Maturing in the gym is realising that back days are just as superior as leg days. You seriously can’t make that up. At the beginning of my fitness journey, back and shoulder days were the highlight of my training week. I think it was due to the fact that training your back is so complex than training any other body part. It’s very hard to train a muscle group that you can’t see. For me that was a good enough reason to keep pushing myself with various pull movements like pull ups, dumbbell row, pendlay rows etc. In short, I learnt how to simplify the complexities of back training by understanding functional movement patterns.
When I am passionate about something, I like to learn and study everything that comes with it. From what we do in the gym to what we eat and how that influence our bodies. I enjoy finding new ways to constantly improve myself and to share that knowledge with other people. In addition, I work in scientific publishing for my 9-5 specifically with journals that share research in exercise physiology and sports nutrition. Consistently, I surround myself with materials that help me learn more about my passions.
What Are the Functional Movement Patterns
There are seven functional movements that your body performs on a daily basis in everyday activities. You may not even realise the connection between picking up a box to deadlifting. It mimics the action of a hip hinge movement. Altogether, these movements target all the muscle groups and optimises your body to perform and function at its best. Everything that you do in the gym mimics the same movement patterns that you do outside of the gym. Once you start to change the way you view exercises in the gym to movement patterns, you can start building a solid workout programme tailored to your goals.
Check out Pinterest Functional Movement Series
Firstly to understand how to train your back muscles efficiently, you need to know what muscles are there and how they function. Your back is made up of two main parts: your lats (Latissimi Dorsi) and your mid-back. Furthermore, your mid-back is composed of three parts: your traps (Trapezius), the Rhomboids and the Teres Major.
The function of your lats is to extend, abduct and stabilise your back while internally rotate the shoulders. In simple terms, it pulls the arm down, back and keeps your elbow close to the body. Your traps shrug and pull your shoulder blades down. The Teres Major brings your arms towards your back similar to rowing exercises. At last, your rhomboids share a common function with your traps as they bring the shoulder blades together.
With this simple overview, you now know all the muscles that are affected while training your back. Fortunately, you can tailor your workouts to target each muscle and develop your back more efficiently. Before you start choosing the exercises, let’s break down the pull movement a bit further.
What is the Pull Movement
The pull movement is one of the most effective ways to building upper body strength. For example, when you pull something towards you or pull yourself towards something, that counts as a pull movement. The pull movement can be broken down into two parts: vertical pulling and horizontal pulling.
The Vertical Pull
Vertical pulling targets the upper and central muscles fibres in your back. As a result, this encourages the development of your lats. Moreover, using the vertical pull, also activates and targets the rhomboids and traps. In addition if you want to hit the biceps more with this type of pulling, all you need to do is change your grip so that your palms are facing you. The type of exercises that you can do for this particular pull include pull ups, lat pulldowns, one arm cable pulldowns etc.
The Horizontal Pull
Horizontal pulling targets the central and lower muscle fibres in your back. As a result, this encourages the development of your rear delts, rhomboids, teres major. Simultaneously, using the horizontal pull, also activates and targets the biceps and lower traps. Not only is the horizontal pull critical for the development of these muscles, but also supports compound lifts like squats and deadlifts. The type of exercises that you can do for this particular pull include pendlay rows, dumbbell rows, chest supported rows, single arm cable rows etc.
I hope that you are seeing a pattern between the two types of pulls. Any exercise that has something to do with pulling is a vertical pull. Any exercise that has something to do with rowing is a horizontal pull.
Grips and Handles
As I mentioned earlier, depending on the grip that you choose you can change what muscles are targeted. There are three grip options when it comes to targeting specific muscle groups and yielding different results.
- Pronation grip: The back of your hands are facing you and your arms are slightly wider the shoulder width apart. This emphasises your lats and traps more.
- Supination grip: The palms of your hands are facing you and your arms are slightly narrower. This emphasises your traps, rhomboids and accentuates the biceps.
- Neutral grip: The palms of your hands are facing each other and this variation allows you to train your back from a different angle. This emphasises the same muscles as the pronation grip.
In the next instalment of this series, I’ll show you how to progress in the pull movement using the two different types.
I hope that this post has provided you with the basics of the pull movement. I also hope that it has given you the confidence to efficiently continue building strength and muscle over time. Make sure to hit that subscribe button to join the community and never miss out on a post. Find me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more powerlifting and wellness content.
Until next time,
Folakemi
