How to Get a Muscular Back: A Comprehensive Guide
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Lifting is a battle.
A war to take your body and mind to new heights.
And your enemy? The massive amounts of information and the spreading fuckarounditis epidemic.
The battle is hard, and not for the lazy ones.
There are crazy amounts of learning curves. Training principles you need to learn. Exercises you need to master. Workout schedules you need to try.
And all of that stuff matters if you are to come out the victor. To that end, I decided to create this comprehensive and actionable guide on how to get a muscular back.
In it, you’ll learn everything there is to growing a solid back as a natural lifter.
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But First, We Need to Understand the Back Muscles Anatomy
Your back muscle group is the biggest and most complex, training-wise, in your entire body. There are a lot of muscles that work together but the four main ones we are focusing on are:
Latissimus dorsi Rhomboids Trapezius Erector spinae
1/17 A is Trapezius D is Latissimus dorsi F are the Rhomboid major & minor muscles
The Erector spinae aren’t shown in the above chart but they lie in the lower grey area of the back.
There are also a few smaller muscles pointed out in the above chart: B is the infraspinatus C is the teres major
Where Most People Go Wrong With Their Back Training
Back training is complex. A lot of people train theirs incorrectly and can’t make good progress for months, even years.
Usually, people fall into one of two categories:
They try to inflate their ego by pulling heavy weights that don’t do much for them; or:
Focus on cookie-cutter programs that use gimmicks and ineffective strategies.
In both cases, the results are pretty much the same:
Back so flat that gets pancakes jealous.
And since building a solid back is our goal, the first thing we need to do is check the ego at the door. Ego lifting is ugly, unproductive and even dangerous. Especially true for the back where mind-muscle connection plays a huge role.
And if ego lifting is not your problem and you’re in the other category, you need to stop wasting time following dumbass programs designed to keep grandma and grandpa in shape.
What you need is to learn what the most effective back exercises are, how to build your routine, how to progressively overload your back, and what mistakes to avoid. We’ll cover all that below.
The Best Back Exercises for Mass and Strength
Let’s lay down the fundamental part of training first: exercises. There are hundreds of them, but only a few we’ll go over.
The Deadlift
The deadlift is one of the best exercises that develops the entire body, including the back. It works a range of muscles, improves grip strength, and is a very safe movement.
Some people consider it to be a very dangerous exercise, but that’s not true. As long as you do it with caution and avoid doing high repetition touch and go sets, you shouldn't ever have problems with the lift.
If you do have a history of back issues and injuries, you might want to steer clear from heavy compound lifts for more 2/17 isolation work.
Let’s take a look at the five most widely used deadlift variations:
1.Conventional Deadlift
The deadlift is probably the most famous of all exercises, and it is great for developing not only your back but also your hamstrings, glutes, calves, quads, core and grip strength.
Here is a great in-depth video by Alan Thrall. He goes over form, mental tricks to perform better and common mistakes.
2.Sumo Deadlift
The second most popular deadlift variation, and it’s gained quite a bit of popularity in the last two decades. One of the reasons for that is because this is a great alternative for the conventional deadlift. Some people are better built to deadlift in a sumo style and find it much more comfortable than the conventional deadlift.
You can read more about it in this article by Greg Nuckols. And here is an instructional video on how to perform the sumo deadlift.
3.Rack Pull Deadlift
This variation has you pull the bar from an elevated position and essentially eliminates the initial part of the deadlift. While this variation might seem like cheating to some of you, it’s awesome for two things:
If you’re having trouble locking out the bar at the top, rack pulls can improve your lockout strength. Rack pulls drastically reduce the involvement of your legs in the lift and instead put the biggest emphasis on your hips and back, making rack pulls an amazing exercise to overload your back.
Here's a video demonstration.
4.Deficit Pull Deadlift
The deficit deadlift, unlike the rack pull, emphasises the initial part of the movement to help you build more strength off the bottom. If you’re having trouble breaking the weight off the floor, but the lockout is no problem, then using this variation is a great way to fix that problem.
Here’s a video demonstration.
