Weight Training Tips and Articles

Upper Back Weight Training Workouts

December 21, 2007 on 6:59 am | In Weight Training Routines, Weight Training Exercises, Upper Back | No Comments

  Even though you can’t see the upper back when you are weight training it, it’s still very important to do for overall muscle size and strength gains. Some weight trainers will tend to not do enough weight training for the upper back because they can’t see it when they’re working out. However neglecting upper back workouts could cause you to slouch if you have a well developed chest.

  The best weight training exercises for the upper back are pulldown or pull-up exercises for more width, and row exercises for more thickness. You need to focus on both width and thickness for total upper back development.

  Pull-ups and cable pulldowns will help you develop a wider upper back. You can use many different grip ranges when performing pull-ups or pulldowns to develop the latismuss dorsi, or lats (the wing shaped muscles on the sides of the upper back). Do sets of close-grip and wide-grip pull-ups and pulldowns to hit the lats from a variety of angles.

  Whenever possible you should do pull-ups instead of pulldowns because they force you to move your body through space, which is superior for developing strength in the muscles that stabilize the body. Pull-ups are also harder to do than pulldowns, and the harder an exercise is, the better it is for muscular development. Of course not everybody can do enough pull-ups reps per set. If you have this problem do cable pulldowns with various grips until you gain enough strength to do more pull-ups.

  Rows for upper back thickness can be done many different ways - with barbells, dumbbells, cables, and machines. Try to do most of your sets of rows with free weights and various grip ranges. For added variety, you should switch it up and do some cable or machine rows.

  Due to the many different exercises and grips you can use for your upper back workouts, you can frequently change your routine so you never hit a plateau in your upper back training.