Back Workout Weight Training Exercises

Back training is one of my favourite workouts and is a critical component to developing a strong muscular body.

Often times novices will not give their backs workouts the attention it needs because the back is not as visible as other muscle groups like the chest, arms, and legs. But you’ll find that as your back gets stronger, the rest of your body will get stronger as well.

A well developed back will provide a good base support for chest exercises like the bench presses and flyes. And it will also make you stronger with leg exercises such as squats and lunges.

In the video below I go over a complete back workout routine.



In this video I did…

Bent Over Barbell Rows
3 sets of 10 reps with 185 lbs.

V-Bar Pull Downs
3 sets of 10 reps with 165 lbs.

Hammer Strength Chest Supported Rows
3 sets of 10 reps with 3 plates per side.

Bodyweight Rows
3 sets of 10 reps

Hyper Extensions
3 sets of 10 reps with a 45 lbs. plate
+ 3 sets of 10 reps with bodyweight.

Mountain Bike Riding Pictures...

On Thursday it was a beautiful sunny day so I just had to get outside and go for a mountain bike ride. I love riding in the woods and through the trails, it is so much fun that it doesn't even feel like cardio. I can be gone for a couple hours at a time and it just flys by... where as if I did cardio in doors I'd be constantly watching the clock and counting down the minutes waiting for it to be over with.

Back Workout...

Today I trained back with a personal training client of mine. When possible I like to train with my clients. This helps them with their workouts because they can better see how to do the exercises while I’m training. And it works great for me because I get my workouts done and out of the way at the same time.

My workout consisted of…

A cardio warm up on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes.

Chest Supported T-Bar Rows:
3 sets of 6 reps with 4 plates

V-Bar Pull Downs:
3 sets of 6 reps with 200 lbs.

Face Pulls:
3 sets of 6 reps with 160 lbs.

Bodyweight Rows:
5 sets of 10 reps (50 total reps)

Note: all exercises are proceeded with 1-2 lighter warm up sets.

Chest and Shoulder Workout…

On Wednesday of this week I worked chest and shoulders using the bench press assistant workout from my bench press training tips newsletter at: http://www.blastyourbench.com/

The workout went like this…

Bradford Presses:
65 x 10 reps
85 x 10 reps
105 x 10 reps
85 x 20 reps
65 x 20 reps

Reverse Grip Smith Machine Bench Press:
135 x 6 reps
225 x 6 reps
275 x 6 reps
315 x 6 reps
315 x 6 reps

DB Bench Press:
65’s x 10 reps
85’s x 10 reps
100’s x 10 reps
100’s x 10 reps

Elbows Out Tricep Extensions:
30’s x 10
40’s x 10
40’s x 10

Push Ups:
100 total reps

super-setted with

Face Pulls:
100 lbs. x 100 total reps

This is a very effective routine for strengthening the muscles used when benching, without actually doing the bench press. In fact I know of several guys who have increased their max bench by 20+ lbs. within a month of following this routine.

Should you wear a weight lifting belt or not?

There was a recent study done where Dutch researchers found that there is no real benefit to wearing lumbar support. Wearing a weight lifting belt during your workouts will NOT help to prevent or treat back injuries. For the majority of the time you are better off just forgetting the weight lifting belt altogether.

The only exception would be when performing heavy low rep squats and deadlifts. With these exercises the belt will help with improving your exercise form. Because when you wear a belt and push your stomach out against the front of the belt this will create a more solid core base that will help you lift more and feel stronger when squatting and deadlifting.


The best weight lifting belts for providing core support are the powerlifting style belts that are the same width all the way around. Not the typcial bodybuilding belts that are thick in the back and thin in the front. The reason being that the support comes from expanding your stomach and pushing out against the belt. Not from excess padding in the back of the belt.

Cruisin Down The Highway…

Today was a beautiful sunny day. We haven’t had many nice days during the month of August, most of the time it has been just rain and fog. So myself and Patricia left work early, passed on going to the gym and went for a motorcycle ride instead... (we can make up the workout on a rainy day :-) It was a great ride and I had a blast. Hopefully the good weather holds up and we’ll be able to get in several more rides before summer is over.

Muscle Building Nutrition - Part 2

In part 1 of the Muscle Building Nutrition video presentation I covered proper nutrient intake of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and water. And the amounts of each that you should be consuming daily based on your individual needs and fitness goals.

In this second part I’m going to outline some practical ways that you can fit proper bodybuilding nutrition into your busy lifestyle with a complete meal-by-meal eating plan.



Note: you can watch the first part of the Muscle Building Nutrition video presentation at:

http://leehayward.blogspot.com/2008/07/muscle-building-nutrition-part-1.html