Muscle rounds for back

[mikeland91]

Ok I know I'm proby really annoying people with such simple questions but I feel like I need to do everything as 100% as I can
My plan for MRs for back tomorrow is :

BB row
Racks chins
Tbar row
1 arm db row

Anyone think this my be to much on lower back and I would actually Benfit more if I was to swap tbars or 1 arm rows with a seated cable row
Being as this point in prep iv got then mind set 'more is better '

Honestly I'm highly overthinking everything it's really not fun
, getting anxious of something as little as excise selection !!

[Scott Stevenson]

Ok I know I'm proby really annoying people with such simple questions but I feel like I need to do everything as 100% as I can
My plan for MRs for back tomorrow is :

BB row
Racks chins
Tbar row
1 arm db row

Anyone think this my be to much on lower back and I would actually Benfit more if I was to swap tbars or 1 arm rows with a seated cable row
Being as this point in prep iv got then mind set 'more is better '

Honestly I'm highly overthinking everything it's really not fun
, getting anxious of something as little as excise selection !!

Simpleon't plan your MR's. Those exercises are supposed to be selected in an autoregulated ("intuitive") fashion.



-S

[Collabera]

Could you post a picture giving an example and showing me what you mean?
I have heard people say this before but I honestly have no idea what they mean.
Unless you mean lacking muscle in certain areas such as spinal erectors?

I thought about finding some pics but out of respect for the people I would be using pics of I chose not to. So I'll explain a little differently.

There are physiques that have missing pieces because so much of their training has been focused on the "important" muscles i.e. chest, side delts, biceps, quads, calves, lats. You can focus on these muscles pretty hard with machines but if you use free weights and you get heavy enough you're body will recruit the synergists and stabilizing muscles even more through increase neural output. Let's take the bench press versus a machine press.

Machine press (strict w/ contraction focus) - chest and minimal deltoid and triceps
Bench press (all out heavy) - chest, deltoids, triceps, serratus anterior, coracobriachialis, bicep (short head) and abdominal muscles.

The synergists muscles will still come into play during the machine press but if you're training the way most do with machines it's much less. There's so much stability in the machine that you don't have with a barbell.

So sometimes I see guys on stage with good chest development but have no front delt. How? Sometimes I see guys with great lats but no traps. What? Great quads but no hams. Huh?

There's also an injury component to machines. You're body was meant to accomplish these movements as a chain of muscles. When you lay down on a bench or pad then move a resistance in a straight plane with no stability needed, you are taking out pieces of the chain. You may end up with overdevelopment and imbalances which may lead to injury.

Keep in mind this is just my opinion. I'm not trying to say this is all right and everything else is wrong. Just wanna make that clear.

---

Simpleon't plan your MR's. Those exercises are supposed to be selected in an autoregulated ("intuitive") fashion.



-S

If we like planning, can we? Personally I enjoy walking into the gym knowing what I need to do and having some numbers already in my head. Since I train first thing in the AM I am sometimes tired and unmotivated. I find planning the session the night before (when I'm amped to go train be next day) forces me to do the biggest and most intense movements I can.

[Scott Stevenson]

If we like planning, can we? Personally I enjoy walking into the gym knowing what I need to do and having some numbers already in my head. Since I train first thing in the AM I am sometimes tired and unmotivated. I find planning the session the night before (when I'm amped to go train be next day) forces me to do the biggest and most intense movements I can.

Sure, you can do that - whatever you like. (I'm not a dictator... LOL The only thing I will call folks on, simply to limit confusion and the fall-out of questions that I will / do / could get, is doing something I've not suggested as part of FT and calling it FT. I'm fine with people doing whatever they like.

R.e. the above - if your ego is driving you to make exercise selections that run counter to what your body is saying (the night before or the morning of training), then you may be losing out on the benefits of auto regulation, i.e., being a good coach to yourself. (You can ask yourself the question, "If I were an athlete I were training, what would I have him do here?...") Some people may err to the side of doing old familiar stuff when a new exercise might be better, the opposite of that, or what have you.

MR's are indeed to be generally programmed simply b/c the point of bodybuilding is to bodybuild. If one has weak (from an appearance standpoint) spinal erectors, then training them makes sense, of course. If, as an example to the contrary, your spinal erectors are ridiculously large and you need more lat mass to balance these out, but can't get yourself past the notion that a cross-cable lat pulldown is a foo-foo exercise b/c it's not a hard core weighed chin or free weight thickness exercise, then this may very well be repeating the training pattern (possibly focusing on strengths vs. building up weakness) that led in part to your current (imbalanced) physique development.

So, this is where checking in can help. If the above person could sense that the lats were not trained well ("mind-muscle connection is poor"), then using an exercise on a MR (or PUMP) set day is a smart move. This comes from a combo or realistic self-coaching as well as in the moment auto regulating (picking up on kinesthetic feedback like DOMS) literally when arriving at the gym and devising a strategy.

-S

[righty]

Personally, the most fun aspect of the program (besides beating the log book e3w) is simply not planning what MRs I'm doing.
I usually use perceived energy levels and equipment availability as gauges once I'm in there.
Saves me hanging around for the Hammer Strength DY row if there's a queue for it.
Quite often find myself "inventing" exercises for variety - one armed rowing with a seated chest press machine, for example.
That's the fun days.
The loading days are for war.

[Collabera]

Sure, you can do that - whatever you like. (I'm not a dictator... LOL The only thing I will call folks on, simply to limit confusion and the fall-out of questions that I will / do / could get, is doing something I've not suggested as part of FT and calling it FT. I'm fine with people doing whatever they like.

R.e. the above - if your ego is driving you to make exercise selections that run counter to what your body is saying (the night before or the morning of training), then you may be losing out on the benefits of auto regulation, i.e., being a good coach to yourself. (You can ask yourself the question, "If I were an athlete I were training, what would I have him do here?...") Some people may err to the side of doing old familiar stuff when a new exercise might be better, the opposite of that, or what have you.

MR's are indeed to be generally programmed simply b/c the point of bodybuilding is to bodybuild. If one has weak (from an appearance standpoint) spinal erectors, then training them makes sense, of course. If, as an example to the contrary, your spinal erectors are ridiculously large and you need more lat mass to balance these out, but can't get yourself past the notion that a cross-cable lat pulldown is a foo-foo exercise b/c it's not a hard core weighed chin or free weight thickness exercise, then this may very well be repeating the training pattern (possibly focusing on strengths vs. building up weakness) that led in part to your current (imbalanced) physique development.

So, this is where checking in can help. If the above person could sense that the lats were not trained well ("mind-muscle connection is poor"), then using an exercise on a MR (or PUMP) set day is a smart move. This comes from a combo or realistic self-coaching as well as in the moment auto regulating (picking up on kinesthetic feedback like DOMS) literally when arriving at the gym and devising a strategy.

-S

If that isn't one of the most well written thought out posts in the world idk what is lol

Maybe I should clarify that I plan my movements the night before BUT if something is out of the ordinary that morning I will plan around it. Doing DC for years I hurt myself because I felt forced to do movements I shouldn't have that particular day. The auto-regulation is there but if I can opt for a bigger movement I will. I just may not if I don't plan ahead. I am usually very happy with myself for doing what I plan ahead for.

As for things that are not true FT, makes perfect sense and I'm with you there. No different than why I tell people that my ISOs I do around my sets changes the dynamic of the workout itself so if you are doing those while following someone's program you can't say you are truly following it like its intended. Like a bastardized DC training.

With exercise selection in regards to big compound moves over machines and cables, I should also clarify that I will use these too but not till the end of the session when I can no longer perform these big moves safely.