Upper Back

[invictum]

Absolute best exercise to build those muscles in between the shoulder blades?

[foxmulders]

Seated cable rows / bent over barbel row reverse grip.

[kanis999]

Rear delt rows, face pulls, cable rows. Any row where youre pulling high vs towards your belly.

[invictum]

Rear delt rows, face pulls, cable rows. Any row where youre pulling high vs towards your belly.

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

This is my back/bi day (in order):
Incline shrugs, deads, Barbell rows, bicep curls/ hammers, cable rows, face pulls, chin ups, pull ups.

once a week

My aim is to keep strong all over but really focus on developing mass on my upper back and widen up my shoulders through rows.

Thoughts?

[machinegunjake]

Rows for sure. Incline prone shrugs if you want to add a little flare to your workouts haha. And if you want to gain mass and widen your shoulders, go for it, but don't just limit yourself to rows for shoulders. Variations of raises (front, side, rear) and face pulls will help thicken the delt muscles.

[invictum]

Rows for sure. Incline prone shrugs if you want to add a little flare to your workouts haha. And if you want to gain mass and widen your shoulders, go for it, but don't just limit yourself to rows for shoulders. Variations of raises (front, side, rear) and face pulls will help thicken the delt muscles.

Well yeah cool. Incline shrugs are strategically included to properly warm up shoulders for deads & work on traps, or at least that's how I see it!

[ungeheur]

I'd recommend sending your bicep exercises to the end of your workout, only because you're going to wear out your arms before you finish up with back. Compounds first, isolation last.

[machinegunjake]

I'd recommend sending your bicep exercises to the end of your workout, only because you're going to wear out your arms before you finish up with back. Compounds first, isolation last.

I agree with this as well brah

[ungeheur]

Looking at it a second time, I realized that your workout is pretty high volume. I can handle quite a bit myself but I don't think i'd be able to do all of those back exercises, and then finish up with chin ups and then pull ups. Have you even tried it yet? Just seems unrealistic to me lol, even if it is just once a week.

[invictum]

Looking at it a second time, I realized that your workout is pretty high volume. I can handle quite a bit myself but I don't think i'd be able to do all of those back exercises, and then finish up with chin ups and then pull ups. Have you even tried it yet? Just seems unrealistic to me lol, even if it is just once a week.

Yes I have, that was my main worry. Probably in the long run I'll have to kill something. Today I had to drop the chin ups, couldn't do any in correct form.

But since I'm trying to get my calisthenics' game up too I committed myself to a daily chin ups, pull ups, push ups, dips routine on top of my 3 weightlifting days per week. So I guess those kinda make up for it, I hope.

[ungeheur]

Yes I have, that was my main worry. Probably in the long run I'll have to kill something. Today I had to drop the chin ups, couldn't do any in correct form.

But since I'm trying to get my calisthenics' game up too I committed myself to a daily chin ups, pull ups, push ups, dips routine on top of my 3 weightlifting days per week. So I guess those kinda make up for it, I hope.

I recommend doing body weight exercises first or second, because you're fresh and will be able to go all out and them. Pretty easy to gauge progress since you're only dealing with reps over reps and weight together. If you do more reps than the week before, you know you're progressing. Just a though.

[zildjian_4]

I'm shocked that rack pulls weren't mentioned. I'd say these built your lower traps(between your shoulder blades) more than anything.

[ungeheur]

I'm shocked that rack pulls weren't mentioned. I'd say these built your lower traps(between your shoulder blades) more than anything.

Can't believe I didn't mention, considering I started out my workout with them earlier today...

[invictum]

Can't believe I didn't mention, considering I started out my workout with them earlier today...

Well I go relatively heavy with deads (for me), I'm 75Kg and my deads are 4-6x160Kg, 6x150kg, 8x140kg (excluding warmups) - Rack Pulls, being pretty much the lockout phase of a Deadlift would it be wiser to focus on the exercises already mentioned rather than adding another lower back?

I just referred to the BB's exercise database for rack pulls, thus my reply!

[machinegunjake]

Well I go relatively heavy with deads (for me), I'm 75Kg and my deads are 4-6x160Kg, 6x150kg, 8x140kg (excluding warmups) - Rack Pulls, being pretty much the lockout phase of a Deadlift would it be wiser to focus on the exercises already mentioned rather than adding another lower back?

I just referred to the BB's exercise database for rack pulls, thus my reply!

I alternate between deads and rack-pulls. I did DL last week, so today I did rack-pulls, next week back to DL. Then I hit BB rows, DB rows (targeting lats) hammer strength rows, lat pull downs, then 6 sets for for biceps.