You’ve hit the gym for your pull session, it’s packed, and all the machines you want are being used – not just by one person, but a pack of teenagers. You may think your back day is pretty much doomed, but fear not, Exercise Scientist Dr. Mike Isratel has shared how to build a massive back using just one piece of equipment – the squat rack. Head on over to it…
In a recent YouTube video, he takes Regan Grimes, a five-time winning IFBB Pro bodybuilder, through a brutal back workout with every exercise performed in the squat rack. That means less time waiting around for dumbbells and machines, and more time focusing on heavy, compound movements that build width and thickness through your lats, traps, and rear delts.
If you’re working in a squat rack you’ll also need – you guessed it – a barbell. Although, not for all the exercises. The workout consists of four exercises – a nice amount that you can get through in 45 minutes – if you just get your head down and crack on – and, they’re all multi-joint exercises, so they’ll hit your biggest back muscles to build size and strength. Here’s a breakdown of the workout:
- Pull-ups – 3 x 8-10 reps
- Inverted rows – 3 x 10-12
- Deficit barbell rows – 2 x 10-15
- Deficit deadlifts – 1 x 8-12
If you’ve looked at that and thought ‘I can’t do that’, there are adjustments you can make. Firstly, if you can’t do pull-ups, just do banded ones instead. Although, make sure you use a band that enables your last couple of reps to feel tough. Any deficit exercise is more challenging because it increases your range of motion so, if this is too much, we’d suggest swapping to regular rows and deadlifts.
“It’s going to your upper back, trap, mid back, and lower back all pumped at the same time,” says Dr. Isratel.
