Workout Anatomy – Back Muscle, Part 1

5000 years of written history, humanity has civilized, explored, invented, and built, but even after thousands of years, and more than a billion thoughts and valuable ideas put to paper, our physical attributes and the instincts essential for our survival have not changed since the awakening of humanity.

Men needed strong hands, simple, practical thinking, an armored chest, and last but not least, a broad back to protect their women and children. We may smile at these thoughts today, as we can't even imagine (except for paleo-geeks, of course) those times when our body was truly our only weapon.

Throughout the entire Training Anatomy series, I want to make three key messages clear to everyone.

1. Our entire life, all our actions and thoughts revolve around sex, and everything is determined by it.
2. We are animals. We are driven by animal instincts, and although learning and increasingly higher flights of thought have elevated us above the animal kingdom, our animalistic instincts surface from time to time. This drives us to this day: the instinct to survive, the way of life necessary for our existence, and the creation of resources needed for our development.
3. The structure of our body serves a single purpose: to facilitate the sexual act necessary for species preservation; this is the engine of everything. Women for their buttocks, men for their upper bodies, to the death. That certain subconscious, or not-so-subconscious, desire for the most dominant man to notice women for their beauty, and for men to find a woman with the forms that suggest to them, yes, I want to impregnate this woman, she is worthy of bringing my offspring into the world.

We operate based on simple stimuli, and if we peel back the veneer painted over our daily lives, if we dismantle the often non-existent ivory towers we build around ourselves, then we see exactly that life is about sex, about procreating, and ultimately, this is the meaning of life. You may disagree with me on this, but if anyone thinks I'm talking nonsense, let them offer something better, and I'll update this post and put it here.

In the parts of the series published so far, I have noted for each muscle group how certain muscles in our body serve the survival of our species, or how they help make women and men more attractive to each other, thereby playing the greatest game of life.

Women don't really train their backs, which, to be honest, I don't really understand. I get that it's not near their legs or butt, so why train it, but I have some very strong arguments here as to why women should train their back muscles.

First of all, there are women who have larger than average breasts. Beware of these women, because they are so satisfied with themselves that they feel they don't need to develop any other skills due to the size of their breasts. However, small-breasted women have no choice. They either compensate with a good butt and outstanding oral technique, or they literally don't stand a chance in their desperate fight over the valuable prize (men).

I've strayed a bit, but the point is that women with large breasts are obliged to train their back muscles, as they have to carry the weight of their breasts throughout their lives, and their back muscles will support them.

Pregnancy. Here, of course, small-breasted women and all women in the world are affected. How often do we hear women complain of constant back pain during pregnancy? Of course, they complain about it, because if there's nothing to support the extra weight created by the baby, then of course women's backs will hurt. There's no muscle to support it, so the woman starts to hold herself in an unnatural pose, and lo and behold, back pain is ready, which millions of women accept as an accompaniment to pregnancy. You don't have to accept anything, but especially not this back-pain bullshit. You should train your back muscles, and there will be no problem.

And finally, the third point, which affects all women, whether their breasts are small or large, whether they are pregnant or not. This condition is the state in which they exist in everyday life, the so-called optical state.

I have spoken about this condition many times, and just like in the analysis of all other muscle groups, I must describe it again now. The overall appearance of the body is most beautifully shaped and attractive when the body itself is proportionally trained, and thus proportionally formed. Girls tend to laugh loudly and wholeheartedly at men who can produce stick-insect legs with a muscular upper body. They are completely justified in laughing at indeed the funniest specimens of the male species, but let's not forget that there are two sides to every coin. Because just as those guys look ridiculous due to their disproportion, men also notice this disproportion, and believe me, there's nothing sadder than when men get together, and seeing a group of girls, no one wants to sleep with you. Well, that's the surest sign that you're crap.

When we discussed shoulder training, we talked about why training the shoulders is incredibly feminine. Now, the necessity of a broad back for feminine shoulders comes into play. At this point, however, I must pause for a moment and write that it would certainly be much simpler if I were writing this page for men. I wouldn't have to explain everything to death, as I unfortunately have to do again now.

Broad back. I know that many women have dropped their anchors at the words "broad back," but a broad back in this case, as in all cases on TILT, means femininely sculpted lines. You should imagine something like this here.

