In Part One of this series, we discussed exercises to help bulk up your anterior deltoids. Part Two covered the other two heads of the deltoid muscle as well as your trapezius muscles. Now in Part Three, it’s on to your upper back.
When most people think of getting a huge upper body, they tend to forget that your upper back is just as important as your chest and front deltoids! After all, we don’t have a four times bigger chest than we do back, do we? So why would you work it four times as much as your upper back? Don’t neglect your upper back or you may be really hindering your results in the gym. That, and you may be holding yourself back from building some serious size and thickness that can really help you fill out better.
Rhomboids
Your rhomboids are located just between your two shoulder blades. These can become overstretched and lengthened as a result of excessive bench pressing. I would go out on a limb and say that upwards of 85 percent of general gym rats have longer than normal rhomboids as a result of an improper ratio of pushing to pulling exercises due to far more bench pressing than upper back work.
What I mean by that is most people bench press so often that their chest muscles become so tight that they actually can pull on the shoulders and pull them forward (because they are attached to the shoulder girdle). Thus, once it becomes rounded forward that means your back muscles get lengthened. Not only can this cause a ton of shoulder health problems (mainly rotator cuff) and imbalances, but it can also stop you from gaining serious size in your upper back.
Key Exercises:
The first exercise I would recommend for building size and strength in your rhomboids is the bent over row. The main reason is because it enables you to be able to use more weight, and thus create more tension on your rhomboid muscles. In a very general sense, they are a great mass gainer for your entire back (including lower back). I am sure most of you have seen this exercise before. You use a barbell and you bend over at about a 45 degree angle. You then begin rowing the bar up to just below your chest, touching your chest roughly around the same place you touch the bar on a bench press.
You may tweak this exercise in terms of exact back angle and where you pull the bar to (area on your body) in order to see where you feel it the most in your rhomboids. A little bit of swaying is ok. However, anything more than 2-4 inches is not going to be beneficial to you. Rocking will take the tension off your rhomboids and place more tension on your low back. This is an exercise you use the standard set/rep scheme of 3 sets of 8-10 reps.
2. Seated Row
This exercise is done on a fly machine using the v attachment. You may need to pull up a bench to where the machine is if it is an older fly machine. You position your feet pretty far in front of you and make sure you are sitting completely upright. You are even going to want to puff your chest out as far as possible to really ensure you are tight and everything is set right. You then simply pull the bar into your chest, making sure to pull your elbows back, not flaring out to the side. A tremendous way to finish off each set is to hold the last rep at your chest for 5-10 seconds. It can create a huge pump and be a great finisher for you.
3. Chin-Ups (palms facing you)
This is an exercise that may not come to your head right away when you think of getting huge rhomboids. However, it can really make your rhomboids really serve in a big stabilization role during this exercise. Once you are at the top of the chin up, you will know exactly why I recommend this for building up your rhomboids. They are engaged to the max throughout this exercise! Of course, they still are once you do regular pull-ups, but in order to target the rhomboids, I recommend close grip chin-ups.
Weighted chin-ups can also be a great way to overload your rhomboids. I always recommend switching between the normal set/rep range (3x8), 1 set to max, and weighted chin-ups. This ensures you cover all of your bases and confuse your muscles as much as possible. You never want to get used to the same sets and reps over and over.
4. Lying Rows
This one may or may not be possible for a lot of you that exercise in commercial gyms. This one is for those of you that either have really cool gym offers or work out at maybe a crossfit, weightlifting club, or at home at your own gym. First you are going to put a couple boxes underneath both ends of your bench (elevating the bench at least 1-2 feet). Then, you put a barbell underneath the bench. You lie facing DOWN on the bench and pull the bar as explosively as possible into the bench. Obviously if you just have the bar you will not want to rattle it that hard off the bench. However, that will be the goal once you actually get a load on the bar.
I recommend 5 sets of 5 reps on this exercise, as they are meant to be done as explosively as possible! A ton of Chinese weightlifters use this exercise to build huge rhomboids and overload their upper back. You may substitute dumbbells in here if you need to, in which case I would recommend a hammer hand position (both palms facing IN towards each other). However, I would first recommend using a barbell, as the hand position is optimal and the load can be greater.
5. Power Cleans (or Hang Cleans)
I put this recommendation last because it is more advanced and also highly dependent on your knowledge of the exercise, as well as the facilities and equipment you have access to. I am not going to go into HOW to do this exercise as it can take somebody years to coach a PERFECT power clean technique. However, I just wanted to recommend it for those of you that are familiar with it. The explosive nature of this lift, as well as the load being used are two tremendous benefits in helping build up your rhomboids. Most people stick in the 1-3 rep range when performing power cleans. Hang cleans can also promote tremendous growth because of the big eccentric loading that occurs when you lower it down (on higher rep sets).
Summary
You should really try to focus on working your back as much as you are working your bench press and chest! It should be a 50/50 split within your training regimen. That means for every set of chest exercises you do, you should do a set of upper back exercises! I bet if you added up the total sets you do each week for both, it will be about a 75/25 split of your front side compared to your back side. Adding in these exercises can be a great way to get you back on the right track in building a balanced, and huge, upper body. Your shoulder health will improve greatly (without any part of your shoulder receiving a greater amount of stress or load), and you will also start to see more linear gains in terms of your hypertrophy gains. Rows are the key to rhomboid growth!
David Spitz – David is the founder of California Strength Academy in San Ramon. This former high school football player was also a USA Junior National Team thrower in track and field. He is currently working towards his CSCS certification. Clients he has recently trained include Chris Cooper (just resigned with the Oakland Raiders), TJ Ward (second round 2009 / 2010 NFL Draft pick) and Cameron Colvin (former Oregon Ducks and San Francisco 49ers player).