Back Training by Tony Wilder of T-Wild Training

Narrow Grip Pull up w/Palms facing in:  Most multiple station cable machines will have a pull up bar or bars with several different grips to use for pull ups.  Perhaps on one side there will be a bar that can be utilized for wide grip pull ups, narrow grip for palms facing away or towards the body or shoulder width grip can also be utilized with the same bar.  On the other side there may be two handles sticking straight out from the bar, these two handles are what I am referring to at this point.  Some may find this movement more difficult to do than any other pull up, even wide grip.  Reason could be that they've never attempted this movement and therefore the muscles have never been stimulated in this manner or it could be as simple as the biceps are not as strong in this position as they are in others.  This position is like doing a hammer curl with dumbbells which is a completely different feel and effect on the muscles...it incorporates the forearm into the movement at a much greater extent and also focuses a lot more on the lower area of the biceps.  If you don't do very many hammer curls or if you don't do them at all then you will most definitely have a harder time with this movement in the beginning than what you would if you used a grip with your palms facing you.  What I really like to focus on here is arching my lower back, pushing my hips forward, curling my legs back, getting a great stretch at the bottom, as I come up I keep my elbows tight to the body and push my chest up towards the bar...as you lower yourself keep the lower back arched and the hips pushed forward until you get back into a full stretch.  Now that is a lot to focus on, yes?  But to get the most out of the movement I've found that that is the best way to do it.  Granted that is NOT the only way to utilize this movement but in my opinion it is the most stimulating to the muscles that you are trying to target.  Something that I really like to do with this movement is to place yourself under the main bar, reach up and grip the two handles and pull yourself up and touch your chest to the cross bar. :)  That will really make you focus on keeping the body in the proper positions.  Notice how I said "positions" because you will be going through several to complete an entire rep.  FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS...to get the MOST out of this and any/all movements.  I mean, what do you get when you are sloppy?  Most of the time nothing and sometimes an injury that can put you out for days, weeks, and even months...perhaps for life.  ALWAYS pay attention to your form!  Sometimes this movement will be the only type of pull up that I will utilize in a back training session.  Other times I will do three to 5 different types of pull ups for a training session...it all depends on how I feel and what I'm trying to accomplish.  Each style will change how the back, arms and shoulders will be affected.  Simple ways to change this up is to find bars that have a different amount of space between them or if you don't have a set up like this you can take a V-Bar that is used for close grip cable pull downs and put it over the regular pull up bar and do them that way.

Narrow Grip Seated Cable Row superset w/Wide Grip:  I really like to utilize a machine with a chest pad to allow yourself to be a lot more strict on your form...instead of being able to throw it, with the pad you are able to utilize more control over the reps.  I know you've seen the monkeys in the gym that throw these massively heavy weights around, look around, look in the mirror that say LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME, I'm a big dumb ass monkey!  PATHETIC!  Avoid these morons and training like them at ALL cost!  Now, slight movement forward and backward, that is well controlled is quite all right but don't get to crazy with that...keep it to a minimum.  You can start with the narrow grip handles first or if you like you can start with the wide grip handles and hopefully the machine will have handles in both positions that will allow you to have the palms facing in.  When doing the narrow grip keep the elbows pointed down in the start position and as you bring them back keep them so that they will brush the sides of your body and drive them as far back as possible.  As far as seat height goes I like to put it up higher than what most people will utilize...that's just me, experiment with the height and decide for yourself where you get the best feel.  When you use the wide grip I keep the elbows high through the entire movement and utilize a good squeeze on the way back as I drive the elbows as far back as possible.  Sometimes I will do the same amount of reps per position or I will do 12 reps for one and 8 reps for the other.  My numbers nor my combinations are EVER set in stone...for I always change things up and sometimes wont even do the same type of set twice in a row.  Sets, reps, exercises could change on every single set I do in the gym.  NEVER limit yourself!  I'm NOT saying this or anything else I say is set in stone and/or "TRAINING LAW!"  I know I have said that before but I feel it necessary to "say it again and again" because it NEEDS to be said.  Expand your knowledge, grow stronger and healthier as time comes and goes.