Now then. The Training Anatomy series is fundamentally written so that you can independently put together a workout plan for yourself and shape your body in a way you would never achieve with knowledge cobbled together from the internet. However, what works on the drawing board may not necessarily hold up during execution. This is also true for this Training Anatomy series. I thought, "Oh, great, I'll gather everything you might need for you, here are cool 3D drawings, you'll have a good foundation."

But life, unfortunately, is not that simple. Shaping our body is not an IKEA cabinet that we can assemble according to the right instructions, even if it takes 30 minutes of swearing.

Body shaping is much more complex than this, and perhaps most importantly, much more prone to injury than something that can be done based on any lead. It wouldn't have mattered if someone had told me 10 years ago when I started all this what and how I should be doing, because if I didn't have the practical knowledge behind me, if I hadn't mastered the technique of execution, then I could have lifted weights, but I wouldn't have gotten far with it. If I hadn't acquired the proper practical foundations, I would probably be writing on various forums now, like many clueless idiots, asking why there's no progress and where the results are.

I'm not saying it's impossible to start this alone and achieve good results, but why would we rediscover America alone, with great difficulty and a million face-plants, if it has already been done before us?

This problem hasn't come up in my mind so far, because if your shoulder or elbow gets injured despite proper advice, well, that's just how it is. But training the back muscles is quite different. Here, the integrity of your spine and vertebrae is at stake, the integrity of the muscles attached to the spine, which, in case of injury, won't be enough to rub with Cambodian dick balm until it heals.

Conclusion. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAIN YOUR BACK MUSCLES INDEPENDENTLY, WITHOUT THE SUPERVISION OF A PERSONAL TRAINER. I'll tell you why not. If you do it wrong and get injured, then:

• herniated disc
• vertebral displacement
• paralysis
• intermittent paralysis (comes with very unpleasant numbness)
• permanent, never-healing musculoskeletal damage affecting part or all of the body.

Your spine is like messing with your brain. You don't do that, and you shouldn't do this either.

Now that I've pleasantly scared everyone, here are the basic rules. If the trainer you're going to see doesn't tell you these (because you will be seeing a trainer, won't you?), then first, confront them about why they didn't tell you, then show them this post to explain why you fired them before their very first session.

BASIC RULES

1. Maximum 6 exercises for the back muscles.
2. Warm up thoroughly before training your back muscles. A rowing machine is ideal.
3. FOLLOWING WARM-UP, perform a basic exercise that strengthens the deep back muscles, the muscles directly stabilizing the spine. After that, do 2-3 exercises specifically for the upper back muscles, 2 exercises for the middle muscles below the shoulder blade, and 1 exercise for the muscles of the lower third of the back. You probably didn't understand any of this now, but don't worry, these will be discussed separately and in detail.
4. I emphasize in almost every post that you should train in a long-sleeved top that keeps your muscles warm and thus protects them from cooling down. This makes even more sense when training the back muscles. Do not let your muscles cool down, because training on cooled muscles is the most common cause of injury.
5. Know at least 10-12 DIFFERENT types of CORRECTLY performed exercises for the back muscles, and continuously alternate them to avoid stagnation, and so that your body doesn't get used to a particular movement pattern.
6. Breathing. Exhale on exertion, inhale during the negative phase (when lowering the weight). Inhale slowly, the movement is also slow. Exhale quickly, the movement is also quick.
7. Ideal rest time between two sets is 45 seconds. Max 2 minutes between two exercises. No chatting, no Facebook, no buttering up your evening date on Viber right now.
8. Also utilize the negative range. Lower the weight with resistance.
9. Practice the movement without weight first, then once the movement is perfect, start moving weights.

So, if I had to summarize, definitely seek a professional if you decide to shape your body, but especially if you do weight training, because believe me, a herniated disc or vertebral displacement is not a long weekend in the Seychelles.

And to wrap up the introductory lines on back training in a framed structure, I would conclude my thoughts with what I started with. Training every muscle group is incredibly important, and so is training the back muscles.

This post got a bit long, so the presentation of exercises by muscle group with anatomical drawings and their commentary will be available in the second part of this post.