SuppVersity EMG Series - Latissimus, Trapezius & More: The Very Best Exercises for Back Width & Thickness

Image 1: The major muscle groups
of the back - trapezius (red)
and latissimus dorsi (green)

In this issue of the SuppVersity EMG Series, we are going to tackle three instead of one muscle groups, ...

• the trapezius (image 1, red) and the rhomboidei (image 1, blue), of which the former, i.e. the "traps", which covers the rhomboids that connect the scapula with the vertebrae of the spinal column, is often erroneously associated with the musculature of the neck; in effect, the m. trapezius extends longitudinally from the occipital bone to the lower thoracic vertebrae and laterally to the spine of the scapula and is thus responsible for what pro-bodybuilders often refer to as back thickness and ...
• the latissimus dorsi (image 1, green), which literally is the 'broadest muscle of the back' and thus responsible for back width.

The reasons we will be addressing back width and thickness in a single issue are twofold: Firstly, you need to train all muscle groups of the upper/mid back if you want to develop a strong and visually impressive frame*.

*Note: In fact you have to train your lower back, particularly the erector spinae, as well, but since tackling all the four of them would have gone beyond the scope of one installment of the SuppVersity EMG Series, I decided to address abs and lower back together in an upcoming "core training" issue of this series.

And secondly, you cannot really isolate one from the other, because your body was not designed to look aesthetically appealing (whatever your interpretation of this may be), but it was made for optimal functional strength and agility and thus ultimately for survival. Consequently, the muscles of your back (even more so than it is the case with other body parts) will always work in concert, when you climb, pull, snatch or just carry heavy objects around your house or garden. Keep that in mind, when you read about training for "width" vs. training for "size" (even in this summary)... synergy is the name of the game and you would not want huge "wings" (meaning a broad back) on a frame that is as flat as a pancake, anyway - would you?

Chest	Biceps	Back	Core	Legs	Triceps	Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.

But enough of that, let's get to the meat and potatoes of EMG optimized back-training. Here they are, the most effective exercises for m. trapezius and m. latissimus dorsi, as measured by electromyography (10 male resistance-trained subjects, mean age 22y, mean body-fat 13%; data from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)...

I. The Latissmus Dorsi - Grow Yourself a Pair of Wings Exercises with standard equipment for the m. latissimus dorsi

1. Lat pulldown to sternum (PS1), narrow underhand grip, bend back
2. Lat pulldown to neck (PN), shoulder-wide overhand grip, upright
3. DB row, bend over (DB1), underhand grip, arms close to torso, palms to the front
4. Lat pulldown to sternum (PS2), shoulder-wide overhand grip, bend back
5. DB row, bend over (DB2), neutral grip, palms facing torso
6. Lat pulldown to sternum (PS3), shoulder-wide overhand grip, upright
7. Seated cable row (CR), V-Bar, arms close to torso

Figure 1: EMG activity of exercises with standard equipment expressed relative to lat pulldowns to the neck (PN); the abbreviations can be found in the ranking above (data calculated based on Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

The visual representation of the EMG activity relative to what was long considered the "meat and potatoes" of machine-based lat-training, the pulldown to the neck (PN), shows that the classic exercises, Joe Weider already recommended, i.e. the lat pulldown to the chest/sternum (PS1) and to the neck (PN) actually result in the greatest activation of the dorso-lateral muscle on the trunk, but other than the Canadian co-founder of the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) thought, Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies found no significant difference in the activation of the upper, middle and lower part of the latissimus dorsi between the different pulldown varieties. In other words, it is not possible to train the upper, middle or lower part of the broad back muscle (latissimus dorsi) in isolation.

Always remember! The m. latissimus dorsi is no exception to the rule that you cannot isolate individual muscle fibers from a single muscle group. The same is true for the "upper and lower abs" and the "upper lower and middle parts of the chest", which will always work in conjunction, whenever you do your situps, leg raises, push ups and bench presses. In this context it is also worth mentioning that, at least to a certain degree, all pulling movements activate the m. biceps brachialis (biceps), the m. deltoideus, pars spinalis (rear delts) and the m. trapezius, pars transversa (middle part of the traps), as well.

Image 2: Leaning back slightly
(135° vs. 180°) increases the activation
of the m. latissimus dorsi by 11%!

Another interesting conclusion you can draw from the data in figure 1 is that, other than many gurus would have it, leaning back or as some may call it "cheating" on lat pulldowns is actually beneficial as far as the activation of the broad back muscle is concerned (as long as it is done without momentum!). Compared to the textbook version of the lat-pull (PS3), which would be executed sitting 100% straight, so that your arms and your torso are and remain perpendicular to the floor, bending slightly back (PS1; 135° vs. 180°, cf. image 1) increases the muscular activation of the m. latissimus dorsi by 11%. In a similar vein, the derided underhand grip dumbbell row (DB1), which is supposed to turn the bend over dumbbell row into a biceps exercise effectively increases the activation of the lats by 6%, as long as it is executed with appropriate form, i.e. with the arm tucked into the side of your body (don't let your arms flare to handle bigger weights, guys!).

