Choose Rows
When is the last time you heard someone say the phrase “Grow some pecs”?
I really hope your answer is never. “Grow some backbone!” Now that is something we have all heard before. Our back is the foundation that so much of our body is built.
Our back bone surrounds our spinal cord. For protecting something so important to our everyday tasks we sure take its strength for granted. Back day at the gym gets the least amount of enthusiasm and yet from my standpoint it is the most important day.
What does everyone have against their back?
I think mostly it’s because you can’t look in the mirror and see your back muscles easily. They aren’t as fun to work out as the “glory” muscles: pecs, delts, bi’s, and tri’s. These muscles show visible changes on a routine basis.
So I challenge you to change the trend and start focusing more on your back.
A simple and effective exercise is the Row.
The focus on a row is scapular retraction. It is easy to make this a triceps dominated exercise. I suggest using resistance bands for this exercise. Take a band and wrap it around a pole. Have your arms bent at 90 degrees and elbows near your side.
Slowly begin pinching your shoulder blades back towards each other. You should maintain the 90 degree form of your elbow. This should not be a big movement it should be a short movement of the shoulder not of your arm.
If you find your arm is moving a lot then you are using your triceps and not retracting correctly. Once retracted hold this position for about 6-10 seconds and slowly return to the starting position. Repeat this in reps of 10 and 2 sets daily.
To further challenge yourself do this exercise standing, seated on a chair, and then seated on the floor keeping the resistance band starting at the same height the whole time. This will target different groups of back muscles.
