Back Day
Back day has recently became my favorite day to work out. After watching the latest batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and seeing Bane (The Villain) with his enormous back it changed my perspective on lifting. When you start off lifting everybody just wants to get huge arms that make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Those arms are big right, but I would rather look a little something like this:
Most people tend to work out your Latissimus Dori a.k.a. your lats more than anything else. That is because your lats are the biggest muscles on your back. Yes, that will make your back bigger and give you that V look, but there are a couple other muscles that will make your entire upper back a lot stronger and give it a better look to it. I am going to start with every mans favorite back exercise, the Lat Pull downs. they look a little something like this:
Hit that machine and you will have a back like bane in no time. Working out your traps give you good size and make your neck look thicker. There aren't many exercises to working your traps out. The easiest way I have found is to simply take dumbbells at waist side, lower your head, and raise your shoulders to ear height and lower them. The other muscle you should focus on working out is your rhomboid. that is the muscle between your shoulders which gives you a nice crease and defines your back more rather than just size. The workout for this is very simple, like the lat pull down picture you see above, you do the same thing but use a narrower bar about 4 inches apart with the handles parallel. You do all the same motion as the picture above your hands are just closer. Doing these three workouts will allow your upper back to increase in both strength and size.
Murphy, Myatt. "Back Exercises." Men's Health Magazine : Men's Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, Nutrition, Sex, Style and Guy Wisdom. Rodale Inc, 28 July 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2013. <http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/back-exercises>
This was a fun, interesting post. But I didn't see a clear picture of a back on the "Back" post! So maybe modify the images some? And don't forget, also, to give a credit line at the bottom of each image used, just like you'd cite a quote.
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