Note: Although the angle between your arms and your torso (tucked in vs. flared out) does affect the intensity of the exercise, it is not as crucial as you may have thought. Flairing your arms to a 45° angle during a V-bar cable row, for example decreases the activation of the lats by less than -1%! A 90° abduction, on the other hand, decreases the EMG activity by -49% and would thus effectively turn a 'lat' into a 'rear delt' exercise.
 

Image 3: Wide grip pull up to
the neck, still the number one
body weight exercise for lat
development (bodytrainer.tv)

Bodyweight exercises for the m. latissimus dorsi

1. Pull up to neck, wide overhand grip
2. Pull up to sternum, wide underhand grip
3. Pull up to sternum, wide overhand grip
4. Pull up to sternum, narrow overhand grip

As you can see the good old, but for some painful wide grip pull up to the neck (if you asked me a very unnatural movement) does still provide the greatest lat activation.

Figure 2: EMG activity of variations of the pull up to the sternum expressed relative to wide grip pull ups to the neck (data calculated based on Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

Moreover, it is interesting that pull ups done using a wide underhand grip and not pull ups with an overhand grip, as most trainees probably think, come in second (-13% and -19% less EMG activity vs. pull ups to the neck). A narrow grip, on the other hand takes away much of the activity in the lat muscle, if nothing else, then due to the lower weight that can be used.

Training tip! If you cannot do the "classical" pull up to the neck, because your shoulder, neck or whatever starts hurting, find yourself one of those pull-up-towers, which usually have handles without a bar in between. If you are lucky you can push down the weight that would usually assist you, so that you do can to regular pull ups, but will not have to bend your head forward, as your head travels freely, where usually the bar would block your way (make sure, though, not to lean back too much, because otherwise you would be doing a pull up to the sternum, anyway).

I. The Trapezius & the Rhomboidei - Adding a Thick Roadmad to Your Backside

A note on the rhomboid muscles: All exercises that activate the m trapezius will inevitable target the underlying m. rhomboidei, as well. This circumstance and the impracticality of measuring muscle activity in a muscle that cannot be accessed without surgical intervention (remember the m. rhomboidei are covered by the m. trapezius) prompted Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies decision not to measure the EMG activity of the rhomboid muscles individually.

Exercises with standard equipment for ...* indicates a reference exercise to which the others were compared in figure 3  ^ indicates that the exact EMG value for this exercise has not been measured / not measured with the same subject group ° if not stated otherwise the given angles denote the angle between arm and torso

...the upper part of the m. trapezius DB shrug* BB front raise, narrow grip Deadlift ^   ...the middle part of the m. trapezius Machine rev. fly (int. rotation, 90°) DB reverse fly (90°)* BB bend over row (90°) Straight bar cable rows Face pulls  DB row (90°)*

...the lower part of the m. trapezius Machine rev. fly (ext. rotation 120°) DB reverse fly (120°)*^ Machine rev. fly (ext. rotation 90°) Shoulder pulls, on lat pull down DB reverse fly (90°) Machine reverse fly (int. rotation 90°) Image 4: This is the machine the subjects in the study used to perform the internally rotated reverse fly on; notice the 90° angle of arms and torso (photo menshealth.de)

Figure 2: EMG activity of various back exercises for the upper, lower and middle part of the m. trapezius; values are expressed relative to exercises tagged with an asterisk (*) for the respective part of m(data calculated based on Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000)

Although they did not explicitly measure the EMG activity for the deadlift, the authors speculate that "in view of the anatomical function of the muscle and the huge leverages, the [deadlift] is likely to be highly effective". That being said, neither the names nor the ranking of the top 3 exercises for the upper part of the m. trapezius should surprise you. These exercises are and have always been the meat and potatoes of back training regimens, although they are sometimes mislabeled as neck or shoulder exercises. Isolating the individial parts of the m. trapezius With regard to the superior activation of the middle part of the m. trapezius by the machine based reverse fly vs. its free weight equivalent, the reverse dumbbell fly, I would like to draw your attention to image 4, which shows a similar piece of equipment as the one that was used in the study. Other than the free-weight variety the machine based reverse fly takes both, the momentum, as well as the contribution of triceps / arm out of the equation and is thus an ideal isolation movement.

