back thickness

[Ant Mitchell]

I've been focusing a lot lately on horizonal rows thinking that would help thicken my back, and it has, however mainly the outside lats, just below the shoulder. I was wondering what should I be doing to thicken the middle back, and also widen lower lats? Thanks

[Kane]

Barbell Rows, and Deadlifts seem to do the job for me.

[Darkhorse]

I agree..Deadlifts, rack deadlifts, barbell (js) rows are all that needs to be done. Your lower lats will appear more and more as your bodyfat level drops.

[Darkhorse]

If you are looking for a "muscle-mag" answer, this would be the one:

Back-
1.Upper- Pull-ups (wide grip, behind the neck), machine pull-downs, machine pull-overs (or straight arm pull-overs with bar)
2.Lower- Close grip pull-downs, reverse grip pull-ups, close grip cable rows.
3.Middle- Bent-over barbell rows, wide grip cable rows, dumbbell rows (one or both hands at once).
4.Lower- Deadlifts (straight leg or not), hyperextentions.
5.Traps- Barbell shrugs, dumbbell shrugs, upright rows, deadlifts.

This was taken from the Arnold S. encyclopedia. His views reflect the steroid age of bodybuilding...Prefatigue sets, tri-sets, high volume. Some people do respond to high volume..A very few...But for the vast majority, it doesn't.

If you really want a bigger back, you need to increase the frequency well beyond the traditional "I blast my muscle once every seven days" .. If you were to work your back hard 2-3 times a week, you'd be amazed.

To summarize, if you do 1-2 muscles per day with a once a week frequency, you'll "benefit" from 52 growth cycles in a year. But, if you work your muscles twice a week, you'll go through 104 growth cycles in a year...See where this is going? If science is applied to bodybuilding instead of muscle mags, the world would be an bigger place. Refer to the Hypertrophy-Specific Training thread for more...

[Darkhorse]

HST thread found here

2) Acute vs. Chronic Stimuli
In order for the loading to result in significant hypertrophy, the stimulus must be applied with sufficient frequency to create a new "environment", as opposed to seemingly random and acute assaults on the mechanical integrity of the tissue. The downside of taking a week of rest every time you load a muscle is that many of the acute responses to training like increased protein synthesis, prostaglandins, IGF-1 levels, and mRNA levels all return to normal in about 36 hours. So, you spend 2 days growing and half a week in a semi-anticatabolic state returning to normal (some people call this recovery), when research shows us that recovery can take place unabated even if a the muscle is loaded again in 48 hours. So true anabolism from loading only lasts 2 days at best once the load is removed. The rest of the time you are simply balancing nitrogen retention without adding to it.

[Ant Mitchell]

ok, thanks a lot.