Almost everyone I know (including myself) has complained of back pain at some point in their life. Some people get back pain while exercising, others while working at a desk, others while just walking around. Back pain has many causes but there are some things you can do to ease the pain and get your back back on track!

Common causes of back pain

Before you can delve into the exercises that help back pain it is VITAL that you find out why your back is hurting. If you do not know the cause of the pain any exercise you do is a stab in the dark and can end up doing more harm than good.

The spinal chord is delicate and filled with nerve bundles that can get damaged very easily. If you seriously injure your back you can bet your bottom dollar your life will be painful from that day on.

To find out the cause of your back problems go and see a back surgeon or neuroligist. Do NOT see a chiropractor or a physiotherapist. You want to make sure your spine is 100% healthy and you are going to do your neck or nerves any permanent damage. To do this you will need X-rays and maybe a CT scan.

Do not muck around with your back. ever.

Exercises that help back pain

Once you have got the “all clear” to do some exercises you should get advice from a physiotherapist. They can help you get your back into proper alignment. Do NOT go and see a chiro. These guys crack your back and neck and as far as my research and experience tells me they do not do much good. A dear family friend is in a wheel chair because of a young chiro who tried to crack a sore neck back in place. Continue Reading

The chin up is one of the best exercises there is. It builds real strength, power and awesome muscle growth. However, many people struggle with the chin up as it can be quite hard to do. This post will show you how to improve your chin ups and take them to all new heights.

How to intensify your chin ups and pull ups

Improving your chin ups is about doing a few things differently. It is a combination of techniques and tricks that will get you over the line and help you move towards new muscle gain. The most important things you need to do are:

1. Learn the correct technique
2. Learn how to “cheat” correctly
3. Learn how to add intensity

This post will look at all three of these crucial elements.

1. The correct chin up technique

As I always say, if you have poor weight lifting technique you will have poor muscle gain results. The chin up is no different.

Quite often at the gym I see people pumping out chin ups so fast I wonder whether they feel the burn at all. They have no idea which muscle it is working and are obviously missing the point.

When you do the chin up you need to have a shoulder width grip with your palms facing towards you. The repetition needs to be done at a snails-pace; super slow and very controlled. Make sure you pull yourself up as if your elbows were doing the work. This helps you to isolate your lats.

Finally, make sure your have a full range of motion; letting yourself stretch all the way down and pulling yourself all the way up.

2. How to “cheat” correctly with the chin up

Cheat reps are quite famous in bodybuilding circles. Many professional bodybuilders use cheat reps to help them fire over a plateau. This is quite a good technique but it is not without its dangers. Continue Reading

Benny from London asked: “I really want to get a nice wide V-taper back like Arnie, Ronnie Coleman and Bruce Lee. What are the best exercsies to widen my back and lats?”

This is a great question that I thought I would answer for everyone.

About widening your back

The wide v-taper back is one of bodybuilding’s most prized posessions. Many people think it is because of Ronnie Coleman’s perfectly developed back muscles that he was so successful at winning so many Mr. Olympia titles in a row.

I think they are right.

But out of all the famous backs in the world I think Bruce Lee’s is the most popular. When he did his signature cobra flex in Way of the Dragon millions of people were inspired to develop a v-taper back.

Training the back is quite difficult but can be very rewarding. The feeling of a sore back after a good workout is second to none. If you want to start making widening your back the goal of your back workouts then this post is a good place for you to start.

There is something very important that you should now about widening your back:

It is not so much which exercises you do but how you do them that counts.

Let me explain. Take the chin up as our example. The chin is one of the best back building exercises there is. However, you will work a different part of your back depending on where you put your hands. This means that the same exercise can work many different functions for the back. In this post I will show you not only what are the best exercises, but how you should do them to maximize your results.

The best exercises to widen the back

The best exercises to widen the back are the one’s that target the lats and cause them to grow faster than the rhomboids.

1. The wide grip chin up
If your shoulders can handle this exercise it is hands down one of the best exercises there is. Some people (me included) cannot handle too many wide grip chin ups as it puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders. If you think this might be you try starting with about a shoulder width grip and work your way out.

The main trick with the chin up is to pretend you are pulling yourself up by your elbows. Really make sure you are tensing your lats and closing your shoulder blades. If you keep the reps nice and slow and remember these two tips your will feel a greater contraction in your lats.

You should also start to add weight to your feet or waist as soon as you can do more than about 10 reps. If you do this your back will explode into some really amazing growth.

2. Bent over rows
The bent over row is probably the favorite of most bodybuilders for building the lats. It is a lot easier to do than the chin up (people are lazy!) and it hits the lats pretty well.

The problem with the bent over row is that it is hard to get the technique right. Most of the time when I see people doing it at the gym they are doing some retarded version which ends up working their posterior deltoids instead of the back.

If you want to do it properly don’t try to be too tough. Use a light weight, keep your back straight and work on the contraction of the muscles as opposed to the lifting itself. Back training is mostly a mind game.

Conclusion
These are the two best exercises for widening your back by developing your lats muscles. In both exercises experiment with an underhand and an overhand grip and try different hand grip widths. By mixing it up your back will be forced to grow and adapt.