STRONG BACK, STRONG PERSON (PART-2)

STRONG BACK, STRONG PERSON (PART 2)

By Shane Robert

You can’t cheat your way to a strong back. To get a back that looks and is strong takes a lot of heavy and hard training. Last week I outlined why a stronger back is important and shared my three favorite movements to accomplish that goal for the majority of the population. In case you didn’t read that article, or forgot about it, the movements are:

• 45-Degree Back Extensions
• Round Back Good Mornings with a safety bar or buffalo bar
• Farmer Walks 

Below I will discuss how to perform the movements, my preferred sets and reps, and how to plug them into a program. 

45-DEGREE BACK EXTENSIONS

This is one of the most versatile movements in the gym. It can be done at the beginning of a training session to warm up, loaded heavily as an accessory exercise, used for pre/rehab or as part of a recovery workout, and made to bias lumbar extension, hip extension, or both. 

Execution: this movement is simple, just step into the bench and bend forward slowly and under control. Come back to the top and stop when your body is in a straight line and NOT further into hyperextension. These are sometimes referred to as hyperextensions, something I try to move people away from as there is little to no benefit, and, indeed, negatives, to doing them in that manner.

• If the top of the bench is below your hip bones, it will bias the movement more toward hip extension and you will feel your glutes and hamstrings working overtime. Your lower back will be working in a static contraction, which is the state we usually want our backs to be in when lifting. On the other hand, if you go to as far a range of motion as possible at the bottom, your lower back will release and round slightly before contracting and returning to the static position on the concentric portion.

• If the top of the bench is above the hip bones, it will bias the movement much more to the lumbars with the glutes and hams working as assistance muscles. This position is very targeted and you will feel a massive pump in the lower back after only a few reps. It can cause a lot of soreness that, for some lifters, is very uncomfortable.

• You can load the movement in 4 different ways:

1. Weight held in front at the chest
2. Weight behind the head/on the back
3. Barbell on the floor (aka “hyperdeads”)
4. With a band

• Having a weight on your back is hardest;  a band will overload the top of the ROM; floor loaded, or hyperdeads, will allow for the heaviest loads, though the ROM is much less and the majority of contraction will be glutes and hamstrings.

For a warmup, 2-5 sets of 15-20 with escalating weight is pretty common. Old time lifters would often pair this with ab work like sit ups and/or leg lifts for a total “middle” warmup. 

For heavy assistance work, the reps can range wildly from as low as 3 to as high as 25, and generally come after squats or deadlifts. In many of my programs, this will be a third exercise after the main lift and first accessory.

For pre/rehab and recovery exercise, the reps might creep up as high as 75+ and are done at the end of a hard deadlift session or on off days to drive a lot of blood into the area.

ROUND BACK GOOD MORNINGS 

There was a time when this movement was prescribed to every new lifter buying a barbell. They were simply called good mornings then, leaving out the round back part, but the exercise was performed with a rounded back regardless. We have the qualifier now due to the many other variations of good mornings. Bill Starr dad-jokingly called these “tomorrow mornings” for the way they make you feel the day after doing them.

As mentioned in the previous article I prefer them with a cambered/buffalo bar or safety squat bar for comfort and added difficulty. A normal bar can of course work if that’s all you have, but adding a towel underneath the bar helps minimize the bar rolling.

Execution: put the bar on your traps in a “high bar squat” position. Keep a slight bend in your knees, push your hips back in a “bowing” motion, and bend forward. Once your chest is slightly above parallel, let your back round and keep bending down as far as you can. I like to cue “try” to touch your face to your knees.” Don’t let your hips drop down any lower than they started at any point in the performance of the reps. 

These can be done for as low as 3 reps and as high as 20, however my preferred rep range is 5-8. I think round back good mornings feel out of favor because people let their egos take over and loaded far, far too heavy. Bill Starr recommended his lifter work up to being able to 50% of their best squat for a single set of 8 reps. That means a 400 pound squatter would only be expected to eventually be able to use 200 pounds. Starr also capped the total weight used at 100kg (220 pounds), electing to perform up to 5 sets with that load rather than increase the weight. I don’t necessarily agree that 220 pounds is the most that should be used, however anyone who can perform 5x8 deep round back good mornings probably doesn’t have much to worry about in regards to their back strength. 

I find good mornings to be so exhausting that they are almost always the last exercise of the day, or at least the last barbell/compound exercise. Maybe some easy isolation stuff afterward, but in my experience, people end up skipping that due to fatigue. They are typically placed on days with squats or deadlifts, but can be done on upper body days for lifters that need extra work, so long as the volume and load is kept sane. 

FARMER WALKS

Farmer walks are probably the most straightforward of all the movements in this list. Ideally you will have access to loadable farmer handles or a trap bar to do this. Of course, kettlebells or dumbbells will work in the beginning, though they are kind of annoying because they hit your legs and most gyms don’t have as heavy bells as you could load with weight plates. 

Execution: Bend down, grip hard and pick the weights up with the same form you conventional deadlift with and start walking. Keep your chest high and shoulders back while engaging your core through the whole time you are walking. Your grip is the biggest limiting factor on these so don’t be afraid to use straps sometimes so you can really load up the weight.  

You will notice quite a bit of a cardio hit from these and the first place you will feel them is in your upper back/traps. This will follow by a weird pump in your lats that makes them feel huge. I rarely notice much in my lower back until later in the day, when it feels very tired and a little tight. Though it seems like your lower back isn’t contributing much, it is contracted in a static position throughout the movement that requires your back to resist forces that want to pull you to the side and bend you over with each step you take. This is also why your abs get such a good workout from farmers.   

I’m of the opinion that you can add carries to pretty much any day. I like to have one day that is lighter and longer and another that is heavier and shorter. I think of each 10 meters as 1 “rep” and will do 80-100 meters per set on the light day. On the heavy day I will do 40-50 meters per set on the heavy day. The sets will vary from 2-6, usually falling around 3. Pick your weight for each day so that you don’t drop the weight at any point in the walk. If you’re using straps, go as heavy as you can without letting your upper back get rounded by the end of the walk.

The lower back is critical to strength and overall good health. Every program should include at least one specific exercise for this area of the body and, ideally, more than one. The three listed are far from the only options and you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with others. Just remember, there is no such thing as your back being too strong.