Back Workout of the Week (BWOW): Week 1 – Building the Strength Base

Why is strengthening my back important? To the less educated, a big upper body means large pecs and (unfortunately) large biceps. In fact, your back consists of a larger group of muscles than your chest, and quite frankly it is a massive back that lets you blot out the sun as you step through a doorway.

But that’s not why we emphasize the back at Brute Force. If you read What Is Brute Force, you recall that rule #2 is to follow a balanced training program. Your back (pulling exercises) needs to balance out your pecs (pushing exercises). More importantly a strong back results in bigger lifts.

Bench Press: Your lats are the foundation you press from. Build strong lats and you’ll feel like you’re pressing off a granite table.

Squat: A strong back will help prevent you from crumpling when you hit the hole with a massive load on your back. Although a leg exercise, where does the bar rest during the squat? On your back!

Deadlift: Your back anchors the weight and is the transition point between the weight hanging from your arms and your power base driving down through the floor.

Brute Force approach to back training:

As with other Brute Force workouts, working your back is meant to be simple and straightforward.  Focus is on the horizontal/transverse plane, and emphasis is on your basic compound lifts (again, rule #2) – lots of rows. This workout is intended to maximize the carryover to your bench press.

BWOW – Week 1:

Goal: Building a Strength Base – move as much weight as you can with good form

Barbell Rows/Bent-over Rows:

• Warm up to your working sets
• 5 sets/4 repetitions per set
• Select a weight where you are using nearly maximum effort to complete your reps, additional reps would require cheating
• Minimize cheating – avoid using upper body momentum to complete your reps
• Use wrist straps if necessary to hold the bar
• Rest between sets should be sufficient to fully recover (3-5 minutes); emphasis is on building strength, not conditioning

Dumbbell Rows – Supported:

• 3 sets/6 reps per set
• Select a weight where you are using maximum effort to complete the set, you should be unable to complete more than the specified reps
• Use wrist straps if necessary to hold the dumbbells
• Rest between sets should be sufficient to fully recover

Cable Rows:

• 3 sets/6 reps per set
• Select a weight where you are using maximum effort to complete the set
• Minimize cheating – rocking back using momentum to complete the reps
• Squeeze the weight tightly with your back at the top for a moment before lowering it between reps
• Rest between sets should be sufficient to fully recover

Pull-ups:

• 3 sets to failure; use spotter assistance or an assisted pull-up machine if you cannot complete 6 reps
• Pull-ups should be extremely challenging after smoking your back and biceps with 11 sets of rows at a high intensity
• If you can still complete more than 8 reps, either you are a hero, or you didn’t push yourself hard enough on your rows; in either case do your pull-ups with extra weight

Hammer Curls:

• 3 sets/10 reps per set
• As with pull-ups, you will have to drop the weight from your normal bicep workout, your biceps should be spent by now
• Hammer curls are meant to work your biceps – don’t use your whole body to complete the reps; if you can’t do the work with your biceps drop the weight

•  Week 2