5.Trap Bar Deadlift
Unlike the barbell version, with this one, you stand inside and grab the handles on each side. It allows you to use a neutral grip for the lift and most people can pull a bit more weight compared to the barbell version.
You can learn more about the trap bar deadlift in this post. Also, here is a video demonstration.
The Most Frequently Asked Questions About the Deadlift
1.I’m having a hard time getting in the right starting position, what should I do?
3/17 Not being able to get in the right starting position is usually caused by not knowing what and how to do it. Check out this great post on the topic.
Also, make sure to check out my resources on good mobility to make sure that it is not the issue.
In any case, if you still find yourself feeling uncomfortable doing conventional deadlift, try the sumo stance and see if it feels more natural to you. There is no point sticking to conventional deadlift if sumo deadlift feels much better for your body.
You can also hire a coach to help you nail the form down if you're dead set on lifting conventional.
2.The barbell slips off my fingers when the weight gets heavy and I constantly need to re-grip it during a set, what should I do?
First off, make sure to use chalk on your hands before each set. Sweaty palms can weaken your grip considerably.
Second, try using the hook grip. It will most likely feel very uncomfortable at first, but you’ll get used to it.
Third, you can also use the mixed grip, for heavier pulls.
And the final recommendation would be to use lifting straps. But, using chalk and the hook grip is going to be much better for your grip strength over the long term.
3.I heard deadlifts are bad for your back, is this true?
No. Read this for a short summary and this monstrous guide on how to deadlift.
4.Should I always wear a belt during deadlifts? Also, what are good belts you recommend?
First off, I recommend reading this post. By far the best one on lifting belts online. As for belt recommendations, I love the 10 mm Inzer Belt with a lever. You can also get the standard, slightly cheaper option if you don’t like levers.
5.The barbell scrapes my shins bloody, how can I avoid that?
I recommend wearing long pants when deadlifting and long socks that go up to your knees.
6.What kind of shoes should I wear for the deadlift?
The first and most important rule is that the shoes you deadlift in have a flat, non-compressing, sole with low height. If you deadlift in olympic, running or basketball shoes, your deadlift immediately turns into a deficit pull.
If you pull conventional, I recommend a simple pair of deadlift slippers. But, if you pull sumo, you need more grip on the ground. A pair of Chuck Taylor’s or Sabo Deadlift shoes comes to play.
7.I’m having trouble locking out at the top. What can I do to improve that and is hinging a good idea?
Rack pull and block pull deadlifts are great for building the lockout strength because they cut the initial part of the deadlift, and you can use more weight.
I recommend adding either of those to your program as an assistance to your deadlift. You can also do rack pulls instead of deadlifting for 4-8 weeks.
No, hinging is not something I recommend doing. Ever.
8.I’m having trouble breaking the bar off the floor but lockout is easy. What can I do?
4/17 In this case, your problem could be caused by lack of strength off the bottom. I recommend adding deficit deadlifts as a supplementary move to your regular deadlift or temporarily doing only deficit pulls for a few weeks.
9.How can I increase my deadlift? What repetition schemes should I use? Are there any programs you recommend?
Periodizing your intensity and increasing the frequency of deadlifting are two important factors for strength building. If you start deadlifting twice a week, instead of once per week, you’ll likely get stronger, faster.
Commonly referred as greasing the groove. More sets, done more often lead to faster neuromuscular adaptation and gains.
As for strength programs, I recommend checking out the Beyond 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler and Starting Strength, 3rd Edition by Mark Rippetoe.
10.A buddy of mine tore his bicep during a deadlift, why did it happen and how can I avoid it?
Nasty stuff. I saw something like this a few years ago, and it wasn’t pretty. To avoid this happening to you, you must always make sure to extend your arms at the elbows and never flex at the bicep during a deadlift.
The extreme load is too much for a small muscle like the bicep to carry, and this often leads to muscle or tendon tears.
The mixed grip could also predispose you to bicep injuries, so this is another reason to use it sparingly and with caution.
Here’s a video that goes over the topic more in-depth.
11.Touch and go deadlifts or reset every repetition?
