Poll: Which Back Exercises Do You Use And Why?

[Abaddon]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Lose the weight or work with assistance machines. Pull ups are an excellent exercise.

Yes sir.

[BigJosh]

I utilize deadlifts and rows primarily. When I am on more of a "bodybuilding" phase I also use a vertical pulling motion. Usually Rack chins or pull downs. To be honest, I am lacking in Vertical pulling strength and need to put more emphasis on them.
I use deadlifts because they are one of the best overall strength builders.
And Rows, primarily Barbell variation, becuase they are great for building a massive upper back.

On another note, I did deads last night. Afterwards I thought to myself, anyone who says deads aren't an upper back exercise, simply is ignorant.
(just a note, I realize they work the entire posterior chain)

[Fazc]

One very underutilised back exercise is a shrug variation. They're often called Scapula Shrugs and are restricted to rehab/prehab but the poundage potential is massive for an exercise like this, far more than what could be used in the equivalent Row.

Going by quite a few names, Rearward Shrugs, Scapula Shrugs or Kelso Shrugs (after Paul Kelso who popularised them). They are concentrated upper back work without the limitations of using the arms.

If interested Kelso has an entire book in which he gives some practical uses for a variety of different shrugs to help things like the Bench, Squat, Dead and olympic variations.

A video example of Kelso Shrug done on a Chest Supported Row machine:

[Disciple X]

Hey, now those look pretty sweet. May try these next week...

[Mr.Silverback]

Deads, Rows, and Lat machines are pretty common for someone my size...but when you see a CHUB as myself do PULLUPS...it reeks of AWESOMENESS!!! To me, Pullups are the hardest

[Pull14]

I use everything except the machines - free weight accomplishes more in respect to strength AND I no longer have access to machines. With respect to everything else, should have some variation in these lifts as it "eases" the mind and helps avoid staleness.

Everything except deadlifts are done fairly frequent. I do row more than pull ups as I've found once your able to get a bit of reps under your belt, less frequency (once a week) is perfect. Deads pushed hard are are just to hard to recover from and take away from my other lifts. I back squat 2x a week, front squat once and [squat] clean 3x a week and get A LOT of carry over to my deadlift -- the deadlift however has little carry over to everything else for me personally.

[kitarpyar]

Usually, Deadlifts once a week, barbell rows twice a week, pull ups thrice a week and cleans twice a week.

Working around an injured wrist though, I replaced all the barbell work with the equivalent DB work, and throw in seated rows, while skipping pull ups and cleans.

[jslep]

Deadlifts are king! Nuff said!

I did a 405x5x5 last night and every fiber of my back, shoulders, and traps were cryin uncle when i was finished.

[Soldier]

I find the dead lift thing interesting. I did my team challenge yesterday, dead lifting 170lb over 100 times, and today the only thing thats really sore are my lumbar spinae. My upper back is a little sore, but that's because I did pull ups and rows after that. The dead lifts seemed to hit nothing excpet my lower back, so I always wonder when people talk about deads hitting the whole back.

It just doesn't work that way for me.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Soldier

I find the dead lift thing interesting. I did my team challenge yesterday, dead lifting 170lb over 100 times, and today the only thing thats really sore are my lumbar spinae. My upper back is a little sore, but that's because I did pull ups and rows after that. The dead lifts seemed to hit nothing excpet my lower back, so I always wonder when people talk about deads hitting the whole back.

It just doesn't work that way for me.

I have a strong lower back. I have really noticeable lat DOMS the day after a quality deadlift session. It's not too different than squats...some folks get hammered in the quads, some in the hamstrings and some feel it in the lower back.

I have never had sore quads from squats yet my quads are very large.

I guess my only point is that the soreness from both of these lifts is very weakness dependent, and growth can be present even when DOMS is not. My lower back never gets sore, but my erectors look like pythons.