thank you Debbie!

Baby got back

The back can be thought of as vertical and horizontal planes. Back training should really be split into two workouts - one devoted to horizontal pulling (thickness based workout / rowing movements) and one devoted to vertical pulling (width based workout / pull ups).

The hit you get from heavy deadlifts on leg day will round out your back workout.

Horizontal Pulling

• Barbell Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• T-Bar Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• Rack Pulls (vary the pin height, usually set them set below the knee/mid shin area)

• Seated Cable Rows

Vertical Pulling

• Lat Pulldowns (various grips and widths)

• Pull Ups

• Chin Ups

• Pull overs (Nautilus, cable, bar)

Grip
Pick one and stick with it throughout the course of the program - then switch when you want to change exercises. This would be most consistent and you'll be able to tell whether you're progressing or not. If you take a bent BB row - you'll find that you can probably lift more weight with a supinated grip because the biceps are assisting the movement. So if you're switching back and forth between grips during each workout, or every other workout, then it may be difficult to gage progress.

Supinated grip means palms facing your body. Pronated means palms facing away from your body. Semi-supinated means palms facing each other. A pull-up uses a pronated grip, palms facing away from your body. Chin-ups use the other two grips.


TYPES OF DEADLIFTS

SLDL


SLDLs are decent for the hip extension function and therefore your lower back, but not so much for great upper back development, at least comparatively speaking.

Regular Deadlifts


Regular deadlifts are a 'hip dominant' exercise. They hit the whole posterior chain - from hamstrings up to traps. They are the king of back development.

Do them first in your back workout.

You can be pretty sure you're doing it right if you're getting war wounds on your shins. It's basically a sign that the bar is staying really close to your body, which is correct.

You keep your sets short for two reasons:

• 1. It is a complex movement and form tends to break down with higher reps.

• 2. It is a strength movement. Your goal is to get strong on this exercise.

Keep the reps under 5 with regular deads. You can go higher with stiffs.

There IS overlap between these two exercises. SLDLs obviously hit some back, and regular deads obviously hit some hams. But stiff leg deads will not do for your back what regular, off the floor deads will.

Rack Pulls
A rack pull is like a regular deadlift off pins.

Click here for rack pulls

Pulling from the floor is more difficult. The weight has more distance to travel, and uses more glutes and hams. If you pull from pins you can focus on your back, which is essentially what’s working on the upper portion of a deadlift, and because your ROM is shorter you should be able to lift a bit heavier. Vary the pin height, but not set to set or workout to workout. It's a matter of being able to gauge your progress. If you change things too frequently, you really can't tell, from a strength standpoint, if you're progressing or not. You might stick with something for four weeks, and then switch it up a bit.


BUILDING IT INTO A WORKOUT
You could pair the horizontal pulling workout with horizontal pushing (chest) and the vertical pulling with vertical pushing (shoulders) to ensure that volume around the joints is kept constant.

However, this assumes for the most part that muscle groups are being trained once per week. An upper/lower split or an undulating split (with increased frequency, where everything basically gets hit twice per week) is better for hypertrophy. The one thing you have to consider when doing this is that the volume per bodypart per workout is lower, but the weekly volume, since you're hitting the muscle more often, is still fair.

4 DAY SPLIT

DAY 1 - HORIZONTAL PUSH PULL
Horizontal plane back (pull)
Select from:

• Bent barbell rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• T-Bar Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• Rack Pulls (vary the pin height, usually set them set below the knee/mid shin area)

• Seated Cable Rows

• Dumbbell row

• Hammer Strength row

Horizontal plane chest (push)
Select from:

• Flat barbell press

• Dumbbell press

• Low incline press.

• Flat flyes

(Standing calves, short, heavy sets)

DAY 2 - QUAD DOMINANT LEGS
Go short and heavy on two quad dominant exercises and lighter with higher reps for one ham dominant exercise. (Here, hams are accessory, so they go lighter, with higher reps)

(bicep work)

DAY 3 - VERTICAL PUSH/PULL
Vertical plane back (pull)
Select from:

• Lat Pulldowns (various grips and widths)

• Pull Ups

• Chin Ups

• Pull overs (Nautilus, cable, bar)

Vertical plane shoulders (push)
Select from:

• Standing barbell press

• Dumbbell press

• Arnies

• Laterals, etc

(Seated calves, long sets)

DAY 4 – HIP/HAMSTRING DOMINANT LEGS
Opposite from day 2. Go short and heavy on 2 hip/ham dominant exercises and light with higher reps for one quad dominant exercise. (Here, quads are accessory, so they go lighter, with higher reps)

(Tricep work)

Pany, if this looks like something you might like to do, you might want to start incorporating some of these exercises into a regular style routine until you get use to them and feel comfortable with them. And then after a month or so of getting use to these exercises, plan a BGB work-out. For instance, since you are weight training 3 days a week, you could do:

Legs and Shoulders day #1
Back and Biceps day #2
Chest and Triceps day #3

Work with weight that you can get only 8-10 reps. For awhile 3 sets of 8-10 is good for learning. And use about 3 different exercises.