It’s called a deadlift for a reason. You start the lift with the bar dead on the floor. Touching the ground and immediately going back up is not a deadlift.
For most guys, it leads to form breakdown, because they are not very experienced, and it could lead to an injury. The only guys who should do touch and go deadlift are those who are very experienced and know how to keep their back neutral for many repetitions at a time.
(Those are usually the guys who have other experienced lifters and coaches around them who won’t hesitate to tell them when their form goes down the toilet.)
If you’ve been deadlifting for a while and are considering touch and go’s I recommend not doing them. Pick the bar up, set it down, take a deep breath, reset, and go again.
12.Is back rounding acceptable, especially for heavy pulls?
The deadlift is a pretty safe movement when done properly. But if your lower back is round under a heavy load, you can get injured. Some upper back roundness is acceptable, especially if you’re pulling 1-3 repetition maxes, but make sure your low back is always neutral.
13.What grip should I use during a deadlift?
The double overhand grip is what most people start with, but it’s the least effective one because it doesn’t allow you to grip very heavy loads. Most people can use it fine for the first few months of lifting, but once the weight gets heavy, this grip style fails.
The mixed grip comes to play here. It is used to allow the lifter to rip heavy weights off the floor and keep them in
5/17 their hands. Because the dominant hand is in pronated position (over the bar), and the non-dominant is supinated (under it), the bar can't slip off.
Alternatives for the mixed grip are using the hook grip (fingers over thumb), chalk and improving your grip strength.
If your grip strength is limited, you won’t be able to pull as much weight as your body can handle, no matter what tricks you try.
Check this for a broader overview of the different grips.
The Pull-up and Chin-up
Pull-ups are a great exercise to develop a strong back, and they say much about your fitness level. A lot of guys feel intimidated by them; others feel ashamed because they cannot do them, so they throw them out the window.
But, learning how to perform them is one of the best things you can do for yourself. They will strengthen and develop your back, and once they get easy, you can always attach a weight belt on yourself to keep progressing.
The chin-up is a very similar exercise to the pull-up, but with one big difference: hand position. On the chin-up, your hands are supinated, allowing for more bicep involvement and activation.
Both the chin-up and the pull-up target your back and bicep. The chin-ups have more bicep activation, whereas the pull-up targets your back a bit more.
Pull-up video demonstration.
Chin-up video demonstration.
Pull-up Progression (Even if You Can’t do a Single Repetition Yet)
I’m kind of ashamed to admit that for the longest time, I couldn’t do a single pull-up. And it’s not because the movement is that difficult to master, but because I didn’t bother to learn.
And when you can’t do even a single repetition, it can be discouraging. I get it.
But mastering the pull-up is not hard. It requires some time and the right tactics, so let’s review:
1.Band or Partner-assisted Pull-ups
The goal here is to help you overcome your lack of strength to a degree and help you learn how to properly execute the pull-up.
2.Negative Pull-ups
The eccentric contraction is a powerful tool you should use to gain strength and muscle mass. And with the pull-up, it’s no different. If you can’t pull your body weight through a full range of motion, you can at least focus on the negative part of the lift, and build your way up to the first repetition.
The goal is to get yourself to the top position of the pull-up by using a chair, box or jumping and then fighting gravity on the way down and lowering yourself as slowly as you can.
I could finally do my first pull up around the time I started holding a negative for about 45-50 second. 6/17 Word of warning, though: If you haven’t tried this before, get ready to experience the greatest lat activation and burn you’ve ever felt.
Daniel Vadnal from www.fitnessfaqs.tv demonstrates how to do them perfectly .
3.Inverted Rows
The inverted row mimics a pull-up, and with it, you can adjust the angle of your body to your strength level on the pull-up.
A great place to do these is on the smith machine.
4.Lose some weight, if you must
A no-brainer, but many people overlook it. You’d have a much easier time learning how to do pull-ups if you were a few pounds lighter. If you lose 10 pounds of fat and maintain your muscle mass, you’ll learn how to do pull-ups much faster.
Check out my guide on fat loss .
These are the four tactics I’ve used to build up my way to my first pull-up. On their own, they are effective, but together, they’ll get you there much faster.
