Stop Doing These Back Exercises. Do These More Efficient Moves Instead. | The Don't List | Men's Health Muscle - video Dailymotion

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Stop Doing These Back Exercises. Do These More Efficient Moves Instead. | The Don't List | Men's Health Muscle

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00:00When it comes to training our back, there are very few bad exercises out there and really

00:05every single back exercise you're going to find is going to stimulate your back in some

00:08way or other.

00:09But if you really want to grow your back, if you really want to layer muscle onto your

00:13lats, your rhomboids, your rear delts, then we want to be targeted and smart with the

00:17exercises that we're doing.

00:18And we want to choose exercises that are going to take us through a full range of motion,

00:22they're going to let us fully contract and get a lot of stretch on our back, and they're

00:26going to let us load.

00:27Plenty of back exercises that you see on social media, on TikTok and Instagram, just aren't

00:31going to do that, and they just aren't optimal for building your back.

00:34So let's eliminate a couple of those exercises and give you some better moves, that way you

00:38can get the ultimate back pump.

00:40When we think about the deadlift, it is a great overall exercise that should be in all

00:44routines, it's something you should just know how to do and it is a great functional pattern.

00:48But here is what it is not, it is not a great builder of your lats.

00:53Yes, your lats are going to be stimulated somewhat when you do a deadlift, because to

00:58some level you're shifting into shoulder extension, even if we don't have to necessarily work

01:03for that position, there's a lot of tension on our lats.

01:06But that is not a core part or a core reason for doing the deadlift, and it shouldn't be,

01:11so don't let people tell you that when you are doing deadlifts, you are training your

01:14lats.

01:15If you really want to train your lats through that strict shoulder extension pattern, then

01:20what we want to turn to is something called the straight arm pulldown.

01:23Now this is a great endgame back exercise that's going to attack your lats almost in

01:27the identical way that a deadlift theoretically does, except we're going to be able to get

01:31a lot more stretch at the top of every single rep, and we're going to get a deep contraction

01:36on the back end of every single rep.

01:38So this is a much better way to really attack your lats through shoulder extension and strictly,

01:43and you're going to get a lot more out of it.

01:44The deadlift is great and should be in your routine, it is just not a builder of your

01:48lats.

01:50Another exercise I see a ton that looks fun, but really just isn't giving you maximum gains

01:54for your back is something called the renegade row.

01:56Here are the issues with the renegade row.

01:58It's not going to give us a full contraction at any point of any of our back muscles, and

02:03it's not going to really let us get a maximum stretch either, and on top of that, you're

02:07hugely limited in the amount of load you can use, and you're not going to get much time

02:11under tension.

02:12If anything, the renegade row is a good exercise for our abs in terms of anti-rotation, and

02:17it's going to give us some grip work, it's going to give us some biceps work, but in

02:19terms of a back builder, it is just not worth your time.

02:22Now, if we want to kind of go through the same pattern, and work a row that's going

02:26to be very strict and have a little bit of anti-rotation benefit, let's go to an elevated

02:31plank row instead.

02:32With this simple tweak, what we wind up doing is we get to keep constant tension on our

02:36lats and mid-back, we're still getting the abdominal and anti-rotation benefit, and on

02:40top of that, because we're in a slightly higher position, we're going to get a lot more stretch

02:44on our lats and rhomboids, and we can still get that awesome deep contraction at the top,

02:49so switch to the elevated plank row if you actually want to grow your back.

02:52The renegade row is fun, just not worth your time.

02:54The basic dumbbell row over the last couple years has seen a tweak on Instagram, and that

02:58tweak just isn't worth your time, that's what we call the straight arm dumbbell row.

03:03In this dumbbell row, instead of simply rowing a dumbbell up, we're theoretically creating

03:07a longer lever by trying to lock our elbow into position, and in theory, this is going

03:12to challenge our lats that much more, except here's the problem when we do that.

03:17One, we wind up limited by our triceps, and we wind up also swinging the weight backwards

03:22because it's really, really hard to maintain that closer to locked position, so yes, we

03:27do get that longer lever for our lats, but we're just not placing our body in an optimal

03:32position where it can focus on a really, really clean contraction, and where we can really

03:36optimize our row and get a really, really good eccentric at the back end of that row

03:40too.

03:41Instead of chasing that straight arm dumbbell row and working through that, what I would

03:45suggest you do is just go to a classic dumbbell row, let your elbow bend, because what's going

03:50to happen then is we can go heavier, so even though we're working with a slightly shorter

03:54lever, that extra load that we can place on the dumbbell is going to create plenty of

03:59challenge for our lats, it's going to be a much more natural movement, and the best part

04:03that I like about it, you're going to be able to get a nice controlled eccentric and a really

04:07good stretch, that's really going to help you grow your lats a lot more than over focusing

04:12on trying to keep your elbow as straight as possible when you're doing the dumbbell row.

04:16An exercise that we see way too commonly from people who really just don't understand the

04:21purpose of the pulldown is the behind the neck pulldown.

04:24Now the issue with the behind the neck pulldown in terms of training your lats is that one,

04:29we're putting our shoulder in a very compromised position, we can very easily wind up in internal

04:33rotation, that's just not going to feel natural, it's not going to feel great, and it could

04:37lead to shoulder issues down the line.

04:39The other issue is because of the pulling angle, depending on your anatomy, you may

04:44not even be able to truly get a deep contraction through your lats when you're doing this pulldown

04:50because it's really just not how our body is meant to work.

04:53Instead of doing behind the neck pulldowns, we're just going to switch to a standard pulldown

04:57in front of the neck, you're going to get a much deeper lat contraction out of this

05:01by pulling that bar to your chest, and you're going to be able to focus on pulling your

05:04elbows to your hip pockets instead of going behind the neck.

05:08When you go in front of the neck, you're going to be able to really, really get that deep

05:12contraction and that's what we want to chase when we're going for back row.

05:15So if you stick with these four moves, get rid of the other stuff, you will get a much

05:20better back pump from your workouts, you'll stay free of injury, and you won't be wasting

05:24your time so you're going to make much faster gains.

05:31www.globalonenessproject.org

Stop Doing These Back Exercises. Do These More Efficient Moves Instead. | The Don't List | Men's Health Muscle

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