Wide Grip Pull Down:  Again you don't want to look like some kind of monkey swinging back a forth with a bar in your hands...we all know just how stupid these guys look.  On this exercise you want to take a wide grip on the pull down bar...it will be up to you to find a comfortable width that is right for you, to where you will feel the greatest amount of affect on the muscles.  Although, something that I like to do here, just like on the barbell bench press (at times) is to change my width with each consecutive set.  Say you start with a very wide grip that is perhaps 8 inches wider than your shoulders on both sides for a set and then on the next one you move them in to attack those muscles a bit differently.  Plus, you could sit very erect, keep an arch in the lower back, and push your chest out as you pull the bar down...drive the elbows down along with keeping them wide...squeeze the shoulder blades as if you were going to bring them together.  Or, you could lean backwards at about a 25 to 30 degree angle and incorporate the same style all the while keeping your body locked at the angle that you have chosen to do the exercise.  I like to do higher reps with this movement instead of trying to go heavy, for the simple fact that it is a very taxing movement and you will end up swinging like a monkey to get the weight down.  AVOID your ego with this movement, it will only cost you valuable energy, strength and could possibly injure you.  I always pull the bar down to the front at the top of my chest...I ALMOST never pull the bar down behind my head and if I do I barely break the plain of the top of my head.  Reason, well, many claim that it puts unnecessary strain on the rotator cuff muscles.  Granted I have seen a lot of people do this behind the head without injuring themselves but I'm one of those people that would prefer to leave something like this out of a routine when I know the benefits of it are not any better than doing it in a safer manner.  Train HARD and always train SMART!

Barbell Row:  I prefer to use the fixed barbells that are already preset with a certain weight.  Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width, toes pointed in a comfortable direction, bend slightly at the knees, grip the barbell with either a wide grip or just outside shoulder width, (palms facing away) lean forward with your lower back arched and your chest pushed out, some people prefer to look into a mirror but I find it much more comfortable to look towards the ground so my spine stays in line, pull the bar up towards your abdomen, I find that my belly button is a good target to bring the bar to or slightly higher, keep the elbows tight to the body if you are using a shoulder width grip and when utilizing a wide grip keep them wide and high...drive the elbows back and squeeze the shoulder blades towards one another.  To give yourself a slightly different feel in this movement simply turn the hands around so that your palms are facing your body.  You may find when you do this that your body will want to bring the bar up more towards your chest than you abdomen but everyone is different so this may or may not be the case.  Either way keep STRICT form!  If you have lower back problems DO NOT do this exercise because you can easily make a mess of yourself and end up not being able to train at all for quite some time.  An excellent substitute for this movement is to take the wide grip pull down bar and use it on the seated cable row.  This will give you a much more STABLE foundation and almost completely take your lower back out of the movement.  Chose the width you would like to do and either use an over or under hand grip on the bar, either narrow or wide, keep a slight bend in the knees, arch the lower back, push the chest out and pull the bar in towards your abs or perhaps your chest depending on how you want to target your back muscles.  DO NOT JERK THE WEIGHT!!!  Utilize a very controlled movement as to not have a greater chance of injuring your lower back.

Single Arm Lat Pull Down:  Your form on this movement is EXTREMELY important.  If you are off on this you will not feel the area that you are trying to target and think that it is a wasted movement.  Don't fool yourself, when done properly this can be extremely effective in targeting your lats.  What I like to do is use the cable machines that are usually utilized to do cable crossovers for the chest.  Take a D ring and place them on both sides...you will only do one side at a time though.  Now, grab one of those rings and pull it so that you are over by the other cable.  Kneel down facing a mirror, NOT towards the cable that is an entirely different movement, and either sit on your heels or hover slightly above them, arch your lower back, hold your chest high, let the cable stretch your arm and lat...now that you are here as you pull the D ring towards you do NOT let your hand come forward and do NOT allow your elbow to go backwards.  Basically you want to do your best to hold your arm as if it was up against a solid wall while you bring the ring down to you.  Drive the elbow down and into your side and squeeze.  I know this description is hard to understand and if you need more explanation please feel free to email me.