Your Action Plan for Your First Pull-up
I recommend adding 3-4 sets of inverted rows in the middle of one of your workouts. Adjust the height to allow you to do 8-10 repetitions with good form.
Add 3-4 sets of negative pull-ups in the middle of another workout. For example, after your heavy work on leg day, do 3-4 sets of negative pull-ups. You can also superset them with the accessory movements for your legs.
And remember: the goal is to lower yourself down as slowly as you can. The number of repetitions doesn’t matter.
And finally, add 3-4 sets of band or partner assisted pull-ups as one of your exercises on your back day, as first or second, while you’re still fresh and strong. Don’t hit failure on any of the sets, only on the last set if you wish. The goal is to build up volume through repetition.
You won’t do much good for yourself if you go all in on the first set and you can only do 3-4 band-assisted pull-ups on the following sets.
The high frequency and moderate volume are going to help you build up the back strength and learn how to perform the pull-up faster. And if you’re somewhat (or very) overweight, losing some excess fluff is going to speed up the process.
Onward to your first pull-up!
The Barbell & Penlay Rows
Barbell and Pendlay rows are two great exercises for back development.
The main difference between the two movements?
7/17 With the barbell row, your goal is to keep your torso as parallel to the ground as possible without letting the bar touch it.
With the pendlay row, you get to set the bar down between each rep, which reduces the involvement of your core as a torso stabilizer.
Neither of the two variations is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and whichever you decide to do is up to you. Keep in mind that barbell rows often turn into ego rows. What happens is guys load up much more weight than they should and keep their torso very upright. And what happens is they shorten the range of motion a lot and end up doing some shrug rather than a row.
With pendlay rows, it’s much harder to ego row because you’re pulling the bar off the floor for each rep and your torso is parallel to the floor.
Here is a video on how to perform Bent Over Barbell Rows.
And here is a video on how to perform Pendlay Rows:
5 Effective Accessory Back Movements
Now that we’ve gone over the most important exercises for a solid back, it’s time to take a look at some of the accessory movements you can do to put the finishing touches to your routine.
1.T-Bar Rows
2.Dumbbell Rows
3.Lat Pulldowns
4.Seated Cable Rows
5.Cable Pullovers & Dumbbell Pullovers
The 5 Biggest Back-Training Mistakes Hindering Your Progress
Back training is difficult to master, and a lot of beginners mess it up. Before we continue, I’d like to spend some time looking over the five biggest back training mistakes people make. Knowing them and actively avoiding them could save you months, even years of mediocre progress.
1.Not Doing Compound Exercises
I’ll be the first to admit that this was me for a long time in the gym. On the days I trained back, I would go in, do a quick warm-up and jump on a bunch of machines, do a bunch of rows and pulldowns and call it a day.
I didn’t think about compound lifts, nor did I care about progressively getting stronger.
Looking back at my newbie self in the gym, I can say that I was NOT training, I was exercising. And the results spoke for themselves. My back was a weak point for a long time.
It was after I started taking my training seriously, started incorporating the deadlift, pull-ups and barbell rows, and started thinking about getting stronger, did I start seeing good results. 8/17 To avoid my mistake, always begin your workouts with the main lift you want to improve. Whether it be deadlifts, pull- ups or barbell rows. Start with that movement and focus on small, gradual improvements over time. A good training style to follow is the reverse pyramid training.
2.Ego Lifting/Not Establishing Mind-Muscle Connection
A lot of guys only care about moving the weight from point A to point B. How they do that isn’t a concern. And sure, moving big weights will lead to some gains.. for your ego.
I think a big part of this issue comes from the way some people with large followings on social media portray lifting. They swing the weights around, do a partial range of motion, use the whole stack and are huge.
But what most guys miss is the secret ingredient. Steroids.
And unless you’re a juiced up meathead, you won’t make much gains training that way. In fact, I’d go as far as telling you that you won’t make gains but will get injured instead.
As a natural lifter, you need to train with weights that are always under your control and strive to activate the muscles you are trying to work.
