The Foundation of a Gladiator: Part 1 The Back

[charlievanriper]

A Gladiators tools are not just the Arms that crush, that hold his weapons or the shield that protects him, the logs he calls Legs which give him Power and Balance. No the Greatest asset to a Warrior is the Back, this is where it all begins; this is the starting point of the basic strength that makes a Man a Man!
Before I start let me get your attention; where are you today with your Back Development?
Do you have the crushing Strength of an overhead Sword Slice?
Do you have the Power to Grab an opponent and Throw them to the ground?
Do you have the Strength, Stamina of a Greek or Spartan Warrior?
Well this type of strength come?s from your back that is the starting point. Without a strong developed Back you have no Strength, so I tell you this whether you bench 350, or Squat 405 without a Strong Back you are nothing and your lifts mean nothing. If you are reading this then you may have realized your back could not dwarf that of the little lady teaching Aerobics next door, you have taken the first step to making a change. Now join me and let me show you how to get those Wings you have been dreaming about!

When we approach the training of our Back we must find it essential to both understand the Function and Anatomy of the Major Muscles that make up the Back.
First a little Anatomy From the top your neck down You Have the Trapezius muscle or commonly called the Traps. This is a large muscle it takes up a good portion of your Back, it extends from the mid neck (occipital bone) out to the Scapula (the spine of scapula), and then down to the mid back at the 12th Thoracic vertebrae. Its Actions are Shrugging (scapula elevation) Pulling Back( scapula retraction) Pulling Down ( scapula depression ).Your Traps will be worked from many different movements and I will talk about Trap training more specifically in part 3 The Foundation of a Gladiator and in my future Shoulder Training Article. Remember the Traps are the direct counterpart of the Latissimus Dorsi which we will talk about soon.

Next in line are the 3 Muscles that lie beneath the Traps, These are the Teres Major, Infraspinatus, and Rhomboids. They provide your back with its thickness and are pretty much like the Lats in their functions. You will train them mostly like the Lats, to hit them specifically do movements with a partial bent position rather than fully bent; an example would be Standing Bent rows.

Now we come to the latissimus Dorsi or the Lats, this is the largest and most difficult to train muscle in your Back. No other muscle in your body has as much influence on other parts of your Anatomy as the Lats. Since it is connected to your Upper Arms ( at the Humerus ) and down at the Hips ( the Illiac Crest ) thru many different attachments to your Spine and Ribs, this muscle encompasses the greater portion of the back providing the sweeping wing like look of a Warrior. Functionally this is the only muscle connecting to both upper and lower body. Your lats are also the direct Antagonist to the Chest, its function is to Pull and Stretch and it provides Trunk Flexion. As you can see ( or should be able to see ) Getting the best out of your Lats will make a lasting improvement to your Performance in any Sport, as well as greatly improves appearance.

To train this muscle specifically it is best worked by pulling front to back as in rows. This will provide Thickness to the Lats, remember this the wider the grip will work the inner Back such as Barbell rows and Db Rows, the closer grip works the outer Lats such as Seated Rows and T-Bar Rows. Now to get Width the best exercises are done by pulling arallel to the plane of the Back, these movements will effect the lower and outer portions of the Lats, remember the wider the grip the higher up the muscle will be effected; such as Wide grip Pullups and Chin. I think you can see how difficult and compex this muscle is.

Next and last you have the smaller Spinal Erectors making up the Lower Back. These are the Longissimus, Spinalis, Iliocostalis they attach to the Vertabrea, ribs and pelvis to support and and extend the spine. They are trained with Rack Pulls, Deadlifts, Good mornings and Hyperxtensions. These muscles are a source of often major training injuries due to bad form and improper training.

If you want that solid hard looking Gladiators Back you cannot continue to just train the way you are training and ignore the fact you need to apply more Volume to your Back days. Most of you train your Chest more than you train your Back and I don?t know where you got the Idea that a smaller muscle group needs more training than a larger powerful group like the Back, but you do 12 sets for Chest and limit yourself to 8 sets for back that?s not enough no matter how much weight your using.

In Part 2
I will touch more on the how to train your back and on training Exercises

[charlievanriper]

Well I wanted to space out the paragraphs for you guys but I cant seem to get access to edit this one.

[mirandaspits]

good post op

[charlievanriper]

good post op

Thx, Well I guess thier is good reason to write part 2 after all!

[AnimalDJ185]

awesome post man! really great detail on it, looking forward to see the rest of your posts

[charlievanriper]

awesome post man! really great detail on it, looking forward to see the rest of your posts

Thx I appreciate your reading it, Had fun putting it together and writing it. Part 2 will be done soon, I have put a hold on things while redecorating and painting my Gym. ( doing it in Universa and Animal Colors Yellow with Black Trim so far it looks awesome.

[AnimalDJ185]

dude that sounds pretty awesome! it will definitely be a unique gym!

[charlievanriper]

dude that sounds pretty awesome! it will definitely be a unique gym!

Thx again AnimalDj

[Lowrie92]

Very good detailed article, I like how the first part was to the back, because most people neglect their back so much when it is so important. I train my back more than any other bodypart because I love training my back (and it's my best muscle.)

Good luck with painting your gym, and looking forward to part 2

[charlievanriper]

Very good detailed article, I like how the first part was to the back, because most people neglect their back so much when it is so important. I train my back more than any other bodypart because I love training my back (and it's my best muscle.)

Good luck with painting your gym, and looking forward to part 2

Thx Brother I ove Back Training also.

I posted a new thread with progress pic's of the gym here in over 35 called This is where the Az Oak Trains "THE WARRIORS DEN"
If you want to see how the colors are coming.

[scient13]

yeh...its true

[GymJupiter]

Where's part 2?

[charlievanriper]

Give me a couple weeks, I got back my critique from a top magazine editor and she gave me some tips and advice, so I'm going to rewrite part 1 and then rewrite my draft of part 2 and hopefully I will be able to complete the whole thing in 2 parts then I can move on to another major Bodypart. This will be a series of articles based on my Training concepts and protocal and the way I train my own bodyparts. I have decided to include links to Exercise Video's and more. I have a mental Concept of what I want to accomplish I just need to put it down in writing.

[Efilon]

Nice writing So true.

[hema456]

thank you