Back Workout For Beginners

Have you ever wondered why many body-builders have gigantic pecs and a tiny back? Back workout is not very easy to do, nor very common, and for three main reasons.
First, many (so called) body builders do not give back workouts much importance. The principle here is: I train what I can see = I can’t see my back = I won’t train my back.

Second, many extremist natural body-builders are constantly searching for the best back workout single exercise, as they think one exercise only will be enough to train all the back muscles at the same time.

The third reason would be the weakness of other muscles, like biceps, which allow the body builder to include more effective exercises in the back workout routine.

Before explaining why this is all wrong, let’s give a quick look at the muscle structure. As you can see from the images below, human back has many muscles. There are eight muscles in the list below, but it could be longer. It is not hard to realize that the human back is a complext structure, and there cannot possibly be a single exercise able to train all the muscles at the same time.

Picture 1 below from left to right:

• Deltoid: adduction and extra rotation of the arm
• Latissimus dorsi: extension, adduction, inner rotation of the arm
• Teres major: adduction and inner rotation of the arm
• Teres minor: back and extra rotation of the arm

Picture 2 below from left to right:

• Rhomboid: rotation and support of the scapula
• Subscapolaris: adduction and inner rotation of the arm
• Infraspinatus: adduction of the arm
• Trapezius: all shoulders movements

About the first reason as to why the bodybuilding back workout is less common than others, a possible solution would be to do the workout for back before doing the pectorals. Doing first what you like less is usually a good human trick. Another reason to do this would be that a non-written rule says we should train the bigger muscle groups first, and the back muscles are bigger than pectorals.

About the second and third point, a good back workout should train all the muscles in different ways, and the “neighbor” muscles should not be neglected.

The three below are the fundamental exercises you need to start your back muscle workout from scratch (from left to right in the picture). One and two should be alternated, with enough rest between them to breath normally.
1) Low pulley 2 x 8
2) Pullover Machine 2 x 12
3) Lat machine 2 x 6

After about six weeks, and once you feel comfortable enough with the execution of the exercises, you can substitute number two with either back workout exercises below. These two are not very common exercises, but if done properly you will feel the latissimus dorsi working out wonderfully.

• an exercise at the cross cable machine
• Back dips. It’s like the classic chest dip, the only difference is that the arms will remain straight and the up and down movement will be done by the shoulders.

Check out this other hub onthe best bicep workout.