. Especially if you do try to keep your arms and torso in a straight line the whole time (by striving to look down and shove your elbows down). This resembles a pullover motion and brings the triceps and pecs into play as opposed to a sternum chin up which is more like the rowing motion.

[ricepower]

Heres a picture of my back from a couple months ago, hasnt really changed at all despite increases in pull ups. Unfortunately due to my wide hips any back width is totally unoticeable from the front or if im wearing clothes.

[killerdude494949]

Heres a picture of my back from a couple months ago, hasnt really changed at all despite increases in pull ups. Unfortunately due to my wide hips any back width is totally unoticeable from the front or if im wearing clothes.

If your lats are hard to build up maybe you should try special variants of chins and pulls that really emphasize the lats. The regular kind is really easy to cheat on by mainly using bicep strength (at least I have that issue).

One is the behind neck pull up with a shoulder width, overhand grip. Look down and strive to keep your arms in a straight line with the body the whole movement. Lead with the elbows and actively squeeze the lats at the top. If you're concerned with shoulders, then just clear your head at the top and touch your upper chest. Or if you have bars that don't attach in the middle like in gravitron machines you can just split the difference and bring your arms to the sides. The key is to look down during the range of motion.

Also try doing stermun chin ups. Use a closer supinated grip and bring your sternum to the bar by focusing on driving your elbows down. Arch your back at top, shoulders back and down.

Since these are really hard to do, you might want to start out with negatives or loop an elastic band under yourself.

Another tip is to avoid using a wide grip. Not sure where the idea came from that wider is better, since the wider you go the less range of motion you get. You want your grip to be on the sweet spot where your elbows touch your lats at the top and forearms are perpendicular to the ground.

[AhBen]

I'm glad to have a relatively narrow waist.

[ricepower]

Im not annoyed by my wide mid-section. In the long run, if I ever really bulk up my torso will look MASSIVE.

[JasonLB]

Damn, AhBen, you do have a narrow waist (looks like you have some pretty wide lats too, though). Nicely done!

My lats refuse to grow, so I've been really focusing on bringing them up lately. I still have a lot of work to do (and I need a tan)...

[luco]

Impressive, AhBen (isn't that a Singaporean gangster? ). Especially with the slap palm prints.

[AhBen]

Impressive, AhBen (isn't that a Singaporean gangster? ). Especially with the slap palm prints.

Those palm prints were from a psyche up slap before a weighted pullup PR.