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.
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