Comments on: How to use your back during back exercises.

By: roy

roy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 00:57:16 +0000

Thank you very much for this information.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:50:29 +0000

I really like your suggestion re concentrating on pulling the elbows behind you.

Also – one thing i found made a difference was wrapping your thumbs around the bar puts more tension on the forearms, its much better to hook the thumbs over the bar

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:51:34 +0000

Nelya: What I’ve recently read somewhere about the chest is try to keep your shoulder blades squeezed together so that your shoulders are as far back as they can go. Then keep them in that position through the whole press until you can’t extend any further. This seems to give the pecks the largest range of motion.

And of course, just imagine pushing from your elbows like the advice about the back exercise. Imagine pushing away from the bar.

By: Nelya

Nelya — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:39:08 +0000

Wow, this is a good advice. Usually I feel my biceps a little bit more than my back. Thanks for the advice. Can you give advice for the chest. That one seems a little hard for me too. Thanks.

By: aCalorieCounter

aCalorieCounter — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:32:45 +0000

JB: Good advice. And, about your second tip, I was almost going to add something about “shrug backs” to this post, as they are a really good way of teaching yourself what muscles should be used during rows.

Julian/Paul/Kevin/Hitesh: Awesome. Glad you hear it helped.

By: hitesh sahni

hitesh sahni — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:03:27 +0000

Oh my god! And I was thinking that these workouts are meant for the biceps and shoulders. How dumb of me ?

Thanks for the article. Now I know that these are back exercises and I am doing them wrong.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:23:34 +0000

Thanks a bunch for this advice. I’ve only recently started working out 4 months ago and I have yet to really feel that burn in my back muscles. And just by sitting here trying it out on my chair, I can’t wait for back and bi’s day.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:51:20 +0000

Im really impressed with all your advice im a newcomer to weight training thankyou very much for your news letters with all the tips thankyou once again Paul

By: Julian

Julian — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:42:48 +0000

wow, i never really looked at it that way. as i was reading this i was doing the motions of how i would normally do it and the following steps occurred. my hands tighten up, then biceps. vs how you mentioned it my back tightened up right up. thanks for the heads up!

By: JB

JB — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:08:59 +0000

A veteran lifter once told me to “pull through the little fingers” in order to take biceps out of the pulling. It works. The tendons connected to the thumb and forefinger group activate more bicep during pulls. Concentrating on the pinky and ring fingers while performing bent over rows, pullups, etc., you can take some of the bicep out of the picture. Also helpful, focus on the shoulder blade movement at the start of the pull, “begin with the shrug.” Just my 2 cents.