If there’s one thing we can learn from high-level bodybuilders, it’s that hitting a muscle from slightly different angles can help spark new muscle growth. Exercise novelty doesn’t equal guaranteed hypertrophy, but if subtle variety keeps you motivated and helps you discover exercises that get you a really strong contraction and quality soreness in the target muscle group, then by all means, mix things up often.
I find this holds true especially for upper back exercises. I tend to get bored with the traditional row/pulldown/pull-up routine. Maybe it’s because I’ve got T-Rex arms and pulling movements aren’t my biggest strength. I’ll squat and bench all day, but often get put to shame by longer-armed lifters in the rowing department. Nonetheless, experimentation often lands me an upper back movement that feels fresh and exciting, which makes me train harder. And isn’t that the point: to train hard?
Here are four ways to add variety to your upper back movements.
Get Horizontal
There’s no better way to target the mid-back than getting completely parallel to the floor. However, it’s hard to maintain a horizontal torso with traditional barbell and dumbbell rows. Enter the Seal Row.
The elaborate setup is totally worth it. You can use a barbell or dumbbells, or even do rear delt flyes in this position. I also love that these are completely lower-back friendly (lower back fatigue is often a limiting factor with bent-over rows) and teaches you to extend your upper back while rowing.
If you don’t have the means (or patience) to set up Seal Rows, regular chest-supported rows on an incline bench work fine too. Just make sure you use the lowest possible incline.
Hold Separate Handles
If you’re using a cable stack or lat pulldown station, hold separate handles in each hand if possible. Just like the freedom you get with holding dumbbells versus a barbell, the separate handles let you adjust your wrist and elbow position to whatever feels best for you. This often leads to more range of motion, a better muscular contraction and less joint stress.
I love chest-supported cable rows for this reason. I feel like I can pull my elbows back further to really hit my lats and rhomboids.
To mix it up further, try Spider Rows, where you alternate sides rep-by-rep for increased time under tension.
Get the Most Out of Your Bodyweight
Pull-ups and chin-ups are often heralded as upper back royalty. And while they can certainly play a role in giving you massive wings, there’s a problem: it’s rarely your upper back that gives out first with pull-ups or chin-ups. Usually it’s your grip, forearms or biceps that will fail first, which fails the “right link/wrong link” test that determines if an exercise is the best choice for hypertrophy.
However, with a few subtle tweaks, you can still use bodyweight as resistance to build your upper back. A new favorite of mine: Rack Chin-Ups.
I love this exercise for a couple reasons. First, the torso still stays fairly upright, which keeps the arms overhead and smokes the lats. Next, having the feet supported removes much of the grip stress. Finally, it’s easy to scale the difficulty by changing the height of the bench on which you rest your feet.
Change the Angle
You don’t always have to row completely horizontal and do pulldowns totally vertical. Changing the angle at which you pull the weight and/or changing the orientation of your body can be the ticket to actually feeling the working muscles contract and stretch throughout the movement.
Cobra Lat Pulldowns are a favorite of mine for this reason. I’ll often only feel regular pulldowns right under my armpit. However, the lats cover some serious real estate and originate all the way down toward the lower back. Cobra Lat Pulldowns help me feel my entire lat (especially my lower lat) and the subtle side-bend at the top gives a great stretch.
For rows, you can pull low-to-high on a cable stack to target more lats, or pull high-to-low (such as a Face Pull) to take the lats out of the equation and target more rhomboids, rear delts and traps. The options are endless.
Variety is the Spice of Life
It’s certainly important to stick with one exercise long enough to progressively overload it. You can’t switch all your exercises every week and expect to get bigger and stronger. However, don’t marry yourself to an exercise that doesn’t feel right or that you can’t load effectively just for the sake of “staying on program.” Small tweaks and subtle changes can be just what you need to keep things fresh and keep the gains coming.
