TeenBodybuilding.com - Alton Hare - Herculean Back: The Advanced Lat Shocker!

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That back, however, is especially well designed for supersetting, because the back is composed of several smaller muscle groups, which can all be stressed individually with only slight help from the other groups.

Herculean Back
The Advanced Lat Shocker

By: Alton Hare

The basis of my advanced chest program is the use of strip sets to take the muscle past normal concentric failure. The chest is not especially well adapted to supersets, because no matter what angle you are focusing on, the chest as a whole is still being worked. That back, however, is especially well designed for supersetting, because the back is composed of several smaller muscle groups, which can all be stressed individually with only slight help from the other groups. Strip sets are also just as good for back, especially if there's a specific muscle group/area in the back that is lagging. So, I like to start off my back routine with two heavy compound movements and then move on to supersetting isolation movements. By the way, I include deadlifts usually in my leg routine, because if you keep your back straight enough you mostly use your legs.

Since you have gone through my basic back routine, you can chins your bodyweight decently, and so you should start out, after stretching and warm up, with three sets of chins. You may get eight on the first set, five on the second, and only three on the last. That's ok, your strength on chins will continue to improve as long as you take each set to failure and do the chins in a smooth, controlled motion. It's a good idea to do a negative on the last rep of your third set, where you take ten to fifteen seconds to lower yourself back into the stretched position, all the while focusing the tension into your lats, pretending their flaring out and blocking the sun or something. Visualization is a powerful technique when training lats/back, because these muscles aren't easily seen without a couple mirrors.

Next you go to another one of my favorite compound movements, dumbbell rows on an incline bench. This hits the rhomboids very well, which are the muscles just under the traps that attach to the scapulae and insert into the spinal column. These add thickness to the back and give it a truly "Herculean" look of power and might. The higher the incline, the more you hit the rhomboids and traps, the closer to flat the more you get in your lats, I suggest a forty five degree incline, since you just hit your lats in chins you want to focus on a different group now. Do three sets nice and heavy, and on your third set drop the dumbbells and quickly grab some a little more than half that weight, and go as many as you can to burnout.

After that set your probably feelin' a good pump, but your focus shouldn't be waning yet, if you did my basic routine you should be in shape enough to have plenty left. Now, superset close reverse grip pulldowns with seated straight bar rows. This is a close pulldown movement with a wide rowing motion, effectively working almost the entire back between the two completely opposite exercises. As always, do three sets. Then, superset close grip seated rows with weighed hyperextensions. Do all your seated rows with your back almost perpendicular to the ground, and keep it there, no jerking the weight back with your lower back. Only your arms should move. At the end of the rep its ok to stretch your lats and back out, but don't let your lower back come out of alignment. You should ALWAYS squeeze at the concentric portion, and control the negative. Some people like to explode through the contraction, others like it slow and controlled, I think you should experiment with both. If you can keep from cheating and still bring the weight up fast, then great, but don't sacrifice form. Do three sets of seated rows/weighted hyperextensions, then if you wanna train side/rear delts with back like me you can do a tri-set at the end:

Side Laterals, barbell/dumbbell shrugs, and bent laterals

If you don't wanna train shoulders you can just finish up your workout with barbell or dumbbell shrugs.

So, here's the advanced back buster:

* Chins, three sets and a negative
* Incline dumbbell rows, three sets and a drop set
* Superset seated straight bar rows and close grip pulldowns for three sets
* Superset close grip seated rows and weighed hyperextensions for three sets
* Barbell/dumbbell shrugs or tri set of side laterals/shrugs/bent laterals for three sets Total: 22 sets for back, 6 sets for shoulders (shoulders receive assist work in rowing and chinning)

You should be taking 2 minute rests between the heavy compound movements, and no rest between superset because, well, that's the point of a superset. The back is a very complex muscle group, and must be hit from all sorts of angles to be developed symmetrically. Supersetting allows you to hit each of these angles while maintaining the intensity needed to stimulate muscle growth. Doing dumbbell rows instead of barbell rows allows for a greater range of motion than a barbell, and puts your lower back in a less compromised position. Occasionally, if you get stale, you should do pulldowns instead of chins, barbell rows instead of dumbbell rows, and/or good morning instead of hyperextensions. You can also do one arm cable rows instead of close grip cable rows, to focus on each side of the back individually. If you do regular pulldowns instead of chins, you might have the strength to do close reverse grip chins instead of the pulldown version of that.... there are all kinds of variations of this workout you can do. Use your imagination and be creative, and these templates I offer you can last quite a while. All that is needed is to add in your own motivation and aggression, and you have the winning formula to a monstrous back that will be difficult to fit through doors!!!

- Alton

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