Back To The Gym?
Training Made Simple: Back
Gyms have either started re-opening or soon will, and some of us will have decided to go to the gym for the first time after being cooped up in lockdown conditions. Others will be returning to a long pursuit of greater fitness after a frustrating hiatus from training. You might be wondering if a fresh start is in order. And if so, where to begin?
I’ve written a series of guides on training with you in mind, with each one essentially being the TL:DR walkthrough. This one focuses specifically on training your back, what to do, how much to do, how often, and where to begin. I hope it helps!
That’s the bare-bones basics of what you need to do in order to develop your back either for athletic performance or aesthetic reasons. Stick within these guidelines, bearing in mind the below further details, and you can’t really go wrong.
These guidelines assume your training includes heavy hip hinge training, leg training and chest training covered in the quad, hamstring and chest training guides. These recommendations are for direct back work. If your training does not include hip hinge training for whatever reason, you may be able to start at a higher number of sets per week than if it did, and you should ensure you do some lower back training
The muscles of the back respond very well at the peak contraction. So make sure your vertical pulls are to your sternum. Do not cheat yourself by using momentum to complete reps, if you need to use your whole body to complete a rep, the set is already over.
The days you train vertical pulls heavy in lower rep ranges, do lighter high rep horizontal pulls and vice versa. Do not rush into the maximum sets per week, start at the bottom of the range and work up over time. You can add a set per workout when you are not sore more than 24 hours after you finished your last back workout if performance did not decline from the previous week’s results.
I have some recommendations for back exercises to choose from for you below:
I hope that helps. If you want to talk about back training, I’m more than happy to chat with you- just DM me on Instagram and ask me any questions you might have. If you’re interested in online coaching or personal training, you can hit me up here.
Previously published Training Made Simple Guides can be found here:
1.Training Made SImple : Glutes
2. Training Made Simple : Biceps
3. Training Made Simple : Chest
Take It easy
Mike Billington
Empower Training Systems
