Train Like an Athlete by ATHLEAN-X (Video Podcast)

If you have tried to build a muscular back but it just doesn’t seem to be responding, then you are going to want to watch this video. Here I’m going to show you how to get a bigger, wider back and to get all of the muscles in your back to stand at attention. The key is knowing how to activate each of these muscles fully and then develop them through the rest of your training.

As I did with the biceps and shoulders, I’m going to show you again how important the mind muscle connection is to developing the most muscularity as possible in any given muscle group. The back is no exception. In fact, because of all the muscles located in the back including the lats, traps, rhomboids, teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus, rear delts, erectors and more you will want to be sure you know how to activate them all.

The first thing to do is experience the feeling of an intense contraction in your back muscles. This can be accomplished by taking your elbows and tucking them as hard into your sides as possible. You should immediately feel the lats working if you do this properly. Now some people lacking a good mind muscle connection may not be able to feel this that much. There is no need for panic but you should be aware that you will need to work more on your ability to feel the contraction by doing this drill a few times every day.

The idea is to squeeze as hard as you can and see if you can develop a bit of discomfort in the muscle. If you contract but cannot feel any type of shortening discomfort or contraction then you likely are missing the mind muscle link that is helpful for brining out and developing maximum muscularity, size and performance.

Next, you want to not just tuck your elbows into your side but then drive them back behind your body. This will engage many more of the muscles of the back including the scapular muscles and traps. See once again if you develop any type of discomfort when doing this. The idea should be that even if you didn’t on the first one you will on this one since it intensifies the muscles participation.

Finally you want to try and include a rotation to the movement. Here you will pull one elbow back and around your body to really feel the squeeze. If you still can’t feel any strong contraction then you definitely want to focus on getting better at doing this by frequently performing these three activations multiple times per day and week.

To hammer this home however I have a complete back workout activator called the Size in 6 Minutes workout for back. By alternating a lat pulldown variation with the bodyweight y press exercise you will be able to hit every single muscle in your back. The key is not to speed through your repetitions but rather work hard to squeeze every one of them hard, even if it means holding the squeeze for 4-5 seconds each time.

Go from underhand pulldowns to y presses, back to overhand squeeze pulldowns, y presses and two final variations of the pull down. See if you can keep it up for 6 minutes straight. This is not easy but it is a great way to reinforce the contraction that you are able to engage through the bodyweight version of the sequence. Once this is improved and you are able to start applying it to all of the other exercises you do like rows, pullups, chinups, etc you will be amazed at how much more muscular your back will be.

For a complete step by step plan that shows you how to build a more muscular body from head to toe be sure to head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Start training like an athlete and overlook nothing in your training.

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