Back Workout of the Week – Winter 2013 Week 3

Week 3: We’re going to start increasing the weight this week.

Training Goals:

• Moderate volume and increasing weight for both back and biceps to begin ramping up strength training.
• Improve pull-up strength by performing pull-ups prior to rowing exercises.

Volume this week will decline, along with a corresponding increase in the weight you lift.

Week 3: Strength Building

Warm-ups: Warm up your upper body to prep for your back session

• Shoulder internal rotation
• Shoulder external rotation
• 3 x 15 of each
• In addition to warming up, light internal and external rotation is a good pre-hab exercise to help you maintain good shoulder health

Pull-ups: We’re working on increasing pull-up strength, so we start your back workout with pull-ups.

• If you cannot get at least 5 pull-ups on your own, use assistance
  • Assisted pull-up station
  • Resistance bands, set up for reverse resistance
  • Use the minimum assistance required to get at least 5 reps
• If you can get at least 5 reps on your own, add weight to your first set, such as
  • Weight belt to hang weight plates
  • Hold a dumbbell between your ankles
  • Weight vest
• Use double overhand, wide grip
• Perform 4 sets to failure

Barbell Rows:

• Weight:
  • You should be somewhat warm after pull-ups, but if you need a couple of warm-up sets to get to your working weight, take them
  • Use your 10Rep Max (10RM) for barbell rows for your first 2 sets
  • Increase weight to your 5RM for sets 3-5
• Sets/Reps:
  • 2×10 at 10RM weight
  • 3×5 at 5RM weight
  • Increase weight if necessary; you should be within 1-3 reps from failure on each set
• Rest: Rest until you are recovered between sets (3-5 minutes)
• Equipment: Use wrist straps as necessary

Dumbbell Rows, Supported: Dumbbell rows will be supported on the bench this week, and work up through increasing weight before finishing off with a drop set.

• Weight: Your goal is to start with the weight you used last week, if you can’t get 15 reps with this weight, you might want to drop the starting weight slightly. You will use a heavier dumbbell for each set.
  • Set 1: 15RM
  • Set 2: 10RM
  • Drop Set: 5RM/15RM
• Sets/Reps:
  • Set 1: 1×15
  • Set 2: 1×10
  • Drop Set: Row to failure, switch to the weight you used for set 1 and without resting row to failure again. Do the drop set first with one arm, then the other.
• Rest: Rest until you are recovered between sets (3-5 minutes)
• Equipment: Use wrist straps for this exercise

Cable Rows: Increase the weight significantly on the cable rows this week; repetitions decrease and they are not supersets.

• Weight: Set the weight to your 10RM
• Sets/Reps: 3×10
• Rest: Keep it short, 1-2 minutes

Standing Barbell Curl/Lat Pull-down Superset:

• Weight:
  • Barbell Curls: Approximately your 10RM
  • Lat Pull-downs: Approximately your 20RM
• Sets/Reps:
  • Barbell Curls: 3×10
  • Lat Pull-downs: 3×20
  • Start with curls, complete all reps with proper form
  • Complete a set of lat pull-downs after each set of curls
• Rest:
  • Take 1-2 minutes rest between curls and lat pull-downs
  • Perform curls immediately after lat pull-downs (no rest)

Assessment:

• Volume declines, but remains moderately high, while weights lifted should increase noticeably. You might not feel as smoked this week, but should have still completed a significant amount of work.

Workout Plan: 2013 Winter – BWOW Week 3 v1 – Web

BWOW workouts this cycle:

• Week 1
• Week 2
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7

Back Workout of the Week – Winter 2013 Week 2

Week 2: you’re back after the punishment from week 1? That is a good sign!

Training Goals:

• Maintain high volume training for both back and biceps to build a solid foundation for future training, and other lifts.
• Improve pull-up strength by performing pull-ups prior to rowing exercises.

We keep up the massive volume for week 2, but have made some small changes to let you bump some of the weight up slightly. Some portions of this weeks training are the same as last week – this is on purpose.

