Back in action: for a better v-taper, hammer your lats the old-fashioned way- with a hearty dose of pull-ups

Muscle & Fitness, July, 2009 by Joe Wuebben

FEAR NOT THE PULL-UP BAR.

It's often not enjoyable and quite often painful, but it's also the most effective means of widening your lats and creating a dramatic V-shaped torso. All the greats have done pull-ups: Stallone, Schwarzenegger, even Linda Hamilton in her role as Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. (At the time she probably could've done more reps than most guys in the gym.) [paragraph] Barbell rows, pulldowns and dead-lifts are great, but when it comes to carving your back musculature into a topographic map, nothing beats lifting your own weight. So that's what you're going to do, over and over, starting with the following pull-up-centric routine.

FIGHTING BACK

If the mere thought of doing multiple sets of pull-ups makes your stomach churn and your grip twinge and sends you running to the lat pulldown machine, it's time to change your way of thinking. A lifting program sans pull-ups is like having a salad, soup and dessert but no entree. Sure, it's technically still a meal (not to us), but it won't do much to ease your hunger.

"Chins and pull-ups are the meat and potatoes of effective back training," says strength coach Charles I. Staley, MSS, a competitive master's-level Olympic-style weightlifter and director of Staley Training Systems. "The back comprises some of the biggest, strongest muscles in the body, and they need big loads to startle them into serious growth."

Staley designed the two-day back workout on page 80 with one objective in mind: bigger lats via super-intense effort and creative rep schemes that bring new meaning to the term muscle confusion. On both Monday and Thursday you warm up with pull-ups. Next, both workouts involve 15 minutes of low-rep intervals with a novel twist: Day I calls for chins (palms facing you) performed in a "ladder" rep progression, and Day 2 incorporates alternating pull-ups (palms facing away) that emphasize opposite sides of the back on each rep, three reps at a time.

Pulling for time instead of a predetermined number of sets and reps is a concept about which Staley raves, as much for psychological factors as physical ones. "Time limits are great for lighting a fire under you," he says. "They create a sense of urgency that you wouldn't otherwise have. When you use time limits, you already know when you'll be done, so you're more likely to work harder. And if you're a classic overachiever, they minimize the possibility of overtraining."

Back training is about more than just pull-ups, though. On Day 1 (Monday) you'll do incline dumbbell rows to hit the lower lats, rhomboids and middle traps, and on Day 2 (Thursday) one-arm seated cable rows achieve the same objective while weighted back extensions target the oft-neglected lower back.

"The back is a region, not a muscle," Staley points out. "It comprises the latissimus dorsi, the trapezius and the erector spinae [lower back] among many other muscles. This fact suggests a multi-exercise approach to back training."

You might perceive the prescribed workouts as minimalist versions of your typical back-training regimen. Two and three exercises, respectively, are recommended instead of the traditional 4-5 per workout. Before writing off Staley's routines, however, consider that you're training back twice a week, which accounts for sufficient overall volume. Also bear in mind that the pull-up routines, when performed aggressively, are 15 minutes of sheer latissimus hell.

"The volume and frequency of this program may strike some as sparse," Staley says. "Remember, though, that volume and intensity are inversely correlated: You can't train with high volume and at a high percentage of your maximal capacity simultaneously. Consider this the intensity phase of your back program."

ALTERNATING PULL-UP

TARGET: Upper lats

START: Grasp a pull-up bar with an overhand, wider-than-shoulder-width grip, and let your body hang with your arms fully extended.

EXECUTION: As you pull yourself up, drift to your left and bring your chin as close to the back of your left hand as possible. Lower yourself to the start position, then repeat to the right. That's one rep.

COACH SPEAK: "Using this somewhat unusual technique, you increase the overload on the working-side lat and provide a unique stress on the deeper stabilizing muscles of the upper back and core," Staley says.

BACK EXTENSION

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TARGET: Lower back

START: Adjust the bench so the pad is at your hips, and secure your ankles under the rollers. Lean into the pad so your body forms a straight line from head to feet. Hold a light weight plate against your chest.

EXECUTION: Bend at the waist to lower your torso toward the floor until it forms roughly a 90-degree angle with your legs. In a deliberate, controlled motion, contract your low-back muscles to raise your torso back to the start.

COACH SPEAK: "If you're new to back extensions or haven't done them in a while, keep in mind that a good low-back pump can feel a lot like classic lower-back pain," Staley says. "If you start out healthy and use a sensible progression scheme, you shouldn't have any problems."