Concept2 Forum

what are good exercises for upper back thickness and widh ?

Jashera wrote: ↑

June 28th, 2019, 12:46 pm

what are good exercises for upper back thickness and widh ?

There are endless exercises for working your upper back and basically they are all about "pulling" movements. If you want width you have to work your lats and do pull-ups (strict) and pull downs with good form and not creating momentum with swinging and such (wider grip). If you want thickness you have to do rowing movements - barbell/dumbbell rows with elbows more tucked and finally you want to work traps with upright shrugs or rows. The deadlift works your lower back but also works all your back muscles and is a good building block. Really depends on what the primary goal is and if trying to improve a sport movement, build strength or just look better (v-taper). You could do a really good all-around back building program with just some deadlifts, pull-ups/pulldowns and rows.

Jashera wrote: ↑

June 28th, 2019, 12:46 pm

what are good exercises for upper back thickness and widh ?

Firstly, many folk say wider grip for a wider back...complete nonsense and is a myth. Work the muscle correctly and the hypertrophy will natually make the lat wider. A natural shoulder width grip for lat pulldowns is perfectly sufficient...infact gripping it too wide will be inefficient at exhausting the muscle and reaching true failure.

A thicker back comes from building lower traps, rhomboids and focusing on the mid/inner lat. Underhand chinup/pulldowns are great for the mid lats. The YTWL is also great for the lower traps. Rear delt raises too.

I could say various exercises and they are all great, but do not underestimate the importance of the mind muscle connection when it comes to training the back. Its very easy for the arms to take over when you need to mentally take them out of the movement as much as possible. And also the lat itself is such a big muscle that you need to work all areas...focusing on the outter lat will not make it wider...you need to exhaust the whole muscle.

I agree with kieth...a few key compound movements would be perfectly fine although it depends on your goals. Underhand and overhand chinups or pulldown, bent over barbell row/pendlay row and seated rows. Form is the key to a good back...lots of people can pull heavy weights but whether they are working their back is a different story. Its one of the easiest muscle groups to cheat.

From a rowing point of view, i really feel my lats engage when i bring the handle in lower and imagine that im bending the ends down....but that could just be my body shape/mechanics?!

Lookup ATHLEAN-X channel on youtube... you'll find more than you even need on there