Day #1
Legs:
Squats 3 sets of 8-10 reps.
Leg press 3 sets of 8-10 reps.
Deadlifts 3 sets of 8-10 reps.

shoulders:
dumbbell overhead presses 3 sets 8-10 reps.
side laterals 3 sets 8-10 reps.
bent-over flyes 3 sets 8-10 reps.

Day #2
Back: Choose 3 exercises. One week do 2 from horizonal pulling 1 from vertical pulling and the next time you work back swap it. 2 from vertical 1 from horizonal.
Do 3 sets of 8-10 reps. each exercise you choose
Horizontal Pulling
Horizontal plane back (pull)
Select from:

Bent barbell rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• T-Bar Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• Rack Pulls (vary the pin height, usually set them set below the knee/mid shin area)

• Seated Cable Rows

• Dumbbell row

• Hammer Strength row

Vertical Pulling

• Lat Pulldowns (various grips and widths)

• Pull Ups

• Chin Ups

• Pull overs (Nautilus, cable, bar)

biceps:
alternating dumbbell curls: 3 sets 8-10 reps
incline curls: 3 sets 8-10 reps.
close grip pulldowns: 3 sets 8-10 reps. (make it work biceps and not back by not arching your back. Pull with biceps.

Day #3
Chest:
Flat bench press: 3 sets 8-10 reps.
Incline dumbbell press: 3 sets 8-10 reps
Flat flyes: 3 sets 8-10 reps.

Triceps:
high cable pushdowns: 3 sets 8-10 reps.
high cable overhead extensions: 3 sets 8-10 reps.
bench dips: 3 sets 8-10 reps.

You can work calves on back/shoulder day if you'd like, and Abs a couple of times a week. You could do them at home.

Again, this only suggestions. Do whatever you want with it. If you are happy with what you're doing now, that's fine.

Thank you so much Debbie. I will try to add some of those workouts into my session, then build on that.

Thank you so much!

Wednesday 5th October

25 minute walk from train station to work.

30 walk when I visited another site

20 minute walk at lunch time

AT THE GYM

5 minutes on the X-Trainer (I need to build this to 20 mins)
3 sets of 10 Leg Press
3 sets of 10 Leg Extensions
3 sets of 10 Chest Press
3 sets of 10 Rev Pulldowns
3 sets of 10 Shoulder Press
3 sets of 10 Rope Pull
3 set of 15 ab crunches
22 minutes run (2 minutes run, 2 minutes fast walk, 2 minutes run, 2 minutes fast walk, etc - I was watching The Simpsons and burnt 242 calories!!)
Stretching

25 minute walk home (why get the bus when I can walk and get more excercise!)

So about 75 minutes in the gym and 100 minutes walking.

Monday 14th November

20 minute walk from train station to work.

30 minute walk at lunch time

AT THE GYM

5 minutes on the X-Trainer (I need to build this to 20 mins)
3 sets of 10 Leg Press
3 sets of 10 Leg Extensions
3 sets of 10 Chest Press
3 sets of 10 Rev Pulldowns
3 sets of 10 Shoulder Press
3 sets of 10 Rope Pull
3 set of 15 ab crunches
5 minutes run (3 minutes run, 2 minutes fast walk, then I had to stop as my shins were hurting too much.
Stretching

25 minute walk home

So about 60 minutes in the gym and 75 minutes walking.

I agree with this post!

Thursday 17th November

20 minute walk from train station to work.

45 minute walk at lunch time

AT THE GYM

5 minutes on the X-Trainer (I need to build this to 20 mins)
3 sets of 10 Leg Press
3 sets of 10 Leg Extensions
3 sets of 10 Chest Press
3 sets of 10 Rev Pulldowns
3 sets of 10 Shoulder Press
3 sets of 10 Rope Pull
3 set of 15 ab crunches
5 minutes run
Stretching

25 minute walk home

So about 60 minutes in the gym and 90 minutes walking

Thank you Debbie my girl! (doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it!!)

No....not quite!

Friday 27th January

20 minute walk from train station to work.

60 minute walk at lunch time

AT THE GYM

5 minutes on the X-Trainer (I need to build this to 20 mins)
3 sets of 10 Leg Press
3 sets of 10 Leg Extensions
3 sets of 10 Chest Press (was very hard, I had to drop the weight twice)
3 sets of 10 Rev Pulldowns
3 sets of 10 Shoulder Press
3 sets of 10 Rope Pull
3 set of 15 ab crunches
5 minutes run (My shins were killing me!)

20 minute walk home

So about 60 minutes in the gym and 100 minutes walking

Well you wanna talk about a surprise!! I am surprised! Way to go Pany!!

And just for you.....

I hope it was a good suprise!!