4 MOVES TO INCREASE YOUR BACK THICKNESS

4 MOVES TO INCREASE YOUR BACK THICKNESS

Improve your spread for the V-taper body all bodybuilder's desire.

Nothing looks quite as absurd as massive, toned arms attached to a back with the thickness of a spider ape. Building an enormous, wide back is necessary to your overall aesthetic. Not only is a wide back imposing by itself, but it also makes your waist look smaller, increasing the ever essential V look all bodybuilders crave. On your next back session, try these 4 exercises and witness your back shield blow up.

V-HOOK PULL-UPS

Put the V-Grip attachment over the top of the pull-up bar, pull yourself up and touch your chest to the v-bar attachment. Concentrate on using your lats and upper back to pull yourself up. Keep these strict, no swinging. Do 5 sets to failure.

As you can see, when trying developing a wide back strict form and muscle intention are important. Add these exercises in on your back session and look at your spread grow.

ONE-ARM LAT PULL-DOWNS

These effectively isolate the lats, resulting in a serious increase in back width. Put the handle attachment on the lat pull-down stack. Grab it with one hand and fell a big stretch on the top. Pull it down so the handle is at shoulder level. One-arm lat pull-downs should also be done with the strictest of form, and muscle intention is key here. Feel the lats executing it. Do 5 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

STRAIGHT-ARM PUSH-DOWNS

The straight-arm push-down is one back exercise where the lats are almost completely isolated, there is very little bicep activation like most back exercises. I've found that Lat development actually blows up when these are incorporated. Use the straight bar attachment on the weight stack, keep the arms in a straight line and lower the bar to the thighs while angling forward at the top (emphasizing stretch). Do 5 sets of 15 reps.

WIDE-GRIP PULL-UPS

Wide grip pull-ups are absolutely essential to developing an impressively wide back. They are more lat intensive than their normal grip counterpart. To perform wide grip pull-ups grasp the pull-up bar wider than shoulder width, and make sure to come all the way down on each rep. Use muscle intention to really feel your lats doing the work. Pull yourself all the way up so that the pull-up bar is at around chest level. Do these strict (No cheating/body English/momentum).Once you can do 10 strict wide grip pull-ups, start adding weight. Do 5 sets to failure in this exercise.