A question I’ve been asked fairly frequently recently 👇
‘I’m a woman and I really want to train my back! How can I target & build muscle there?’
I ❤️ that ladies, are shifting their focus to building muscle & get strong! It’s a refreshing change from when I was younger (when women were encouraged to JUST to burn calories or shrink themselves).
Here are 5 things to remember, if you’re building your back!
1️⃣ EXERCISE SELECTION-
There are lots of exercises to choose from! You want to find a good balance between horizontal pulling movements (rows) & vertical pulling motions (pull-ups, chin-ups, Lat pull-down) so you can hit the various muscle groups that make up your back.
2️⃣ EQUIPMENT CHOICE
Another way to hit these muscles (mainly lats, rhomboids, lower traps and even getting in some cheeky reverse delt action) is by mixing up your grip. Think wider, overhand, underhand, neutral, narrow etc. Play around with different machines & hand positions to see which works best for you!
3️⃣ MIND MUSCLE CONNECTION
Mind muscle connection is a biggie. You need to imaging the muscle working; focus on the ‘squeeze’ or contraction, imagine the muscles extending & lengthening. You might need to do some extra warmup drills or activation to really wake them up!
4️⃣ VOLUME & RECOVERY
Everyone is different; our bodies will react to volume (how much we train a muscle) differently.
Your MEV (minimum effective volume) is the amount of training that actually grows your muscles: anything below this amount may only maintain them.
Your MRV (maximum recoverable volume) is the maximum amount of training your body can recover from. Going above it actually reduces your chance of building muscle!
5️⃣ REP RANGE
Final tip; Consider the exercise when deciding on the rep range. Some exercises require more energy or are more complex. You’ll find them more challenging, so you can’t perform as many with good form (Pull-ups are a good example). Others you’ll be able to lift heavier on but if you were to try to do LOADS of reps you’d die. Then you have smaller accessory movements where you can SEND IT with little risk! To build muscle, ideally you need to be within a hypertrophy rep range of 8-15, avoiding going to failure & with good range of motion.
There are 1000000 ways to target your back; ultimately it comes down to personal preference, your bodies ability, what you have access to & if you have any previous injuries.
My favourite 5️⃣ exercises for training the back-
1️⃣ Pull-ups/Chin-ups
2️⃣ Rows (my favs are single arm, chest supported & pendlay)
3️⃣ Inverted Rows
4️⃣ Cable Face Pulls
5️⃣ Lat Pulldowns
I would suggest having a play around with equipment, handles & seeing what works best for you!
Remember; good form > everything.
I’d also suggest looking into a proper training programme OR pulling together exercises in a routine so you have a plan of action in the gym!
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