To help me do that, for most pulling movements, I prefer to use a thumbless grip and think of my hands as hooks for the weights. I always pull through my elbow and try to keep my biceps and forearms as minimally involved as possible.
Here’s a video you can check out on this.
3.Not Using Full Range of Motion
Directly ties in with the previous point of ego lifting, and it’s something you need to stop doing. There’s not a time when I’m at the gym where I don’t see a random dumbass on the lat pulldown machine spewing ego all over the place.
Here’s how it goes:
He puts the pin at 180 pounds, sits down, grabs as wide as he can and starts doing this.. Semi-pulldown.. Thing.. That is a modified row, judging from his torso angle. And with half the range of motion.
If you think training this way is going to help you grow anything besides your ego, you should stop wasting your time in the gym.
Again, juiced up meatheads can train this way, but natural guys can’t. We need to be much more mindful with our training if we want results, and that includes using the full range of motion.
4.Doing too Little Back Work and Not Using Various Angles of Attack
First off, the idea for this point stems from this article written by Greg Nuckols. I highly recommend reading it.
A lot of people at the gym train with too little volume to elicit any positive adaptation from their bodies. Sure, some guys have an easier time building muscle and getting stronger and don’t need to spend that much time lifting if they just want to look good. But for the majority of us, non-lucky bastards, we need to put in serious effort if we want to grow.
9/17 And that means overloading our training volume.
Yes, doing 10-12 sets for your back every week is probably not enough to optimize growth, despite what some experts believe.
Also, using various angles to hit your back is the safest thing you can do to ensure your back develops evenly. Some people emphasize lat isolation work and give too little attention to their traps, erector spinae, low back, and rhomboids.
Over time, they do develop some width, but their backs look flat and unimpressive.
5.Not Progressing Over Time
One of the biggest mistakes you could make, and not just for your back training, is not focusing on progress.
If you’re training(although, in this case, it’s more like exercising) the same way as you did last year, chances are you look the same, too.
Small, consistent improvements add up over time, and if you want muscle growth, you need to get stronger over time.
Think about it:
If your workouts are the same every week, why the hell would your body go through the trouble to build muscle. It is more than capable of handling the stress now, and from a survival standpoint, building muscle isn’t too high on its priority list.
That is why you need to force the growth. An extra repetition or set here, some less rest between sets there, a slower negative than usual, a set taken to failure. All these small things add up over time, and your body has no option but to adapt to the increased stress.
If your training doesn’t challenge and you feel all happy and cheerful during a workout, you’re likely not pushing far enough.
As Martin Berkhan stated in his Fuckarounditis post:
Let’s see if your chest and your shoulders are lagging once you can bench 1.5 x body weight or overhead press your body weight and if your legs and back are lagging with a 2 x body weight squat and 2.5 x body weight deadlift. Keep doing targeted work for muscle groups like triceps, hams and calves.
The Importance of Training Volume for Best Results
Now we’re getting into the meat and potatoes. Knowing how much volume and how often to train is just as important as the above points.
To those unfamiliar with the term ‘training volume’, it refers to the amount of work you do within a given workout. To calculate training volume, you can multiply weight used * reps done * sets done.
For example:
Let’s say you can deadlift 315 lbs for four reps and you do it for four total sets. Your training volume for that exercise 10/17 will be like this:
315 (weight used) * 4 (reps done) * 4 (sets done) = 5040 lbs of volume.
Calculating training volume has been a controversial topic in the fitness industry, and there are a lot of different opinions. But one thing you should keep in mind about training volume is this:
You should aim to do less rather than more while still making good progress.
Let me explain myself:
For your training to stimulate muscle growth, you need to disrupt homoeostasis. A straight-forward process, but many people don’t get it.
You’ve got your action(training), and your body produces a reaction(adaptation and growth).
What you need to do is learn what the optimal amount of volume is for you. That way, as you progress, get bigger and stronger, and the ‘optimal volume’ no longer produces results(due to the repeated bout effect), you have more room to add work.
If you can make sustainable progress doing 12-14 sets for your back and your strength increases (provided you nutrition and recovery are in check), keep at it.
