How To Get A Bigger Back (Bodybuilding)

Introduction

Building a huge back is so fundamentally important for your esthetics, strength, posture, and overall health. Your back is one of your major muscle groups, and it is a very important muscle you need to take care of seriously.

On top of that, the "wings" of your back (your lat muscles), if well-developed will naturally push outward a little bit, making you look wider, making your shoulders wider, and making your arms bigger, especially from the side.

So you probably understand already why it's so important: not only is it by itself super esthetic and useful, it also helps your other muscle groups to look bigger. It's just an easy way to boost your overall physique aesthetic.

So now that you know that you should NEVER neglect your back, here is a guide I made on training your back effectively for bodybuilding. Also, so you know, this article might be shorter than other articles because I'll get straight to the point and not a lot of things are to be said here. So let's get started.

How much time per week should you train your back?

Training your back once a week is already great. You can get a lot of progress done if you train once a week and quite frankly a lot of people with big backs train once a week. However, the best and probably optimal approach to back training is to train it twice a week.

Studies have found that training a muscle group twice a week induced more hypertrophic and strength growth or gains compared to once-a-week groups.

In other words, if you train your back twice a week, there's a high chance, at least from what the scientific literature says, that you will build a bigger back than if you only trained once a week. Now, there are so many other factors that could get in the way: your hormonal levels, your sleep, your diet, your personal genetics, your habits, your experience, etc, but generally it is believed that twice a week is the best approach.

And if you don't trust me, I had a friend whose chest was lagging behind. He was huge, not super ripped but quite huge, and he is natural. To give you an idea, this guy had big arms, big legs, and quite a small chest. It just broke the whole thing. However, I made him a program. He trained his chest once a week, and when I made him train it twice a week, his chest exploded. Now he is grateful because his physique is now more "uniform" than before. His chest grew.

Therefore, this is proof, at least in my opinion, that twice-a-week training is the best approach for bodybuilding.

You should have a rest of around 72 hours or 48 hours before training your back again. For example, if you train it on Tuesday, you should train your back the next time on Friday, so a 3-day (72 hours) difference. If you can, train three times a week.

Now that you know that, we can move to how many sets per week you should do for building a huge back.

How many sets per week for a huge back?

Now don't get me wrong, the science is clear here. However, many factors could still get in the way and bias the results. Also, generally, bodybuilding is a sport where there is a lot of individual characteristics to take into consideration and what works for one might not work for another. So, how many sets per week, generally, scientifically, for the majority of the population, is useful for building a big back?

Well, even tho it has been believed for dozens of years that more training volume = more gains, science has been recently proving that it's false. Sure, training more might get you a little bit more gains, but the fatigue in your muscles that you're going to get from training too much (overtraining) is not only going to put down your performance, but it's also going to block or reduce progressive overload and it is going to require of you to take more "rest days" or "rest week".

Therefore, the "big gains" you got in less time will be balanced by the fact you're spending now more time resting. So, you will have more fatigue for equal or less gains in the long-term. In other words, the balance will balance itself out.

As a general rule of thumb, I recommend 10 to 14 sets a week for the back. If you train your back within this range, it's going to grow effectively and nicely.

For example, if you train your back twice a week, you could do 2 sets of pull-ups, 2 sets of unilateral lat pull-downs, and 2 sets of cable rows. That's 6 sets per session, and twice a week it's 12 sets per week: you are in between 10 and 14, perfect. You can add on top of that some trapezius work (your traps) and of course rear delt exercises.

But what exercises should you do to build a big back? Let me show you.

Great exercises for building a big back

Here are the exercises I recommend for building a big back. However, before diving in, let's establish something important: these are some very good exercises, but in the exercises I'm about to give to you, there is no "one version" that I know for a fact will get you the most gains, even tho some exercises seem to be better than others for the majority of the people.

Remember bodybuilding is a very individual thing, so try the exercises themselves and see for yourself what works. Also, it's important to assess that back-training requires both vertical and horizontal pulling movements to really be effective. For example, you need to do a lat pulldown and a seated cable row. This way, you get both horizontal and vertical pull movements.

Alright, let's see which exercises you could use to build a big back.

The first one is the pull-up. I personally think pull-ups are THE best exercises for training your back since the movement is really natural. And, often-times, big, compound, and natural exercises are the ones that truly create massive gains: just like push-ups.

The pull-up really gets your back to grow well by focusing on building the muscles in both your lower and upper back, as well as your traps, your biceps, your abdomens, etc. It is a great compound exercise that you should definitely include in your routine. If you can't manage to do a pull-up at first, I suggest using a resistance band to assist you in lifting yourself up.

Now there are many different types of pull-ups. For back development, the best are neutral pull-ups (where your palms are facing each other) and overhand pull-ups. The underhand pull-ups still can build some back muscle, but they mainly focus on your biceps and forearms, and so therefore, it's not effective at all to build a big back.

Then, lat pulldowns. Once more, a neutral grip or underhand grip is great. The best is to do it in a neutral grip I think, and most grips with palms facing each other are great for lat pulldowns.

The other variation of lat pulldowns I suggest is unilateral lat pulldowns. Unilateral means doing it on one side and then on the other side. So, using a cable attachment to a cable pulley system, and kneeling or sitting at the lat-pulldown machine, pull the cable down toward your lats. It's as if you were trying to crush your lats.

