Here is a killer upper back hack to keep your shoulders healthy AND light you up! I can’t over stress the importance of training some aspect of back in every single workout. Posterior flyes to scarecrow press will engage the upper back dynamically and statically during each repetition creating a longer duration of time under tension – an important requirement of building more muscle mass (and keeping your shoulders healthy and strong).

This particular exercise was part of a more comprehensive upper body warm-up (posted in the Insider) that included Cubans, overhead shrugs, the best pec stretch ever, and some other back and shoulder specific activation exercises.

As a side note, it is important to understand that consistently training the back comes with a critical caveat. Training is stress to the body and this stress has a “protective” response that promotes restriction in the soft-tissues during recovery. With this in mind, to ensure movement quality and to maintain range of motion, tempering of the back, lats, and the posterior delts, along with various tractioning and static stretching protocols, should always be incorporated as part of your comprehensive strength training strategies.