How to Build a Big Back – New Twist on a Old Classic

When you’re trying to build muscle and get stronger, no other body part is more important for shoulder health, posture, and pressing strength than your upper back.

In fact, the saying, “back is the new chest” really reveals the fact that you should focus more on pulling strength than pushing strength in your programs if you want to get really strong.

You’ve never seen a strong guy without a massive back, right?

The simple ways to a stronger and bigger back is to focus on a variety of movements (pull downs, rows, external rotations, and posterior flyes), introducing a variety and balance of tension (load) and massive time under tension (advanced extended set protocols), and increasing the frequency at which you attack the back each week.

Build a Big Back Fast

If you’re tired of the same old exercises, you need to check out this brutal back builder – prone rows with extension. [The extension refers to thoracic extension at the top of the row]

The setup is pretty simple.

Lay prone on a flat bench and place your chest on top of a foam roller that is placed on top of the bench. This is the key to get a greater range of motion.

Perform “high rows” (shoulder abducted) – where your arms come out 90 degrees from your body – and extend your back upward off of the foam roller at the top of the row. This simple change increases the work capacity of every set and makes it brutally effective.

You get more done with this one simple exercise. You improve extension at the upper back, target the typically weak mid-back muscles, and increase your overall pulling strength!

Try this out if you’re ready!