Tips for me during back days??

Well first off, im in the process of totally changing my workout around because of some great advice i got earlier, but i wanted to address this problem that im having during back workout days. As i said a while back, I work out at home, but i do have a pulldown machine, usually i do my wide grip pulldowns and close grip pulldowns here, the problem im having is that sometimes i feel like my lats are never being worked (as you can see in my pictures) and only my biceps, ive tried arching my back, lowering weight, and a few other things but never can seem to get that "lat pump". I was wondring if there was any tips you guys could give me to maybe help me make sure im working my back, not my biceps totally.

Thanks
AL

Yeah join a gym and start doing some barbell and dumbell rows

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/exercise1.htm
You will find some excersises for lats you can do at home. Good luck.

when i do lat pull downs, or any other back exercise, i totally focus my effort on my back and not my biceps. i know that sounds vaugue, so il put it this way. try to imagine that there is an orange sitting right on the middle of your upper back. when your doing lat pull downs, try to crush that imaginary orange with your back muscles. if you still are having a hard time understanding what im trying to say (which is totally understandable cause its hard to describe) then try doing lat pull downs while keeping your forarms at a 90 degree angle to your upper arms, kind of a reverse shrug or something. you should totally feel the work being done by your back. once you've got that down, then try to replicate the same feeling while doing regular lat pull downs.

btw, it helps to go lighter with this method until you've really got it down

I will try and explain it a little different to see if you understand what im saying. When you are pulling down the bar, start with light weight to get the feel first...imagine your hands and arms as hooks...try and keep ur shoulders back and avoid rotating them forward to get a better pull...then when you pull down, keep ur elbows in line with the side of your body and squeeze until the bar touches your upper chest...this works well for me as a strict movement and i get a good pump.

take a wider grip if you can, anything narrow is more biceps. Also, pull ups would be good to do if you could, and if your back feels likie its not being worked as much as your biceps then only go 3/4 the way up each rep.

find a bar and do wide grip and close grip pull ups

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stayinstacked

take a wider grip if you can, anything narrow is more biceps. Also, pull ups would be good to do if you could, and if your back feels likie its not being worked as much as your biceps then only go 3/4 the way up each rep.

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I completely agree

Pullups man, forget pulldowns alltogether. You are light enough to whack out unweighted pullups no problem. After that try some db rows.

try this ..

3 sets of pullups 15 reps each
3 sets of pulldowns 8-12 reps
3 sets bent over rows 8-12 reps
one arm db rows 3 sets of 8

try not to use yur arms to much when doin these .. use yur back : )

And just cause you work at home, don't let that stop you from doing T-Bar rows... http://www.bodysolid.com/Item.aspx?I...r+Row+Platform there is a handlebar attachement you can get with it too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Always Liftin'

Well first off, im in the process of totally changing my workout around because of some great advice i got earlier, but i wanted to address this problem that im having during back workout days. As i said a while back, I work out at home, but i do have a pulldown machine, usually i do my wide grip pulldowns and close grip pulldowns here, the problem im having is that sometimes i feel like my lats are never being worked (as you can see in my pictures) and only my biceps, ive tried arching my back, lowering weight, and a few other things but never can seem to get that "lat pump". I was wondring if there was any tips you guys could give me to maybe help me make sure im working my back, not my biceps totally.

Thanks
AL

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DO chin ups with a wider than shoulder width grip instead. Concentrate on flaring your lats out when you are pulling up and really concentrate on squeezing the lats. A lot of it is mind-muscle control

wow thanks for all the reply's guys, today i did try to lower the weight and concentrate more and it really seemed to hit me more, and by the way, i am using the widest grip i can get, thanks i will try some more of this advice, i like the example with the orange :)

cool, im glad i could help

Try those:
http://www.muscletech.com/TRAINING/B...building.shtml

I got very good results following them.

One more thing. If you want to really concentrate on your rhomboids and traps, perform rear delt rows with your upper arms perpendicular to your body, far out. This will effectively mean you take a hammer grip on the bar. This exercise means you don't use the biceps at all, they are just dynamic stabilisers. Basically this is because you are extending your shoulder and flexing your elbow at the same time. Extending the shoulder lengthens the bicep whilst flexing the elbow shortens it. These two changes in length cancel each other out and therefore the bicep does not change in length, it remains statically contracted. This occurs because the bicep is a multi-articulate muscle which acts at three joints, wrist, elbow, shoulder. Not many people know this.