Unilateral lat pulldowns are great, especially if you put the other hand on the back muscles that are being worked because you can feel your lats working much more than if you did a compound exercise. It enables you really to feel your back muscles and create that "lat connection" you so need to feel them working.

The pullover is also an interesting exercise. Dumbell, cable, whatever fits you. I think this exercise is interesting and can be considered in a training program but is not necessary and personally, I believe it's much better to do a movement like a pull-up or a pull-down instead of a pull-over. I also think rows are superior to pullovers.

Finally, any variation of a row. I suggest mainly doing them with cables, especially the seated cable row with a close grip. I think this one is the best back exercise next to the pull-up or the unialteral lat pulldown. It's just incredible, make sure to lean a little bit forward on the eccentric to really stretch your back. You should feel some "tearing" as if it was tearing apart.

Unilateral seated cable rows are also good, and just generally any unilateral variation or any variation of cable rows will do the job. I personally suggest seated cable rows with a close grip, because it's an incredible exercise THAT SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED.

Really, I have a big back, and I think that close-grip seated cable rows played a big part in the process. Really, I've been sticking with this exercise for at least 8 months despite changing all of the other exercises in my routine. This exercise is simply gold.

As for barbell rows, dumbell rows, T bar rows, and all of this, I still think it's quite good but never as good as a cable row. I don't think you should waste much time on barbell rows and stuff (I used to do some barbell rowing, and even tho it was good, I don't think it's as good or effective as a seated cable close grip row for example).

For people who have shorter training programs (3-day, 4-day training programs) I suggest doing dead-lifts. It might not build huge lats as fast as other exercises but it will build a very solid lower back and a good upper back. The only reason why I'm giving it to people who do 3 3-day or 4-day training programs is that it trains a lot of muscles (hamstrings, glutes, lower back, biceps, etc) and therefore it's very tiring. It's a very, very tiring exercise that produces a lot of fatigue: and if you want to bodybuild, it might not be the best.

Overall, if you want to try it for yourself, add deadlifts to your routine (even if you do a 6-day routine) but I recommend focusing on horizontal and vertical pulling movements. Deadlifts might help you build a very good lower back and a good upper back but it's not going to be as effective to build huge lats as a pull-up for example.

If you ever add deadlifts, I suggest training it instead of your "row" movement. Let's not sacrifice the pull-up or pulldown. But ultimately, the best is to do deadlifts only if you train your back once a week since it causes a lot of fatigue.

If I had to make a "small resume" of what I'm saying here, it is: first, choose two compound pulling movements that are horizontal or vertical, and do it first. For horizontal we have pull-ups, neutral grip pull-ups, lat pulldowns, and neutral grip lat pulldowns, and for vertical, we have seated cable rows, barbell rows, and T bar rows.

Then, to finish, choose a unilateral exercise, often-times I prefer to do it horizontally (so a lat-focused exercise) such as a unilateral cable lat pulldown. And I suggest you do the same too because I think we should firstly focus on horizontal and then vertical.

After all of this, you can train your traps through dumbell shrugs, or upright rows. However, I suggest not working them directly. Instead, train your rear delts correctly (8-10 sets per week) and it should also work your traps effectively.

If you want a ready-to-use back workout that you could do twice a week, here is one:

1) 2 sets of neutral grip pull-ups (after warmup).

2) 2 sets of seated cable rows, with a close grip attachment.

3) 2 sets of unilateral lat pull-downs (maximum height on the pulley system) with a cable attachment, kneeling or sitting.

Do this twice a week, and your back will grow. If it doesn't, add more volume by adding one set to each exercise, or at first, to the pull-ups and rows.

If you train your back once a week, you could follow the program I'm about to share:

1) 3 sets of deadlifts.

2) 3 sets of neutral grip pull-ups.

3) 3 sets of seated cable rows, close grip.

4) 3 sets of unilateral lat pulldowns, with a cable attachment at maximum height on the pulley system, kneeling or sitting.

Overall, remember that for a huge back, you should train it at least twice a week, and if you train it only once a week and don't see the desired result, I warned you. I'm not telling you your back is not going to grow, it will grow if you follow the one-time-per-week program I just gave you, but you can't tell me my program is not working if you're not doing what I told you.

Do it twice per week if you want to get great results. This "once per week" program is for people who really can't. Focus on hitting a back workout twice or thrice a week and your back is going to grow, if you follow my guidelines. As for once a week, it will still grow, but maybe not as much as twice or thrice.

Conclusion

Back training is extremely important, and doing it correctly should be one of your fitness priorities. If you follow the advice I gave you here, you should be able to grow a stronger, thicker, more muscular back.

Focus on rear delt development too to hit your traps more specifically. It'll also fix your posture.

Finally, I wanted to thank you for reading. As always, you're the one who makes all of this possible.

By the way, are you interested in losing weight? Well, I got what you need! Here is the weight-loss course I made! It's an effective and no-nonsense to long-lasting sustainable weight-loss, used by a 16-year-old to lose weight, change his life forever, and keep the weight off!

On top of that, not only is it cheaper than most courses and it provides EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WEIGHT-LOSS, it also has 12 FREE BONUSES, such as habit trackers, workout plans, guides to losing weight on vacations, bulking up after weight-loss to gain muscle or even optimizing your testosterone. For FREE.

If you're interested, click on the button below.