My client has been dying to do a workout that targets the back, specifically that area right behind your arms, directly under your shoulders. If you don’t know what she’s talking about, you’re probably not a woman who needs to wear a bra.
Here’s a back workout we did, starting with warming up our lats, getting a heavy lift in, adding some abs, and finishing with some shoulder shaping.
Exercise Explanations:
Compound row – the machine in our gym allows for free movement of the back. Be sure to engage abs and sit up nice and y’all to promote good posture 👍🏼
Underhand grip lat pull down – underhand grip (with your palms facing you and hands narrow on the bar) hits your biceps a little more, but remember to engage that back still by pulling all the way down.
Push-up – traditional body weight push-up gives your back a little break, while still warming up the big muscle groups of your upper body
1 arm cable row – use a handle attachment. Our cable machine is a double pulley system, so your weight might really vary here depending on what your gym has. Keep in a slight squat with abs engaged, pull just like you would on the compound row. The trick here is keeping square to the machine. No twisting or turning of your torso or shoulders.
Traditional deadlift – sink your booty as low as you can without compromising your torso form…should be chest up, flat back. Really focus on squeezing from your lower back when you are coming up
Leg lifts with bar – one of my all time favorite exercises. Use the same weight/ bar you use for deadlifts. Get underneath it, push up, and maintain fairly straight arms with the bar directly over your chest. Then perform leg lifts for your abs. Without knowing it, you are giving your obliques a great workout as well because they are working to stabilize the heavy weight.
Chicken wings – my favorite shoulder workout, just a fun name for upright rows. Lead with your elbows, use a small barbel
Curls – use the same barbel to get your curls in. Lock elbows into side and don’t use your whole body.
Bent over back flys – the finisher in today’s workout. Form can be tricky: Hinge forward at hips, bend elbows so they are parallel to torso, fly arms out (like a bat) being sure to punch your shoulder blades together.
Key:
< denotes a superset. Do the two exercises back to back with no rest in between. After both are completed, rest, and then go again until your two to three sets are complete.
An “s” after a weight denotes x amount of weight on either side of the bar or x amount of weight in each hand (ie. for deadlifts I was lifting 95lbs total including a 45lb bar).
Amber Launstein 