Lat pull down and other back moves?

[dana82]

I was wondering if someone could give me some good back moves? As of now I do...pushups, lat pulldown, cable row, one arm free weight pull (um yeah I just made up that name) anything else you can recommend? and I have a question on the lat pull down...I had never done these before I went away to Italy so when i was at the gym there the guy showed me how to do it...he told me to keep my arms pretty wide and pull down towards my chest...but when I see all the women doing it they do lat pull downs behind their heads. Is thre any which way I shoudl do it? I don't really have a braod back maybe liek a 32 but I dont' want one either!
Thanks!!!

[laura817]

Originally Posted by dana82

I was wondering if someone could give me some good back moves? As of now I do...pushups, lat pulldown, cable row, one arm free weight pull (um yeah I just made up that name) anything else you can recommend? and I have a question on the lat pull down...I had never done these before I went away to Italy so when i was at the gym there the guy showed me how to do it...he told me to keep my arms pretty wide and pull down towards my chest...but when I see all the women doing it they do lat pull downs behind their heads. Is thre any which way I shoudl do it? I don't really have a braod back maybe liek a 32 but I dont' want one either!
Thanks!!!

Some of the exercises that I have done to work my back are:

• Cable Seated Row
• Barbbell Bent-over Row
• Dumbbell Bent-over Row

Both the front cable pulldowns and the rear cable pulldowns works the Latissimus Dorsi (outer back or lats).

[ajarvis]

Personally I like the barbell, and dumbell bent over row, and pull ups

[dana82]

Now if I could do a pull up I would be a happy girl

[ajarvis]

I do assisted pullups for the moment, but am working my way towards unassisted :

[midgetcop]

The day I could finally do an unassisted chin-up was the greatest day of my life.

OK, maybe not, but it was pretty darn good. Buy yourself a bar from Walmart and put it up in the door frame to your bedroom. Just plug away at it a couple of times a day. One day you'll suprise yourself.

For my back, I like the lat pulldown and row machines. For some odd reason I don't like using free weights on the back. *shrug* They seem to do the trick though...my back seemed to develop faster than the arms.

[atherjen]

I LOVE training back!
barbell bent over rows are a staple in all my back workouts. defintly an awesome overall compound movement.
if your gym has HammerStrength machines, then iso lateral low row really hits your lats well.

[DaRkAnGel]

BB Bent Over Rows, BB Upright Rows, Power Pulls, yates row, and just about all the rows actually.

[AnnaD - TX]

Ok, how many different exercises should I do for the back in one day? Thats my problem, figuring out what I should do in a workout? Should I just do arms/shoulders one day. Chest/back another? And how many different exercises should I be doing for each body part?? These are questions I never really asked because I always thought I was doing well, but I haven't seen any progress so . . . I need some ideas! Also should I lift more weight if I know I can lift it??

[Amkey]

I love all the Hammer Strength machines but I really like the low row. Right now I am at 3 exercises per body part and at 3 sets of 12. I do the low row, lat pull down, and the Dorsi Flex machine.

[laura817]

AnnaD -- Personally for me, I do 4 sets of 3 different exercises for the bigger muscles such as the back, chest, and quads and 3 sets of 3 different exercises for the smaller ones. I like to keep one bigger muscle part with the smaller (such as chest/triceps) ones to save some time.

[atherjen]

Originally Posted by AnnaD - TX

Ok, how many different exercises should I do for the back in one day? Thats my problem, figuring out what I should do in a workout? Should I just do arms/shoulders one day. Chest/back another? And how many different exercises should I be doing for each body part?? These are questions I never really asked because I always thought I was doing well, but I haven't seen any progress so . . . I need some ideas! Also should I lift more weight if I know I can lift it??

YES, #1, if you can lift MORE weight, then dont hesitate to do so. thats how you progress! :
for larger muscle groups I do 3-4 exercises. if I do 3 exercises Ill so 4 sets, and 4 exercises, 3 sets. for smaller groups like bi's tri's Ill do either 3 exercises with 3 sets or 2 exercises with 4 sets. and defintly make sure that your varying the exercises that your doing each workout.
as for a split. Id do a larger group and smaller one.
ex: back/bi's, chest/tri's, shoulders/traps, legs

[laura817]

I also forget to mention whether you decide to do endurance training or strength training, make sure your workout is intense.

[midgetcop]

I suppose the amount of training you do per body part varies from person to person....but this is the way I've done it:

On average I do about 2 different types of workout for each body part. If there's a particular muscle that I'm fairly pleased with, I'll do 1. If there's a muscles that I'm *not* pleased with, I might push it to 3.

You have to make sure you're not over-training. Your body will tell you if you are. They say 'no pain no gain', but only to a certain extent.

Depending on the muscle/muscle group you are trying to hit, there is often more than one lift that will target different muscles in that area. The back is a good examples of this, so if doing more than one back exercise, try and pick lifts that target different areas of the back.

Hope that helps.

[MAURER]

first off, definitely move up the weights if you can. one thing i see with a lot of women is they do light weights and putting little into it. i want to yell to them... up that weight already!! also, i would say 2-3 excersizes per largemuscle, 1-2 for smaller. you really don't need much isolation work especially if you are a beginner/intermediate lifter. the compound exersizes is what is going to get your muscles bigger. if you just put maximum effort into these, you don't need to do much else. i would suggest possibly arranging your workouts around compound excersizes. for example, day 1: squat. day two: bench. day 3: deadlift. day 4: rows. just work around that. you probably only need to add 2 excersizes to the main ones each day to get great results. its not how many excersizes you do, its which excersizes you do and the quality of each rep. also make sure you are working through the complete range of motion unless you want to increase your max and you have a struggling point. good luck