(by Roberto Eusebio, absolute national champion of body fitness)
It is certainly one of my favorite muscle groups, or at least one of the most interesting and stimulating ones I love to train.
The large dorsal, due to its vastness and breadth, is certainly one of the most impressive muscles of the human body, determined in each of us by genetics.
Another important genetic factor determining hypertrophy is the type of fibers that make up the muscle itself.
Before talking about the primary exercises for the development of the grand dorsal I wanted to give some hints of anatomy, explain where this muscle is located and its function in our body.
The dorsal gran is a muscle that originates on the vertebral column for a long stretch that goes from the spinous processes of the sixth and seventh dorsal vertebra until arriving posteriorly to the thoracolumbar fascia and to the iliac crest.
The proximal insertion, on the other hand, is located on the small tubercle at the level of the humeral head, sometimes the dorsal fibers are also inserted on the scapula.
The function of this muscle is that of adduction and intrarotation of the arm towards the trunk; if instead the fixed point is the arm it will be the trunk to approach (tractions at the barrier).
The dorsal muscle works in synergy with other muscles, among the most important we remember the trapezius, stretched between the column and the spine of the scapula, whose contraction involves an approach of the scapula towards the vertebral column. Other auxiliary muscles are the spinal deltoid, commonly called the posterior deltoid, the large round, and the biceps brachialis.
Precisely because it is a vast muscle and compromises the use of so many other agonists, back training involves a high energy expenditure, at the muscular and neuronal level; for this reason I prefer to train him only once during the weekly microcycle, so as to avoid overtraining.
So my weekly training away from the racing context is structured like this:
| MONDAY: | morning, abdominals, biceps, afternoon, chest shoulders and call of the triceps. |
| TUESDAY: | morning stretching and athletic preparation for a possible competition choreography. |
| WEDNESDAY: | morning, calves, and call of biceps and triceps. afternoon quadriceps and hamstrings. |
| THURSDAY: | mornings, stretching and athletic training for a possible competition choreography |
| FRIDAY: | morning, abdominals, triceps afternoon, backbones, spinal deltoids, and biceps call. |
| SATURDAY | rest |
| SUNDAY | rest |
I begin the training session for the backbones by stretching my back: on my knees I bend my chest towards the floor, trying to lower my chest as much as possible, keeping my head up and my arms extended forward; this exercise particularly affects the ridges in the lateral fascia; then stand with a wall at your shoulders, turn your chest and head back, keeping your knees slightly bent. I place my hands on the wall, forcing the stretch tension in this stretching phase involves the upper and middle part of my back.
The first and perhaps the most complete exercise for the back, the low or high pulley traction (depending on where you want to concentrate your work: by raising the trajectory of the force, the work moves to the upper back and the trapeze) .
I usually perform 4 series of 6/8 repetitions, with a recovery between a series and the other of 2 minutes.
I state that despite high loads, the execution must never be wrong; grabbed the handle, placed my feet against the stop bar near the pulley and sat down on the machine, I kept my legs about 10 degrees flexed throughout the movement in order to avoid harmful stresses to the lower back, I straightened my arms completely and I lean forward until the torso brushes against my thighs, a position that tends the lats completely back. I straighten my chest and pull the handle first with an adduction bringing back my shoulders and closing my shoulder blades, then with a further bending of my arms, in this way I am sure of completely contracting the musculature.
Another fundamental exercise is the lat machine traction, with this exercise I add amplitude to my backbones. The frontal tractions stimulate the lower and central sections of the back in the first place, while the tractions behind the neck are useful for the upper part of the ridges and trapezoids. Here too there is a strong secondary stress on the spinal, bicep and flexor deltoids of the forearms.
The execution of this exercise can be varied, depending on which bar is used, for example the trazibar or the straight bar. In both cases the handle must be about 30 cm wider than the shoulders. Begin the exercise by grasping the bar and extending the arms completely, then place the legs under the stop bar, to prevent the body from moving while I perform the exercise. Keeping your back arched during exercise, I pull the weight down until I touch the upper part of my chest, then slowly release it by stretching my arms and back muscles again.
With this exercise I always perform 4 sets of 8/10 repetitions and 90 seconds of recovery between one series and another. I finish the last repetitions by doing scapulars, since the musculature of the arm is exhausted before that of the back, so in this case the execution is limited only to the lowering of the shoulders.
Alternate traction on the lat machine with trazibar sometimes using the triangle, in this case the only variant is that during adduction the elbow is attached to the torso and the contraction shifts more in the middle of the back.
I conclude my training session of the ridges with the pullover, this movement solicits the dorsal and pre-congestion of the pectorals, the work of the great dentate agonist in the stabilization it has towards the scapula is also important, keeping the latter well adherent to the chest wall. I lie down on a bench and grab the upper disc of the handlebar with the palms of my hands, bringing it above the shoulder joint.
I hold the arms slightly bent about 15 degrees to avoid burdening the elbow joint. However, I keep my elbows in towards the center line of my body throughout the whole movement.
With this exercise I do 3 sets of 10/12 repetitions and 60 seconds of recovery between sets. It is very important to perform a correct exhalation during the concentric phase of the movement, this to avoid creating intra-abdominal pressures that can lead to leakage of inguinal hernias, especially when the loads are high.
One last trick to be certain of congesting the back muscles as much as possible: remember that in physics the Work is given by the Force for Displacement (L = F x S), the force is naturally the load you lift, the displacement is the movement plus complete as possible that your joints allow you to do, so in simple terms, always use big loads but still maintain a correct execution, you will be amazed at the results !!!!