Week 2: Volume Training

Warm-ups: Warm up your upper body to prep for your back session

• Light shoulder dumbbell raises (front, lateral, rear) – 3×15
• If you need more warm-ups, do a few light sets of lat pull downs

Pull-ups: One of our goals this training cycle is to increase your pull-up strength. If you can already complete 10 pull-unassisted, you might want to change the program order and do your pull-ups after barbell rows.

• If you cannot get at least 5 pull-ups on your own, use assistance
  • Assisted pull-up station
  • Resistance bands, set up for reverse resistance
  • Use the minimum assistance required to get at least 5 reps
• If you can get at least 5 reps on your own, add weight to your first set
• Use double overhand, wide grip
• Perform 4 sets to failure

Barbell Rows:

• Weight: Select your 10RM for barbell rows
  • Increase the weight slightly from last week (5-10%)
  • Should still be a weight you can get 10 reps without using rowing cheat technique
• You should be somewhat warm after pull-ups, but if you need a couple of warm-up sets to get to your working weight, take them
• Perform 3 sets of 10 reps at this weight
• On your 4^th set, complete rows to failure, using some cheat technique to get as many reps as possible
• On your 5^th and final set perform a drop set: perform rows to failure, rack the weight and have training partners peel off weight and continue to failure again without resting.
  • Complete 2 drops, for example, if your starting weight is:
    • 315: drops will be 225, then 135
    • 225: drops will be 185, then 135
    • 135: drops will be 115, then 95
• Keep your hands on the bar while your partners remove the weight
• Rest: Rest until you are recovered between sets (3-5 minutes) except during the drop set
• Equipment: Use wrist straps for this exercise, you will not be able to hold the bar without them to effectively work your back

Dumbbell Rows, Unsupported:

• Weight: Select your 10RM weight dumbbell
  • If you did not get sets of 10 last week, keep the weight the same, and try to get more reps (10)
  • If you did get sets of 10 reps last week, bump the weight up this week
• Perform 3 sets to failure
• Rest: Rest until you are recovered between sets (3-5 minutes)
• Equipment: Use wrist straps for this exercise

Hammer Curl/Lat Pull-down Superset: You completed this superset last week. We are going to pre-exhaust your biceps so that your lats have to do more of the work

• Weight: Select a weight you can get the sets and reps in the appropriate ranges. You should be able to move the weight up slightly from last week
• Start with hammer curls, complete all reps with proper form
• Complete lat pull-downs after your hammer curls
• Rest:
  • Take 1-2 minutes rest between hammer curls and lat pull-downs
  • Perform hammer curls immediately after lat pull-downs (no rest)
• Complete a total of 3 supersets

Hammer Curl/Cable Row Superset: You completed this superset last week also. We continue with the bicep pre-exhaust, and perform high rep cable rows to engage more of your back muscles in the rows (rhomboids and lower/mid traps)

• Weight:
  • Continue the superset with the same weight for hammer curls
  • Select a weight you can get 20 reps with on the cable rows
• Squeeze each rep on the cable row tightly at the top, pinching your shoulder blades together
• Rest: same as for the previous superset
  • Take 1-2 minutes rest between hammer curls and cable rows
  • Perform hammer curls immediately after cable rows (no rest)
• Complete a total of 3 supersets

Assessment:

• Intensity was slightly lower than last week, but volume remains high. Because of the lower intensity, you should be able to perform each exercise with slightly greater weight than week 1. Back and biceps should be completely fatigued when done.

Workout Plan: 2013 Winter – BWOW Week 2 v1

BWOW workouts this cycle:

• Week 1
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7

Back Workout of the Week – Winter 2013 Week 1

I introduced the Brute Force Back Workout of the Week (BWOW) a while back (Brute Force BWOW 1). I had bombed out of the USA Powerlifting Open Nationals in 2010 because I couldn’t successfully hit any of my bench press attempts. What does that have to do with back training you ask? That entire training cycle I didn’t work my back or biceps at all, two huge stabilizers for your bench press. I was unable to control the bar as it got to my chest, and couldn’t complete a single bench press.