Note: Although, Boeckh-Behrens and Buskies did not measure that explicitly, it is very likely that the activation of the m. trapezius would be lower on one of those machines, where you pull with your hands instead of pushing the pads back with the back of your upper arms.

Image 4: Shoulder pulls,
an exercise that is often
used as part of rehabilitation
programs

A simple change in the angle between your arms and your torso from 90° to 110° switches the focus of both the free weight, as well as the machine based exercise towards the lower part of the traps. An ideal isolation exercise that will also help with posture and the prevention of the dreaded "impingement syndrome", where the tendons of the rotator cuff muscles become irritated and inflamed as they pass through the subacromial space, the passage beneath the acromion, is the shoulder pull on a standard lat pulldown machine, where, instead of pulling with your lats (and arms) your arms stay extended throughout the movement and you move the weight exclusively with the muscles you would use if someone asked you to pull your shoulder-blades back and downwards (cf. figure 4). While it is no common exercise in a bodybuilding regimen, incorporation of effective rehab exercises like this can help injury prevention and - who knows - help you draw the last "roads" of the roadmap onto an otherwise perfectly built back.  

Body weight exercises for the lower part of the m. trapezius

1. Dips
2. Pull up to sternum, wide overhand grip

You probably will be surprised to see the dips as the top body weight exercise to develop the lower part of your m. trapezius. If you don't believe the EMG data, try doing some diips after an exhaustive back workout with heavy trap-involvement, but watch out, you could easily get hurt, when your traps cannot stabilize your body anymore...

Training tip: Although many trainees fail to realize it, the back is probably the muscle group that is most difficult to train, or I should say, to stimulate adequately. Make sure you use a weight that is so heavy that you really struggle lifting it off the ground / pulling it up, but always make sure it is not so heavy that you cannot control it on its way back down. If your muscles cannot stop the weight on its way down before your tendons do, the weight is too heavy. Leave your ego at the door, grab a lighter weight and work the muscle, not the cartilage. Pulling, squeezing and struggling synergistically pave the way to injury free back development.

In summary, while almost all back exercises will activate both, the m. latissimus dorsi (back width) and the m. trapezius and the subjacent rhomboidei to some degree, only a combination of the most effective lat exercises, which are the wide grip overhand pull up to the neck and the wide grip underhand pull down to the sternum with the best exercises for the upper, middle and lower traps, which are heavy dumbbell shrugs and reverse flies using both a 90° and a 110° angle will maximally stimulate all muscle groups of your back.  

An EMG-optimized routine There is of course a myriad of ways of combining the individual exercises, my personal recommendation for impressive back development (based on EMG data) would yet be as follows:

Image 5: There are exercises that would
have to bee invented, if they had not been
there sincethe early days of physical culture.
The DB shrug, as the one and only "Governator",
Mr Universe & Olympia, Mr.  IFBB International,
... you name it,  Arnold Schwarzenegger performs
them on this photo, certainly is one of them.

1. Pull ups to the neck - for lat development + all those hidden stabilizing muscles a full body movement such as the pull up activates (5-10 reps / use additional weight or rest-pause if you can do more / less)
2. Narrow underhand grip pull-down to the sternum (in contracted position pull elbows back as much as possible) - to fully exhaust the lats (8-12 reps)
3. DB shrugs (use peak contractions) - for upper trap development (10-12 reps) Super Set = go from 4 to 5 without rest, rest after 5, repeat
4. Reverse fly 90° (preferably on a machine like the one in image 4) - for mid trap development (10-12 reps)
5. DB reverse fly 110° (use light weights, feel the burn!) - for lower trap development (do to failure, up the weight if you can do 15+)

You may notice that I do not make volume (i.e. set) recommendations. This is due to the fact that I found that everyone has to find what works best for him / her in terms of optimal volume and training frequency. This may also change over time / according to lifestyle factors / nutrition and supplementation.

Adelfo Cerame - Back on the Grind! Introducing the World's First Hypertrophy-EDT-5x5 Alternate Cross-Over Regimen!

Image 1: A classic physique, but a novel routine.

I guess, I don't have to tell you that our mutual friend Adelfo is fired up to get back to the gym. I guess if it had not been for the intermediate famine phase after the post-contest binge, he would hardly have endured the one week without drudgery, but alas, the time of laziness is over now and Adelfo is about to return to the gym. Yet not without a detailed plan of attack, not as "voluminous" (in the literal sense) as he had intended before our conversation, last weekend, but still a ton of grindingly hard work - exactly the kind of thing Adelfo loves and what helped him build, what may not be the most muscular, but certainly the most aesthetic physique I have ever seen on a wheelchair bodybuilder (let alone other athlete). But I guess, I will just let him tell you how he is planning to take this superlative to yet another level.

