Back Workout of the Week (BWOW): Week 2 Building Your Back Strength

Last week I introduced you briefly to why training your back is so important (training balance, support your squat, deadlift and bench press, creating the classical ‘V-shaped’ upper body). In my own experience, a heavy emphasis on rowing exercises has led to a very strong bench press (two Washington State records, one USA Powerlifting national meet record, and a gold medal at the IPF masters world championships).
Week 2 training is very similar to week 1. We are still focused on building your strength foundation. Although the overall plan is very similar, we change the exercise selection to prevent your body from adjusting to the stimulus.

BWOW – Week 2:

Goal:Building Your Strength Base

T-bar 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; one of the reasons to switch from barbell rows to t-bar rows this week to reduce the tendency to cheat on the lift
• 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 – Unsupported:

• 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
• While we switched to the t-bar to reduce cheating on your primary exercise, the dumbbell row is performed unsupported to allow slightly more cheating; you should be able to pull more weight than last week when using the bench for support – force your back and biceps to move a little more weight than you normally would during your dumbbell rows
• Use wrist straps if necessary to hold the dumbbells
• Rest between sets should be sufficient to fully recover

Hammer Strength Rows:

• 3 sets/12 reps per set
• Select a weight where you are using maximum effort to complete the set
• Pull your elbows straight back and really squeeze your lats tightly to finish each rep; you really want your muscles burning when you finish each set
• 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 hammering your back and biceps
• If you can still complete more than 8 reps, complete your pull-ups with extra weight (and add more weight to your t-bar and dumbbell rows next time you do this workout)

Hammer Curls:
I know we did hammer curls last week, but to quote Louie Simmons (West Side Barbell) hammer curls are “something that should always be done” (Dynamic  Bench Press)

• 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

Back Workout of the Week BWOW2

If you want to start at the beginning, you can check out Back Workout of the Week #1 – BWOW1