As you get stronger and start doing more weight on each exercise, the total volume done for each workout is going to increase even if you don’t add more working sets.
(Doing five sets of 5 with 365 lbs on the deadlift is more volume than doing five sets of 5 with 275 lbs).
And once your gains start to diminish and you see yourself hitting a plateau in your training, you then have room to add in more work.
(By adding more working sets or workouts within a given week).
The bottom line?
Training is about causing enough damage to which your body can positively respond.
So where do you begin?
What I recommend if you’re an intermediate lifter (with more than 6-8 months of lifting experience):
Start off with 12 to 14 working sets for your large muscle groups (back, chest and legs). See how your body responds, provided your nutrition and recovery are in check.
If you can make good progress with that many sets, don’t add more work for the sake of adding more.
But, if you feel like you’re plateauing, adding more work (within the same workout, or another day of the week) is something you need to consider.
Training Frequency and the Norwegian Experiment
Training frequency refers to how often you train a certain muscle group or lift (e.g. deadlift). And while there are endless opinions on the matter, let’s take a look at some facts.
This article written by Martijn Koevoets showcased a very interesting study called The Norwegian experiment. In it, the Norwegian school of sports sciences wanted to determine whether high-frequency training worked better than 11/17 the typical 3-day programs.
What’s even more interesting about this study is that the subjects were all experienced lifters. The obvious response of most people “That’s the newbie gains.” doesn’t apply here.
Each participant in the study had trained for competitive powerlifting for at least one year. Furthermore, they all competed in the national Norwegian IPF powerlifting competitions within the previous six months.
The group consisted of 16 participants between the ages of 18 and 25. Of them, 13 were men, and 3 were women:
They squatted between 275 and 451 lbs(125 and 205 kg); Bench pressed between 187 and 364 lbs (85 kg to 165 kg); Deadlifted between 342 and 540 lbs (155 to 245 kg).
The 15-week program designed by Dietmar Wolf was the same for each person (same exercises, volume, and intensity). The participants were split into two groups:
One trained three times a week and the second group had six smaller training sessions each week. Everything else was the same.
The 3-day group had to do twice as many sets as the 6-day group in each session.
The results were rather interesting:
The increase in squats was nearly two times bigger for the 6-day group compared to the 3-day group (11±6% vs. 5±3% respectively).
The bench press also increased nearly two times more for the 6-day group compared to their lower frequency counterparts (11±4% vs. 6±3% respectively).
In the deadlift, there was no significant difference when comparing both groups (9±6% vs. 4±6%).
Okay, these are some great results for strength-oriented guys, but what about muscle gains?
The researchers looked for increases in muscle mass for the vastus lateralis and quadriceps as a whole. The average increase for the 6-day group was nearly 10% in the vastus lateralis and 5% in the quadriceps as a whole.
For experienced trainees, those are some impressive gains in muscle mass in just 15 weeks. But, the 3-day group didn’t see any significant increases in muscle mass.
That is for this study and the results. If you want to read a more in-depth review on it, check out this article on Stronger by Science.
Obviously, a higher frequency approach can’t work for everyone. There are individual differences that matter. But it is a great way to progress faster for most people. Doing moderate amounts of work, more often (and recovering, of course) is likely going to yield better results for you.
So, how can I go about programming a higher frequency routine?
One very important thing to keep in mind:
With high-frequency training, you cannot max out or “grind reps” every time you train because you will burn yourself out. The training program designed by the National powerlifting coach Dietmar Wolf for the experiment group in the above study was very well thought out. He knew that for the frequency to be high, training intensity had to be lower.
12/17 So with their routines, both training frequency and total training volume were increased while intensity was less. The average intensity for the squat, bench, and deadlift was 70-74% of 1RM.
Another very important thing you should keep in mind is how much work volume you can handle and make progress.
Right now, unless your training frequency is high (at least 4 to 5 days of training per week), I don’t recommend jumping straight to 6 days/week as the group above. Keep in mind that the participants in the study were all experienced trainees who were decently strong.
