Q: I was rereading Old Man, Young Muscle, and you prop up chest-supported dumbbell rows as a good back exercise. It’s not ideal, so do you still use it now that you have cables?
A: Keep in mind that when I wrote OMYM, all I had to train with was a 50-pound PowerBlock dumbbell set, an adjustable bench, and a doorway chinning bar (not for chins, by the way, as you’ll see).
That limited home gym forced me to improvise—a lot. Even so, the workouts outlined in that ebook did amazing things for my physique. I was stunned. And those workouts only took 35 minutes three days a week.
My back workouts consisted of three exercises: chin-bar back pulls, which simulated scapulae retractions with cables; one-arm chin-bar lat pulls, which simulated cable lat pull-ins; and incline dumbbell under-grip rows.
I included the rows, even though the resistance curve is backward, for two reasons…
1) Palms facing at the bottom provides a great stretch for the mid back.
2) Rotating to an undergrip at the top allowed me to drive my elbows inward for both mid-back and lat contraction.
That’s a two-for-one back attack, as you can see in the opening photo—although that’s not the under-grip version. The entire back complex is being taxed, albeit with some flaws.
Still, I continue to use it as an add-on move on Tuesday when I have a four-day recovery window (see OMYM for complete workouts and the muscle-group split).
I do not add it at my Saturday workout. Why? It’s fairly severe back stress, and I only have a three-day recovery window from Saturday to Tuesday…
For my lat stretch exercise on Tuesday, after cable lat pull-ins, I do an undergrip pulldown with separate cable handles, pulleys set all the way at the top and about shoulder-width.
That’s not full-lat stretch, but enough to elongate the muscle, get the stretch-growth effect, and still not damage the shoulder capsule. Gotta protect those shoulders or you’ll be sorry when you get older. I speak from my experience as a young gym dumbass.
New: Get the ideal exercise for each muscle, the best add-on moves for ultimate mass, complete 35-minute workouts, exercise start/finish photos, and details on building muscle fast and efficiently in Old Man, Young Muscle.
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Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman
Former Editor in Chief, Iron Man Magazine
www.X-Rep.com
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