Muscle rounds for back

[MaxDog]

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My favorite back MR's are Bent Over Barbell rows, Prison/t-bar rows and supinated grip bent over barbell rows. I don't use the smith machine.

For width I like a close parallel grip Pulldown, weighted pull up and underhand hammer strength iso-Pulldown.

I stick mainly to thickness moves. I will absolutely use these as pump sets as well. I'm not big on too many machines if I can use bigger movements with free weights that force me to work harder. Most of us aren't Phil Heath and can train with machines all day and look full and have no missing pieces. So whether it's a pump set, muscle round or loading set I will pick the biggest and baddest movements for overall size.

When I look at a physique on stage of someone I know uses a lot of machines, it's like looking at a 100 piece puzzle that's finished 90-95%. There's all these holes. You can tell what the finished product is supposed to be but you can tell some areas are more developed than others. To me, free weights fill out that puzzle and leave things balances. You may not be a 1000 piece puzzle, maybe only a 100 piece, but you better make sure that puzzle is finished.
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Agee with all that
I love bb row for MRs but as there one of my loading moves thought smith rows would be cool ,
Rack pulls for MRs and literally hell ..
I the same mate
I treat MRs as loading sets hard heavy basics move the work

I am not sure if this adds anything of value, but I generally take the following approach with back thickness exercises in my FT programming:

(1) Load sets: mostly barbell work including rack deads off blocks, bent over barbell rows (alternating between supintated and pronated) and landmine t-bar rows. I will also do single arm DB rows (deadstop) depending on the gym.

(2) Pump sets: always cable, pulley or pin selected machines and then run 5's in the hole or drop sets, or partials.

(3) MR's: My approach here is to use exercise that are easier to rack but provide a different stimulus than the ones above. So in this case, Hammer strength seated rows, smith bent over rows. I like to do unilateral work here as it brings in some conditioning. Alternating back and forth really tests your Fortitude!

So in this case, it will be Meadows rows (landmine), One Arm Barbell rows (with a landmine) and One Arm DB rows.

All the best,
Mike