Apr

22

Back Thickness And Width

Filed Under Definitions | 

You read many articles talking about thickness or width from your back training. If you are new to bodybuilding and muscle gain then it is likely that you do not fully understand what these terms refer to.

Nor do they understand which exercises target width and which exercises target thickness.

More importantly many bodybuilders do not understand it is vitally important to train for thickness before width if you want to get a big back.

Vitally important why is that?

Because the back is made up of a multitude of muscles and they all respond differently, growing individual muscle groups will either give you thickness or width depending upon the exercise and how it is performed.

Let me explain further.

Width exercises tend to train your lats, the part of your back that sticks out at the sides of your back. Training this will give you a wider appearance but it will not do much for your overall body weight or for your ‘thickness’ - which is how you appear from side on.

To train your thickness you will do exercises that also stress your lats - which will also lead to width. The cornerstone thickness exercises are deadlifts and bent over rows.

If you train your width exercises first it leaves your back fatigued and you cannot do your mass building big gain exercises with full poundages or intensity, therefore you will not get maximum growth.

Yet if you do your thickness exercises first, it leaves your back ready to grow, pumped and with fatigued  lats you can always target your pre-exhausted lats with your width exercises and have a full back workout and maximum gains.

Training the rest of your back first is important since there is much more strength, muscle mass and potential gains to be had from the rest of muscles in your back. Train your lats last they are a much smaller portion of your back than many people realise.

Trust me. I never saw anyone grow a huge back doing pulldowns.

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