I walked into Gold’s Venice this morning intending to train legs. Ofer Samra however had a different idea. He said we had already done a big leg session and he wanted to show me a few ways of training back that I could take home with me. This sounded like a fair idea. Secretly I was kind of glad because our last leg training session was so difficult. I mean that in a good way because leg training should be intense. I just think Ofer is so scientific with his training methods that you end up going through a whole lot of pain, as I was about to find out in our back training session.
Ofer asked me what I felt I needed to work on in terms of my back. I initially said width but what I really meant was everything: lat width, lower lats, lat thickness, middle back thickness. Not that I have a terrible back but I’d like to have more development in all of those areas.
First off Ofer set up an incline bench. I have become accustomed to doing one arm rows on an incline bench ever since I injured my lower back. Today though we were doing rows with both arms simultaneously. Ofer instructed me to position myself high on the incline bench. Holding the dumbbells with the wrists tilted down in the direction of the pinkies (to minimise bicep involvement) I lifted back towards my hips. At the top I contracted my whole lats and tried to pull my elbows in. From the top I tried to roll my shoulders forward and curve my upper back so that the lats and not the biceps would take the load on the negative movement. I found the negative part of the movement very difficult to master. Ofer likened the motion to that of a steam train’s wheels turning. I could feel the searing pain from this exercise in a band running down to the lower lats. We completed four sets pyramiding the weight up in increments of ten pounds from thirty five pounds to sixty five pounds for the last set.
Dumb bell Row on Incline Bench – 4 sets of 15 – 20 reps
The second exercise was located in the far room and it was another row. To be exact it was a one arm Hammer machine row. I have this machine in my gym back home and I do these regularly. I usually use two arms at a time, stack on a lot of weight and bang out as many reps as possible while pulling with the lats. Ofer showed me a new way of doing this exercise which I think will be very valuable to me. To start off my grip was again with the wrist bent such that the pinky was down towards the floor and my hand was pushing firmly on the bottom of the machine’s hand grip. Just as with the first exercise this would stop the bicep from becoming overly involved. From a stretched position Ofer had me initiate the movement by pulling down at the shoulder with the lat and drawing the elbow behind the body. This way of pulling also meant more lat engagement and less bicep engagement. At the end of the pull I crunched down to the side I was pulling from and twisted backward a small amount to make sure I contracted the muscle all the way down to the lower portion of the lat. My sternum was up at this point. From there Ofer asked me to drop my sternum in and curve my thoracic spine bringing my shoulder forward before I brought my arm forward. This was just like before to be using the lat to perform the negative movement. I found this part very difficult but I think I will be able to grasp it in time. I brought the arm all the way forward for a complete stretch of the lat before starting the next rep. Because of the large stretch and contraction in this movement, this exercise works the lats all the way from the top to the bottom. I felt it all the way along the muscle. We completed three sets of fifteen reps starting with 60 pounds and finishing with 115 pounds.
One Arm Hammer Machine Row – 3 sets of 15 reps
I thought Ofer made a really good point that we are bodybuilding not lifting weights. That implies that we have to find ways to make the muscle went want to build do the work. As humans our bodies try to find the easy way to perform movements but as bodybuilders we have to go beyond that and make our muscles do the work. Because I was struggling to get the eccentric movement right I was only making my lats do half the work and getting half the benefit. “Imagine how much more your muscles would grow if you were getting a good contraction on the negative” said Ofer.
Thirdly Ofer brought me to the lat pull down for close grip pull downs. These were close grip pull downs like I had never done before. Usually I do a simple movement for close grip pull downs which is pretty much down to the chest and back up again using the lats. Ofer started by showing me how to grip the handle with my wrists bent into flexion. He said this way the bone structure would take most of the pressure rather than the bicep and forearm muscles and therefore I would be able to use my lats to pull with. To initiate the movement from a stretched position with my sternum up I had to pull my shoulder blades down to engage the lats. Next I would pull the handle down and as I got closer to my chest I would round my upper back and crunch the lats down. From that flexed position I would bring my shoulders up first in a shrugging motion and try to keep my lats switched on and in control while raising the handle until I was again in a full stretch. This movement hits the whole lat including the front portion and the teres major muscle. A difficult movement to be sure, especially the eccentric portion. As I said to Ofer, it will take a lot of practice to master.
Close Grip Pull Downs – 3 sets of 10 – 15 reps
The last movement I think I was the most sure of in terms of my form. We set up an extra high flat bench with two twenty five pound plates under one end and a padded board on top. We placed an 85 pound barbell at the higher end of the bench and I laid on my stomach so that my chest was partly over the edge. Ofer then sat on my legs to counterbalance my weight. I grabbed the barbell tightly with a wide grip and I pulled it up to my chest, arching my back a little in the process. At the top of the movement I strongly contracted my mid to lower traps and my mid lats. I then lowered to get a full stretch in the back muscles and repeated. I tried to get the movement flowing to keep the tension on the back muscles at all times. After three sets of fifteen reps my mid and lower traps were swollen with blood.
Wide Grip Lying Barbell Rows – 3 sets of 15 reps
It was a pleasure working with Ofer while I have been training at Gold’s over the past month. His training methods are intense and precise. I always feel like I’ve had a good workout every time we work together. I think it will take me a while to perfect some of the exercises I learnt today but I can see that there is real value in what he showed me in terms of developing my physique.
