For most fitness enthusiasts, if they have to pick the most difficult part to train, I believe the answer for many people is the back muscles!
Compared with the training of other parts, the training of back muscles seems to be a more difficult part to understand the muscle sensitivity, and most people tend to feel that the arm muscles exert more force.
Today I want to share with you some great back training techniques!
After mastering these techniques, you can better improve the sensitivity of your back muscles and help you build wide and thick back muscles. Let’s take a look!
1. Keep the shoulder straps stable and neutral in the starting position!
A good starting position will determine the quality of your subsequent movements. Keep your shoulder blades in the correct position, sink in, and draw back slightly!
If the scapulae are not fixed, the force of the movement often cannot be concentrated on the back, but is replaced by the shoulders or arms. Whether you are performing training exercises such as seated rowing or pull-ups, before performing the action, remember to do a retracting and sinking action of the shoulder blades to stabilize the muscles and pre-activate the back muscles before starting to pull the weight.
2.Imagine using your elbow to exert force
To increase the feeling of back muscle contraction, you can imagine that your forearms and hands do not exist, and when you pull the weight, you use your elbows to contract your back.
When you activate your shoulder blades, your elbows should immediately follow up. Pull your elbows toward your body. When pulling back, try to get as close to your body as possible
You can imagine that your hand is a hook, just lightly hooking the handle, not the center of force. If you can really do this and cooperate with the depression and retraction of the upper scapula, I believe your back sensitivity will be greatly improved!
If you are not very familiar with the key to exerting force with your elbows, you can wear a resistance band on your wrist and wrap it around the bar or handle before performing the movement. The advantage of resistance bands is that they can reduce the force on your hands and forearms, so you don't have to worry about insufficient grip strength causing your hands to fatigue before your back muscles.
3. Peak shrinkage!
When training back muscles (whether rowing or pulling down), you must not ignore the peak contraction. When the target muscle contracts the shortest time, try to squeeze the muscle hard, and it will seem like cramping!
Peak contraction recruits more motor units faster because it reaches the maximum voluntary contraction. At the same time, strengthen the connection between nerves and muscles to obtain better target muscle sensitivity
Squeeze your shoulder blades at the top of the movement to maximize the contraction of your back muscles
4. Maintain tension during playback!
Don’t ignore the replay stage. Most people replay the weight too fast, causing the muscles to lose tension, which will greatly reduce the effectiveness of your exercise!
What you have to do is to control the speed of lowering, just like braking. While the muscles are lengthening, they should also be tightened, maintain tension, and slowly return to the starting position.
5. Do both horizontal and vertical pulling movements
Many people's back muscle training only ends with pulling the horizontal bar or doing a few pull-down movements for the back muscles. However, horizontal pulling movements such as body rowing are missing, resulting in incomplete back development. You can alternate between vertical and horizontal movements during back training. For example, first do pull-ups, then do seated rows, and then switch to close-grip pull-downs and reverse rows to cover all aspects of back training.
6. Don’t ignore isometric contraction
The form of muscle contraction is not only lengthening and shortening, but also resisting tension while maintaining the same length is also a great way to exercise!
The most typical training movement is the deadlift!
During the deadlift, your entire back muscles are working. Your trapezius, latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, erector spinae, and deep core muscles are all working hard to perform isometric contractions to maintain the spine. Stable and neutral shoulders! This will help you build strong back muscles!