After that I went on a rampage for a year and a half, punishing my back and biceps with a different high intensity workout every week. My back size and strength exploded. So did my bench press, earning me the bench press gold medal at the International Powerlifting Federation Masters World Championships in 2011 and 2012. BWOW grew out of this training success.

I’m resurrecting BWOW with the idea of applying a periodization scheme to my back training, just as you would for your other core lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift). Week 1 will be a very high volume back workout.

Week 1: Volume Training

Warm-ups: Warm up your upper body to prep for your back session

• Light shoulder internal and external rotation – 3×15
• If you need more warm-ups, do a few light sets of lat pull downs

Pull-ups: One of our goals this training cycle will be to increase your pull-up strength.

• If you cannot get at least 5 pull-ups on your own, use assistance
  • Assisted pull-up station
  • Resistance bands, set up for reverse resistance
  • Use the minimum assistance required to get at least 5 reps
  • If you can get at least 5 reps on your own, add weight to your first set
  • Use double overhand, wide grip
  • Perform 4 sets to failure

Coffee getting through it on beard power alone

Barbell Rows: This will be a very high volume set of lifts!

• Select your 10RM for barbell rows
• You should be somewhat warm after pull-ups, but if you need a couple of warm-up sets, take them
• If you are training with a partner with a similar 10RM, use the lower of the two 10RMs
• Set a timer for 15 minutes
• Alternate sets, performing barbell rows to failure
  • If you have a training partner, you will alternate with no rest, as soon as your partner finishes you will begin rowing; your total rest should be 30 seconds or less
  • If you do not have a training partner, take no more than 30 seconds rest between sets
  • I recommend using wrist straps for this exercise; you will likely not be able to hold the bar without them to effectively work your back

Dumbbell Rows, Supported:

• Select your 10RM weight dumbbell
• Perform 3 sets to failure
• Use wrist straps if necessary (again, for dumbbell rows I recommend using straps to effectively work your back)
• Rest until you are fully recovered between sets (3-5 minutes)

Hammer Curl/Lat Pull-down Superset: We’re going to pre-exhaust your biceps so that your lats have to do more of the work

• If you’ve done the rest of your workout correctly, your rep maxes on these exercises will be relatively meaningless; select a weight you can get the sets and reps in the appropriate ranges
• Start with hammer curls, select a weight you can (still) get 8-12 reps with proper form
• Take 1-2 minutes rest and continue the set with lat pull-downs, using a weight you can get 10-12 reps
• Take 2-3 minutes rest between each superset
• Complete a total of 3 supersets

Hammer Curl/Cable Row Superset: We’re continuing with the bicep pre-exhaust, and performing high rep cable rows; this allows us to engage more of your back muscles in the rows (rhomboids and lower/mid traps)

• Continue the superset with the same weight for hammer curls
• As with previous superset, take 1-2 minutes rest between hammer curls and cable rows
• Select a weight you can get 20 reps with on the cable rows
• Squeeze each rep on the cable row tightly at the top, pinching your shoulder blades together
• Take 2-3 minutes rest between each superset
• Complete a total of 3 supersets

BWOW Man Down!

Assessment:

• Coffee: Rated the workout at about an ‘8’ on our Smokdedness Scale. It was a challenging workout, but we have gone through tougher sessions. That being said, he did text me ‘Curse you Ken Gack!! My back and biceps are destroyed’ the morning after, and biceps were burning for a few days.
• Gack: Rated the workout at about a ‘7’ on our Smokdedness Scale. It was a challenging workout, but the conditioning component of the core lift (barbell rows) eclipsed the strength and hypertrophy component.

Workout Plan: 2013 Winter – BWOW Week 1 v1 – Web

BWOW plans for this cycle:

• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7