If you currently follow a typical bro split(where you train each body part once a week), increasing the frequency can speed up your results. For example, you can switch to a Push-Pull-Legs split where you train each body part every 4- 5 days rather than every 7:
Monday Push (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Tuesday Pull (Back, traps, biceps)
Wednesday Off
Thursday Legs
Friday Push(Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Saturday Pull (Back, traps, biceps)
Sunday Off
Monday Legs
Tuesday Push (Chest, shoulders, triceps)
Wednesday Off
Thursday Pull (Back, rear delts, biceps)
Friday Off
Saturday Legs
Sunday Off
With the above split, you get to have three workouts for each muscle group every two weeks. Eventually, you can increase the frequency even further by following a six day/week split like this one:
Monday Legs
Tuesday Push (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Wednesday Pull (Back, rear delts, biceps)
Thursday Legs
Friday Push (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Saturday Pull (Back, rear delts, biceps)
Sunday Off
13/17 With it, you’d be training each body part twice a week. But, I don’t recommend you follow that split unless you’ve got a few years of lifting behind you. The reason being, this split is pretty much the upper limit to frequency (meaning you really can’t train more than six days a week and still recover properly).
As for right now, you can follow the first split I posted above and customize it to your personal preference if you’d like.
Progression and growth
Progression is the most important aspect of growth. No matter what training frequency you use and what exercises. Increasing your total training volume is what’s going to make you grow.
You can’t improve what you’re not tracking, and that is why you should keep track of your workouts.
I recommend using a simple workout journal or a notebook where you write in everything:
Exercises performed; Sets done; Repetitions and weight numbers; Rest between sets (optional).
Putting it all Together
To sum it all up, here’s everything you need to do:
Proper Back and Full Body Warm-up
Warming up your body and priming your mind for the work you’re about to do is not only beneficial but also mandatory.
The goals of a warm-up:
Raise your core body temperature; Increase your heart rate; Get your synovial fluid warmed up(to reduce friction between your joints); Get your muscles warmed up; Prepare your mind and CNS for training.
A good warm up consists of 2 parts:
General Warm-up
Some mobility movements Dynamic warm-up Shoulder dislocations Front, side and rear delt raises with light weight Band Pull-aparts Bicep curls, tricep extensions, rows, squats, extensions, etc. Simple exercises you normally do but with very light weighs for high reps 14/17 Specific Warm-up
This part of the warm-up is where you work up to your heavier sets on the compound lifts. Working up to your heavy sets is not only going to help you stay healthy and injury-free but also prepare your body and central nervous system for the working sets.
For example – If you deadlift 315 lbs for five reps, you can't load them up and start training, right?
You need to work your way up to the heavy sets.
(Keep in mind that you should never take a warm-up set to failure. Only do as many reps as you feel comfortable with.)
Set 1 (warm-up): 45 lbs (bar only) for 15-25 reps Set 2 (warm-up): 135 lbs for 6-8 reps Set 3 (warm-up): 225 lbs for 4-5 reps Set 4 (warm-up): 275 lbs for 2-3 reps Set 5 (first working set): 315 lbs for 5 reps
Choose the Correct Back-Building Exercises
Now comes the fun part because you get to put together your actual routine. The main exercise of your routine should be the deadlift or a variation of it. Your main focus in each workout is to progress on that one movement.
Once you finish with your warm-up sets and get to your working sets, you should do between 3 and 5 total sets.
After you complete your main lift, you can pick and choose between pull-ups and barbell rows. You can even continue with dumbbell rows. What I prefer to do is dumbbell rows after deadlifting on strength days and pull-ups or barbell rows on my hypertrophy days.
(You can learn more about periodizing your training in this video).
You can customize your routine and see what works best for you. Do 3-4 sets for your second exercise.
The third and fourth exercises are completely optional. You get to pick and choose from a wide variety of back movement. What I do is I incorporate one pulldown or rowing movement followed by four sets of standing cable pullovers. A great exercise to finish off the lats and add more training volume.
