Turbulence Training: Back Exercises Workout at Home
Hi, This is Craig Ballantyne from Turbulence Training.Today I want to want to do a little bit of a lesson on how to train your back at home, with dumbbells. In a lot of my articles I talk about the importance of training your upper back, because that's one of the hot zones for your metabolism. There is a lot of muscle mass there, so you can really boost your metabolism, by training that area. But a lot of people have problems training that area at home because they don't have access to a chin-up bar. Or they don't have access to an adjustable bar where they can do some inverted bodyweight rows. You know, lying on the ground and rowing your bodyweight up. So that leaves up with a simple dumbbell and a bench and a stability ball and whatever else you have at home.
But there are quite a few exercises that you can do to train your lats, and your rhomboids, and your scapula retractors, and your posterior deltoids. Today we are going to go over a bunch of those exercises.To hopefully give you some more variety, to improve the training and improve the enjoyment of your training at home.So the first exercise that we are going to do is called the It's a classic, Arnold era body building exercise. It's not my favorite exercise, because when in the stretch position, you are going to feellike you are pulling your arm out of you sockets. Do be very conservative when you do this. This exercise will train you chest, your abdominals, but we are trying to train our lats with this one.One way to do it is to lie regular on a bench, holding the dumbbell over your chest, slight bend in your arms, and lowering it back. You'll feel a stretch right about here in your lats. Then your going to pull it over, and this is where you are going to feel your chest starts to do some of the work. So its down, feel the stretch in your lats, and that's were you are using your lats, to pull the dumbbell up. Again, it's a bit of a precarious position there at the bottom, so do be careful.
Another way to do this exercise is to lie crossways across the bench, because it allows you more stretch in the lats at the bottom of the position. But again, obviously the more stretch, the more stretch it also makes it more of a risky exercise. Again, be very careful, and use a very conservative weight when you first start trying this exercise.We are just going to lie across the bench like this. I am keeping my hips up and my glutes contracted, and my abs braced. And you can lower the dumbbell again, just like that, with a little more stretch at the bottom position,…and up. And again that's an exercise that's working again your chest, your abdominals you feel it as you bring the dumbbell back up, and your lats. Again, those just don't compare to a chin-up or a pull-up.
So the next exercise that we are going to do, is we are going to do some dumbbell rows. Using the bench, there is several variations that you can do. We are just going to start with the basic dumbbell row. That's in a lot of my programs. Left hand on the bench. Left knee on the bench. Back leg slightly bent,. Butt back, abs braced. Back flat. Then rowing the dumbbell up. From full extension up to your hip. Keeping the elbow close into the side, in this version. That's your basis dumbbell row.Now you can switch it up.
Still keeping your dumbbell row, but you can take your hand, so that you palm is now facing towards your foot and your elbow out. Now we are doing them, elbow out, dumbbell row, and changing the emphasis on the lats and the upper back a little bit. So you are going to be a little bit weaker in this one with the elbow out, and the palm facing towards the foot. Now using the left hand on the bench, and the knee on the bench, gives you great support and allows you to use the most weight possible in a dumbbell row. But you can also remove your support system and do those exercises one arm at a time. Now you are going to be using less weight in the exercise, but using your of your abdominals and also the supporting muscles in your legs to keep yourself in that proper position. You can just do your rows like that of course and with the elbow out position as well. Or you can switch it up and use 2 dumbbells.
If you don't have a barbell at home you can still use 2 different type of double arm rowing. Bent over rowing. So you can do them with your elbows in. You are going to be a little bit stronger in this one. Or this position with the elbows out and hands over, makes it look like you're doing barbell rowing. Once you do it with your hand facing your feet , elbow out, you start to work your posterior deltoids a little bit more. The last exercise that we're going to do, works your posterior deltoids quite a bit. We are just going to do some side lateral raises, in a bent over position. Just out to the side and back down. Very strong contraction for the posterior deltoids. Obviously with the lateral raises. The more bent over you get, the more you move the stress to the back of the shoulder and even between you shoulders for the rhomboids. As you move to a more standing position you start to recruit the more medial deltoids, and as you get to an upright position, you are using medial deltoids and anterior deltoids as well.
So those are just a bunch of dumbbell exercises that you can do, for variety for training your upper back, and your lats, at home when you don't have a cable row machine, or you don't have a pull-up bar. When you are trying to get in as much work as you can, done with simply as bench, dumbbells, or even just dumbbells alone. That's our lesson for today.
Here's to 2008 being your best year ever. If there is anything I can do to help you out, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks so much for your support! 2008 is going to be a heck of a year,Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS Author, Turbulence Training