Single Arm 'Bull Dog' Row:  You will basically do the same thing as above only you will be facing the cable that you are pulling from.  Plus, you will start with the palm facing down towards the ground and as you pull it to you the palm will either end facing in towards your body or up towards the lights.  The reason why this is call the 'Bull Dog' row is because you will be in the stance of a bull dog...only exception is that one arm will be up holding the D ring.  Or you could use a rope in the same manner but I'm not going to get into that here.  What you want to do is grab the D ring and pull it so that you are on the other side where the other cable is.  Once here, get down on all fours or I should say on all three's, arch the lower back, push your butt back just a bit, push your chest out and don't look up, keep looking down at the floor.  Pull the D ring towards you starting with the palm down and as you bring it closer rotate it so that the palm will face the body as you bring it in.  Drive the elbow towards the top of your thigh and then simply return to the start.  The reason for the turn of the palm will be realized when you do the movement.  If you are using a cable that has adjustable height from the floor to the top of the machine and positions in-between change the elevation to create a totally different angle and feel.  Enjoy.

Varied Hand Position Pull Ups:  What I mean by 'varied hand positions' is that one hand will be gripping the bar that is utilized for doing wide grip pull ups and the other hand will be gripping the main support bar of the cable machine and/or squat rack whichever has the pull up stations.  Or one hand could be gripping the bar that would be used for close grip pull ups with the palms facing one another and the other had will be gripping the wide grip pull up bar.  If you chose to put one hand on the support bar you most likely will not be able to grip it since it is flat and much wider than your hand.  In this case your hand will be in the shape that of an "L" which will make this movement incredibly more difficult. :)  Which reminds me of something that I love to do is to utilize such a grip with both hands...this is so much more intense and has a much greater difficulty level than say being able to actually wrap your fingers around a bar.  When your hands are in the shape of an "L" it takes far more concentration and strength than does what most people refer to as a normal grip.  Anyway, back to the exercise at hand.  The reason behind using a different grip while doing pull ups allows you to focus on one side more than the other...in essence one hand is only there for support.  Believe me, this is a LOT of fun!!!  As with all types of pull ups you can utilize varying widths to change it up along with varying the grips.

Standing Dumbbell Row:  Granted you wont be standing straight up but you wont be utilizing a bench to place one knee on either.  This is where you will be leaning forward with either your hand or elbow on a bench and/or piece of stable equipment.  What you need to do is stand with your feet wider than shoulder width, slight bend in the knees, lean forward and place your free hand as a support on a bench or a rack, arch the lower back, keep the shoulders square to the floor and push the chest out.  As you bring the dumbbell up keep the elbow in tight to the body and drive it up.  The natural movement of the arm will make it so that you bring the dumbbell up towards your abdomen, once there squeeze your back and return to the starting position.  You could, if you prefer let the dumbbell stretch your back out, meaning letting it pull that shoulder down and out of alignment with the other one.  DO NOT swing or jerk the weight up because it will only make you look like a fool.

Note:  All weights and rest times listed below are generic...the only thing that really isn't is the amount of reps, that is something that I would like for you to stay close to but does NOT have to be the exact same as long as you are close.  And don't go nuts with the rest times either, meaning resting for three minutes or more is unnecessary.  A great way to change this up is to allow minimal rest between some sets and/or exercises.  Again, don't get to crazy with that either or you wont make it through the routine.

I personally like to pound my biceps the same day as back so I will finish all my back movements and then do one to two different types of biceps movements to finish them off.  Whatever you chose to do if you decide to train the biceps following back make sure you do the movements with great focus and really concentrate on hitting the biceps with all you have left.

Again:  The times and weights listed within this routine and all others that I put together are generic and can be changed to fit your own needs.  The rest periods also depend on just how intense you are up to training.