As for the total sets for the workout, start with 12 to 14 and see how your progress goes. Your focus should be the main movement (the deadlift). After you do it, split up your remaining sets into the secondary movements left in your routine. Build training volume, don’t chase magic repetition ranges
You’ll hear all sorts of advice for rep ranges but what you need to remember is this:
Training volume is a huge factor for muscle growth.
You shouldn’t spend your time chasing “the magical repetition range for massive muscle growth” and stupid techniques and tactics that promise results.
What you should focus on instead is putting in enough training volume and enough intensity. After you have a good understanding of what your average volume per workout is, you can then focus on increasing it over time.
For example:
15/17 This week you might be doing Rack Pull Deadlifts with 375 lbs. for four sets and ten repetitions on each set, making your total volume for that one exercise 11 000 lbs (375*10*4=15000).
Next month, you could be doing the same amount of repetitions with 385 or 395 lbs. And while you’re not changing repetitions or sets, the work volume still increases over time.
Rest Periods and When to Train to Failure
Your resting periods should be as long as they need to be so that you can complete the sets you need to do effectively.
If, for example, you’re doing four sets of dumbbell rows and you’ve finished doing the first set of 11 repetitions, what you now need to do is rest as long as you need to, to be able to get another 11 repetitions.
There are some general guidelines you can follow, and they are pretty accurate (provided you don’t take your sets to failure):
On strength sets where your reps are between 1 and 5, you should keep your rest intervals between 3 and 5 minutes. On moderate sets where your reps fall between 6 and 12, 90 seconds to 2 minutes of rest is okay. And on lighter sets where your reps are between 12 and 15, resting for 30 to 90 seconds is optimal.
Again, those are general guidelines, and as you spend more and more time in the gym, you’ll get a much better understanding of your body and how much rest you need to complete all your sets productively.
As far as training to failure goes, read this post I wrote. Here’s a summary:
Training to failure is a great tool to use occasionally and not all the time. As long as it doesn’t hinder your performance for upcoming sets and thus your total training volume, you can use it on the last set of a given exercise. A great way to add in extra training volume that will, over time, add up for better results.
For example:
Say you’re doing sets of dumbbell rows. You do three sets with a weight that allows you eight repetitions (without reaching failure), and on the fourth set, you push it to 10-11 reps. Now you’ve hit failure, and you will most likely need to rest a bit more. But since that was your last set, you’ve used failure in a productive way and have added more volume to your total.
Another example when you can use training to failure is on AMRAP sets your program includes.
They are planned 'all-out' sets, designed to force an overload and positive adaptation.
The Optimal Training Frequency
As we discussed above, unless you’re a beginner with less than six months of lifting behind you, it would be more beneficial to you to train your muscles more often. A great split to follow where you train each muscle group 3 times for every two weeks is this one:
Monday Push (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Tuesday Pull (Back, traps, biceps)
Wednesday Off
16/17 Monday Push (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Thursday Legs
Friday Push(Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Saturday Pull (Back, traps, biceps)
Sunday Off
Monday Legs
Tuesday Push (Chest, shoulders, triceps)
Wednesday Off
Thursday Pull (Back, rear delts, biceps)
Friday Off
Saturday Legs
Sunday Off
Main Goal for Each Workout: Progress
As I wrote above, your main focus in each workout should be to make progress on your main lift.
Whether you do a few extra repetitions, rest a bit less, lift more weight or move the weight a bit quicker and more explosively. Progress is progress.
The other thing I stated above is that training volume is a huge factor for muscle growth. To measure it you need to multiply weight lifted * repetitions done * sets done.
So, aside from improving your main lift, you should also strive to increase your total training volume on the accessory lifts, as well.
There are many different ways to track your progress but the best one that has worked great for me over the years is a simple notebook made into a workout log. There, I record each workout - the total training volume and intensity.
When I’m at the gym, I use Evernote to record each set I do. At the end of the week, I copy my notes to my notebook. The next time I’m at the gym, I look at my previous week’s numbers and either use more weight or try to get more repetitions.
As I said, it doesn’t necessarily need to mean you should lift more weight. There are many ways to track progressive overload and small improvements add up over time.
Always keep The Repeated Bout Effect in mind:
If nothing changes, nothing is going to change.
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