Back and chest workout

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Today we did back and chest. If you remember in my previous post when i talked about the one vs twice a week split lifting i posted how Monday was a chest focus( we did chest day sunday this week) with light back. Well today was our back with light chest. However, we decided to switch it up. Muscle confusion is one of our 10 commandments of lifting. We started with a chest exercise and then back and so on.

 We did a three lift circuit with the decline, incline and flat bench. One round to 15 reps with 135lbs. One after the other starting with decline to incline finishing with flat. Then we went up 185lbs on decline and flat, incline was 155lbs. each a set of 5 reps totaling 15 that round. Last round we upped the weight to 225lbs on decline and flat and 185lbs on incline. We didn't take any breaks other than taking weight off and on. At the end the 225 and 185 felt so heavy!

Next we went over to the pull up bar and did a marathon. We do ours a tad differently than a conventional marathon. 10 x 10 no rests. we focus on explosion and speed with these to really blast our upper body. Still maintaining a nice lateral squeeze though.

From there we went over and did 6 sets of dumbbell incline press. We stayed at 15 reps each set with these to get a really good pump and a break from that heavy set of chest in the bench workouts.

Then we did dumbbell lat pulls.We worked up to 65lbs and stayed there and did 5 sets of 15 reps.

Really great workout to isolate and blast your Lats. Notice in the top picture on the neutral form: shoulders are even, and back is in a natural curve. On the way up though the right shoulder slightly raises. Too many times i see people doing this lift and keeping their shoulders in the neutral position. That is incorrect form because you are targeting more of your bicep rather than your back. When you slightly raised the shoulder you can really squeeze into your Lat.

From here we went over and did 4 sets on the "Pec deck" or the pectoral fly machine. I like doing this towards the end of our workouts because, when doing this the right way, you can target most of the pectoral muscle, or chest.

If you are one of those people who grab the bars and just do the motions then read carefully! Nice slow movements. There is no need to rush through this workout. Yes i guess you can do them fast and get a pump but you are only exhausting yourself out. In the picture here notice how the back is up against that pad completely. Also his posture is upright, instilling that his chest is protruding, enabling him on flexing to target the chest fully. A pause of one second is recommended here.

After this we went over to the Lateral row machine. Another of our favorite go to workouts for back. I have always loved this machine, but recently i fell for it all over. I noticed when doing some of my back workouts i would hunch over when preforming the lift. Simple solution was to just stick my chest out. You really feel it on this lift.

A little trick you can try to insure maximum Lat targeting is, before you pull the weight close to you, pull your shoulders back, or try and make your shoulder blades touch. This will ensure you use most of your back for the lift. Then make sure you stick your chest upright and pull in the weight. Biceps are a secondary targeted muscle with is fine. Also when pulling the weight, it is okay to lean back a bit, this will give you a better rage of motion.

Lastly we did 5 super sets of cable lateral pull downs and cable crossovers. We did decent weight to 12 reps nonstop.

Overall it was an amazing workout today! We did some different lifts like our bench triple set, but those are the things that will maximize growth. Here are pics of our backs after our workout. Progression for us and progression is what we love to see!

Look for our Auktane Athlete feature on a future blog highlighting one of our friends in the gym. His name is Roman who is a 4th degree black belt in Tang Su Doo. Active weight lifter and aspiring MMA contender. This guy is driven and is what being Auktane is all about.

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