Back on the grind! But not without a few tweaks

"After taking a week off, your boy is back at it again for another 14 weeks!" *lol* Today is training day. No food, just weights - or put more simply: I will focus on the exercise part of my plan of attack for the next show. As Adel, aka Dr. Andro, already gave away in Part II of his "Step by Step Guide To Your Own Workout Routine" series (click here for Part I) I will give you the run-down on the training protocol we have workout out on the last weekend. It's more or less a work in progress, with a tried and proven workout-base, which has worked for me in the past, and some additions that are intended to make it even better. If that sounds confusing, just bear with me, you will soon understand, what I mean.

Image 2: If you have not seen them already, you better make sure to go to either RXMuscle.com or Adelfo's Facebook page to check out the pics Dave Palumbo's crew shot at the 2012 Sunshine Classics

Those of you, who have been following the "Road to Wheelchair Nationals" series, here at the SuppVersity, know that I have found some success in increasing my strength and lean muscle utilizing an EDT and 5x5 training type regimen even though I was on a caloric deficit for the most part of my prep. Up to now, I have never used this regimen on a "bulk", i.e. in a phase, where I consumed at least slightly more calories than I needed, but judged by my previous results, the results should be scary - obviously, in a positive sense ;-) For now, this will yet have to wait to the off-season. After all, the time to my next competition (~15 weeks) is not that long that I could afford to go really overboard calorie-wise.

Given my past experiences with this regimen, I would yet be a fool to skip the EDT + 5x5 regimen completely. So, I decided that it would be prudent to stick to what has worked and try to come up with a set of modification that would make it even more efficient. 

The thing I have come up with is basically a "cross-over regimen" (sounds funky, right? I guess I should patent the training system and sell it, then ;-) with a two-day 5x5 strength core that is combined alternately with two-day escalating density regimen or a newly developed three-day hypertophy protocol.

The key points and main changes of / in my new regimen:

• I threw out the static holds and added another EDT exercise to make it a total of 3 EDT exercises in 1 workout session, equaling 60 minutes total. I did this, because I felt the cost-benefit, in terms of the time I spent doing the statics and the results strength and size-wise were not worth, given that at this point of my prep I will still be consuming enough food to cope with a third escalating density superset, which would otherwise have extended my workouts into the 70min+ realm.
   
• I wanted to add hypertrophy-type workout into my regimen. Something I could alternate with the EDT workouts every other week. Firstly, to avoid overtraining on the metabolically demanding 2x60 min EDT sessions per week and secondly to add another unfamiliar growth stimulus. It has been some time that I did a "normal" bodybuilding split) and as much as I love low reps and lifting heavy, I feel that hypertrophy style training also has its benefits. When I’m lifting real heavy, my intensity and focus is just on strength and moving the weight. It’s really hard to focus on the mind to muscle connection, and the stretch and squeeze, when you’re trying to lift a lot of weight. This is where a hypertrophy style training excels. It allows you to focus on good form, the mind to muscle connection, and the stretch and the squeeze. I also feel that it’s a good confidence builder, because it allows you to appreciate the strength gains you make, from lifting heavy all the time - well, at least that is what it is for me: The way the weight suddenly feel so light, when you transition from the low reps with heavy weight, to a high(er) rep protocol with moderately heavy weight just makes me feel good.
   
• I wanted to work on my "new" problem area, the shoulders, which I have decided were the body part, where Neil beat me in Florida. I must admit that just doing the classic push movements, I may have neglected my rear and side delts and the results were particularly visible, when I hit the rear double biceps pose. 

In fact my decision to add additional shoulder work was part of the reason to a) add another EDT superset and b) (re-)incorporate a "classic" hypertophy split into my regimen, the first rudimentary incarnation of which looks as follows:

Figure 1: Week A of my new alternate cross-over training regimen (2x EDT + 2x 5x5)

Basically, in the first the first week, I’m sticking to my bread and butter regimen, which is EDT & 5x5. Call it a strength and conditioning phase, if you will. In the subsequent week, I will then replace the two EDT days on Monday and Wednesday with a classic three-day bodybuilding split, so that week B is slightly more hypertrophy-oriented, and will look like that:

Figure 2: Week B of my new alternate cross-over training regimen (3x Bodybuilding Split + 2x 5x5)

Overall this regimen is - and this should apply to any of your new regimen, as well (don't forget to check out the past and future installments of the "Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine") - a "work in progress". I will stick to it for these first two weeks and think about adjustments, on either the training or the nutrition side of things, afterwards. Apropos, nutrition: If you are curious about what my intermediate "maximal muscle, minimal fat gain diet" is going to look like, I suggest you do not miss the next installment of my ongoing series, here at the SuppVersity!