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Quick Wits: Best Exercises for the Back (Lifting for Muscle Series) · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:00
  Philip Pape: If you want a stronger, more defined back, tune in today as I break down my top four favorite lifts for building a powerful back.
• 0:08
  Philip Pape: This is the first in a weekly series of quick quits that are devoted to my favorite lifts for each body part and muscle group.
• 0:16
  Philip Pape: Welcome to the Whits and Weights podcast.
• 0:21
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition.
• 0:32
  Philip Pape: We'll uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry, so you can look and feel your absolute best.
• 0:42
  Philip Pape: Let's dive right in.
• 0:44
  Philip Pape: Welcome back to another quick wits, the place where we get straight to the point about fitness.
• 0:53
  Philip Pape: Today we're zeroing in on the back, a crucial but often underappreciated part of our anatomy.
• 0:58
  Philip Pape: I'm starting here with a weekly drop of our quick wits episodes devoted to lifting.
• 1:05
  Philip Pape: I've had a lot of demand and requests for covering my favorite lifts and I thought I would sprinkle them by body part or muscle group once a week.
• 1:13
  Philip Pape: In between the other quick wits, I'm starting with the back because it's my personal favorite.
• 1:18
  Philip Pape: It's the part of my body that I'm most proud of and I think I have a slight genetic advantage compared to the rest of my body.
• 1:24
  Philip Pape: For whatever reason, I love to build the back and have some pretty good experience doing so.
• 1:30
  Philip Pape: I'm going to share my top four lifts for developing a strong, muscular back, targeting the key muscle groups like the lats, the latissimus dorsi, the lats, the trapezius, the traps which if you look on an anatomy chart, is much more than just the upper part of around your neck, which would be focused normally with shoulder type exercises.
• 1:51
  Philip Pape: We can also target the full of the trapezius across the middle back with back exercises.
• 1:57
  Philip Pape: The rhomboids that are kind of buried in there in the mid back, so to speak, and the erectors the erector spiny, we call them which are the rope like muscles that go along the spine, and these are important for supporting your spine.
• 2:11
  Philip Pape: This is where I like to say it's better to have a strong bad back than a weak bad back, and why something like dead lifts are going to be super helpful if you've had back issues.
• 2:22
  Philip Pape: So let's start there.
• 2:23
  Philip Pape: The dead lift it's not just a back exercise, it's a full body movement.
• 2:28
  Philip Pape: It's one of the kings of compound lifts, but the benefits for your back are undeniable.
• 2:34
  Philip Pape: Dead lifts engage the entire posterior chain, including the lower and upper back muscles, the erectors, because they are stabilizing the movement through an isometric contraction and lifting very heavy loads.
• 2:47
  Philip Pape: The trick, as always, is in the form keeping your back straight, neutral, engaging your lats there's the slightest extension in your lower back and, of course, driving into the ground through your heels over mid foot.
• 3:02
  Philip Pape: So I'm not going to get into all the form of all these lifts on these short episodes.
• 3:06
  Philip Pape: I just want to identify the ones that I think are the most important.
• 3:09
  Philip Pape: If you were to prioritize your lifts for the back, next up after dead lifts, dead lifts have to be in there.
• 3:16
  Philip Pape: Next up we have rows, and I'm talking about all the free weight variations of rows, whether it's barbell, barbells or dumbbells, but especially barbell rows.
• 3:25
  Philip Pape: Rows are fantastic for targeting the mid and upper back, particularly the rhomboids and the traps.
• 3:32
  Philip Pape: The key with rows are not only the back angle, and there are variations of rows, from almost 90 degrees to very upright, what we call yates rows.
• 3:44
  Philip Pape: There's a whole bunch of variations.
• 3:45
  Philip Pape: The key, though, is to pull back with your elbows, don't pull up with your hands and with your arms.
• 3:50
  Philip Pape: We really want to feel that squeeze in the back muscles.
• 3:53
  Philip Pape: So rows are number two.
• 3:55
  Philip Pape: Number three are going to be pull ups and chin ups, and I was arguing whether this should actually be number two because for a newer lifter, you don't really have to do rows.
• 4:04
  Philip Pape: You can just definitely include chin ups or pull ups in addition to your dead lifts.
• 4:08
  Philip Pape: This is a classic pull ups.
• 4:11
  Philip Pape: All you need is a bar.
• 4:12
  Philip Pape: They target your lats like no other exercise wide grip, narrow grip, weighted, neutral grip.
• 4:21
  Philip Pape: I include chin ups in there as well.
• 4:23
  Philip Pape: Chin ups are with your palms facing you.
• 4:26
  Philip Pape: Those are going to engage more of your biceps and a little bit less of your back.
• 4:29
  Philip Pape: But if you really want to hit the back, pull ups are the way it's going to get done and it's about really the form, about how will you do them.
• 4:36
  Philip Pape: You don't want to be kipping yourself up, you don't want to be using momentum, but nice and strict and really pull with the lats, not with the arms.
• 4:44
  Philip Pape: The last exercise for your back is going to be machine rows.
• 4:48
  Philip Pape: I've been very much into bodybuilding style training lately with my coach, andy Baker, and there are some really good machines, like T-bar rows, for example, that can help you focus on the contraction and the mind-muscle connection.
• 5:03
  Philip Pape: Really target those muscles, especially if you have a good feel for them, with the barbell rows, and then that can translate over to the rows, but also the seated rows OK, when you're on a bench and you're pulling with an attachment, or even lat pulldown.
• 5:19
  Philip Pape: So I'm kind of blending those all together and it gives you a ton of options for developing the back.
• 5:24
  Philip Pape: If you can combine two to four of these exercises in your routine on a regular basis, with the deadlifts being an absolute must or some variety of them, this will ensure a well-rounded back development.
• 5:38
  Philip Pape: And remember your back is the center of everything.
• 5:40
  Philip Pape: It's integral to almost every major lift and your daily movements, so don't neglect it.
• 5:46
  Philip Pape: That's it for our first in a series of lifting, quick wits.
• 5:51
  Philip Pape: Think of your back as the foundation of your body's temple strong, sturdy and capable.
• 5:56
  Philip Pape: And until next time, keep lifting and stay strong.
• 5:59
  Philip Pape: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits and Weights.
• 6:04
  Philip Pape: If you found value in today's episode and know someone else who's looking to level up their wits or weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them.
• 6:13
  Philip Pape: And make sure to hit the follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode.
• 6:19
  Philip Pape: Until then, stay strong.