Hey everyone hope you’re having a great weekend! How are all of you doing with your current fitness goals? This weekend is Valentines weekend but that doesn’t mean that me and my husband both didn’t stay committed to visiting the gym at least twice over the last few days. In this post I’m going to share with you some of the exercises I have been doing on back day. As you can see from the images it was dark outside because I was at the gym super early on this day to give myself enough time to complete the entire circuit which took a little bit over an hour due to the number of exercises and reps and sets that I was doing. I love working out first thing in the morning because it really jump starts my energy for the rest of the day and it’s nice to have the evening free after work to do whatever we decide to do. I hope you enjoy the video I made from this work out as well as the photos from below to help you with proper form and understanding what the exercise is when I list them below. Make sure to let me know in the comments if you try this workout and how you like to best help to define your back.
When it comes to working out the two largest muscle groups are your back and legs. Since those are the most challenging days of the week in the gym it’s also the days that I try to consume more carbs than usual to give my body the energy it needs to lift heavy, lift long and have energy for my workout. I like to think of carbs as the fuel you need to run your engine which is your body so make sure I’m back day that you are giving yourself what your body needs to push through the work out and recover properly. The first thing I do for this particular day is a quick five-minute warm-up of walking on the treadmill and then I jumped right into five sets of 10 reps of a stiff leg dead lifts or a regular dead lift. As you can see in the image below I’m doing a traditional dead lift using a curl bar since my gym doesn’t have eight Olympic lifting bar which really stinks but I make it work with what I have available to me. I want to show you the three steps in the progression of doing this particular exercise so you can focus on proper form when you’re doing your dead lift. Make sure to keep the bar close to your legs throughout the entire movement sliding down the front of your quads over the knee pushing your butt back and then sitting down into the dead lift. Keep your back in a neutral spine and drive up through your heels contracting your glute muscles to pull yourself through to the end of the exercise and then repeat.
For this back to a routine I’m going to go through a couple of exercises that you can do you and the gym that you belong to or if you have a gym where you live. Unfortunately though these exercises are pretty difficult to replicate at home other than the ones using dumbbells.
Complete List of Exercises Done on Back Day:
Assisted Pull Ups & Chin Ups
EZ Curl Bar Dead Lifts
Bent Over Dumb Bell Rows
Seated Rows
Wide Grip Lat Pull Downs
Hyper Extensions
Reverse Rear Delt Fly Cable Pulls
I love doing bent over rows which is a unilateral movement that allows each one of your arms the chance to work itself individually. Most machines will have you using both arms at once oh it’s always good to use exercises that focus one arm at a time. For the rows I vary between a heavier dumbbell and then a lighter dumbbell so that I can do higher reps on the lower weight and lower reps with the heavier weight. I do five total sets and with the heavyweight I do five reps for each arm and with the lighter weight I do 15 for each arm.
The reverse fly cable exercise is a great way to target the back and really create definition. I don’t use a lot of weight with this exercise because it is quite challenging but I do you do 15 reps of this exercise for four sets. You can do this standing up or on your knees like you see pictured above.
Hyper extensions are a great exercise to work your lower back but also your glutes and hamstrings. I see this exercise done in the gym quite often but many people do it incorrectly. Make sure to not overextend you’re back on the upper part of the movement you should come back to a very neutral spine and not overextend which can hurt your lower back. Squeeze through with your butt muscles and hold for a few seconds at the top of the exercise for even more glute. activation. I do this for four sets and 20 total reps for each set.
I also like to finish the work out doing four sets of 10 to 15 reps of a variety of pull-ups and chin-ups. It takes a very long time to work up to that number of reps without assistance so feel free to use the assisted pull-up machine to help you with these movements.
This is a really strenuous routine for your back so it’s important after your workout to drink amino acid powder with water. I recently received some free samples from a company called I Am Nutritionals. Their BCAA powders are made from plant-based materials and have no sugar and are gluten-free. Amino acids are critical to muscle repair and recovery after a tough workout so I am always drinking some form of this throughout the day and at night. I really like the taste of this powder since it is very diluted and not super sugary and taste but just enough to flavor your water. I particularly like the pineapple flavor and wind up sipping this throughout the day to repair and recover to prevent soreness. I highly recommend adding a BCAA powder to your supplement routine.
For those who asked here is the link of the tank top I am wearing in this workout: CLICK HERE
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