Sample Routine #1:

Narrow Grip Pull up w/palms facing in:
Set  #1:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    18-22        Rest:    90 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    12-14        Rest:    90 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    12              Rest:    90 seconds
Set  #4:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    10-12        Rest:    90 seconds
Not always necessary:
Set  #5:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    failure        Rest:    90 seconds

Goal number of reps on pull ups is a minimum of 56 reps in 4 sets and 62 plus in 5 sets.

Standing Dumbbell Row:
Set  #1:        Weight:    75 lbs        Reps:    18        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    80 lbs        Reps:    15        Rest:    70 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    60 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    80 seconds
Or you could do the following for set #3.
Set  #3:        Weight:    70 lbs        Reps:    15    Drop:        Weight:    45 lbs        Reps:    12        Rest:    90 seconds

Wide Grip Pull Down w/cable:
Set  #1:        Weight:    110 lbs        Reps:    18        Rest:    70 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    16        Rest:    80 seconds
Drop Set:
Set  #3:        Weight:    115 lbs        Reps:    14        Drop:    95 lbs    Reps:    failure       Rest:    80 seconds

Single Arm Bull Dog Row w/cable:
Set  #1:        Weight:    90 lbs        Reps:    18        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    100 lbs      Reps:    failure   Rest:    70 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    100 lbs      Reps:    failure   Rest:    80 seconds

Note:  After finishing this routine or any within this training section you could through in some biceps training and/or shoulder training as well.  Abs could easily be incorporated as well.

Sample routine #2 is a real ass kicker so you really have to be prepared and you may find that you need to change it to fit your own abilities.

Sample Routine #2

Varied Hand Position Pull Ups:
Set  #1:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    14        Rest:    60 seconds        next set switch hand positions
Set  #2:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    14        Rest:    60 seconds        "                                        "
Set  #3:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    12        Rest:    60 seconds        "                                        "
Set  #4:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    12        Rest:    90 seconds        "                                        "
Set  #5:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    10        Rest:    60 seconds        "                                        "
Set  #6:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    10        Rest:    90 seconds        "                                        "

Goal number of reps for pull ups is 72...MINIMUM. :)

Narrow Grip Seated Cable Row superset w/Wide Grip:
Set  #1:        Weight:    130 lbs        Reps:    14        Wide Grip:    Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    12        Rest:    70 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    140 lbs        Reps:    12        Wide Grip:    Weight:      90 lbs        Reps:    10        Rest:    80 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    110 lbs        Reps:    16        Wide Grip:    Weight:      80 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    90 seconds

Single Arm Bull Dog Row:
Set  #1:        Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    18        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    110 lbs        Reps:    15        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    120 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    90 seconds

Single Arm Lat Pull Down:
Set  #1:        Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    failure    Rest:    90 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    failure    Rest:    90 seconds

Sample Routine #3

Barbell Row:
Set  #1:        Weight:    120 lbs        Reps:    16        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    120 lbs        Reps:    16        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    110 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #4:        Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    60 seconds

Single Arm Lat Pull Down:
Set  #1:        Weight:    120 lbs        Reps:    14        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    130 lbs        Reps:    12        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    120 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    90 seconds

Narrow Grip Pull Up w/palms facing in:
Set  #1:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    12        Rest:    70 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    10        Rest:    80 seconds
Set  #3:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    failure   Rest:    90 seconds

Standing Dumbbell Row:
Set  #1:        Weight:    75 lbs        Reps:    16        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    75 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    60 seconds

Single Arm Bull Dog Row w/cable:
Set  #1:        Weight:    100 lbs        Reps:    18        Rest:    60 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    110 lbs        Reps:    failure   Rest:    80 seconds

Narrow Grip Pull up w/palms facing in:
Set  #1:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    failure        Rest:    90 seconds
Set  #2:        Weight:    Body        Reps:    failure        Rest:    90 seconds

Note:  If you go to my training technique/styles page and pull some information from there and apply it here you can easily modify any of these routines to make them different every time.  Or you could simply change them around or pull information from another back training page I have on my site and piece an entirely different routine together.  Expand your knowledge beyond what you read here and you will succeed in accomplishing any and all goals you set before yourself.  Remember, what I say is NOT fitness law nor should it be utilized all the time.  Change is good and will help you achieve even greater goals.