Build a Big Back with Lee Haney

8x Mr. Olympia Goes Back to Basics

Part 1: Back Training

In this series, I will take a look at what I feel are the exercises most people don’t do properly for each body part. By pointing out common errors in technique and telling you how you should be performing the movement, you will be one step closer to the physique you want! We begin with a body part I was especially known for, the back.

One-Arm Dumbbell Rows

This one has to come first in the discussion simply because I see it done incorrectly far more often than not. You tend to see guys with their leg up on the bench, but the wrong leg! For example, they will be pulling with the left arm and have their left knee up on the bench. Wrong! The right knee should be on the bench, and the left leg should be out and angled away from the torso; with your foot roughly two feet to the left of the bench. The second major form error I see is having the torso inclined upward instead of being parallel to the ground (also a blunder on barbell rows, which we’ll get to momentarily). This will allow you to hit the upper lats, mid and lower traps, and rhomboids, but will completely neglect the lower lats and lumbars. It’s funny how you see so many “high lats” these days compared to the physiques of yesteryear. Did genetics for lat attachments get worse? Not likely. The more plausible explanation is that bodybuilders today tend to do their rows more upright. Getting back to the dumbbell row, you are actually better off not even using a bench. Support the non-working arm on a dumbbell rack or the end of a flat bench in front of you, and spread your legs wide so you have plenty of room to row through a full range of motion. You will get some glute and hamstring involvement too, which is just a bonus.

Barbell Rows

The barbell row is the absolute best exercise for back thickness, bar none. However, it can also be dangerous because it’s tough to maintain an arch in the lower back once the weights get fairly heavy. That’s why I did not include it when I trained athletes like MLB star Gary Sheffield or world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield. It just wasn’t worth the risk, especially when many millions of dollars are at stake! But for we bodybuilders, barbell rows are a must. These are the bread-and-butter movement for back, and I have been doing them since I was 12 years old!

Every top bodybuilder has done his share of barbell rows: Arnold, Franco, Robby Robinson, Roy Callender, Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler, to name a few. I know Dorian was big on the reverse grip, but I never liked it because it puts far too much stress on the biceps. Dorian himself tore his right biceps doing reverse-grip barbell rows with 455 pounds. It’s also well known that I prefer the torso to be parallel to the ground, so that your lower abs are actually resting on your upper thighs. If you lower your hips and get them further back, you’re inviting lower back injury. To get the best stretch at the bottom possible, you should stand on an eight-inch high deadlift platform or a low box. Forget about standing on top of a padded bench, as that’s too unstable a surface. Another option is to use 25-pound plates instead of 45s if you want to simply stand on the floor and still get a full stretch of the lats.

There is no need to use excessively heavy weights and risk hurting your lower back. Trust me, once you have a lower back injury, it follows you for life! I weighed around 260 pounds and was known for having the best back development of my era. How much do you think I used on barbell rows? Most of the time I stuck with 185, and occasionally I would go up to 225! Think about that the next time you assume 315-405 pounds is necessary on this exercise. As for my form, I like to compare it to a “check mark.” The pull would be done explosively, and then I would lower the resistance slowly and under control.

Pulldowns

I prefer chin-ups over pulldowns, but not everyone can do chin-ups. The pulldown is really a more controlled form of chin-ups. I see two things being done wrong all the time on pulldowns: leaning back, and pulling behind the neck. Leaning back turns this into a horizontal pulling motion like a row, not the vertical pull it’s supposed to be. The bar should come under your chin and graze the top of your chest on every rep. If you’re pulling to your nipples or upper abs, you’re doing it wrong! As for pulling down behind the neck, I did those early in my career until I learned what an unnatural motion it is for the shoulder joints. The tendency when pulling behind the neck is to lean forward. Doing so takes most of the stress off the back and puts it right on your shoulder joints!

Chin-Ups

If you are strong enough to do chins, do them! If not, you should be using the assisted chin-up machine to build up the strength for them. The form pointers for chins are very similar to what we went over with lat pulldowns. Keep an arch in your lower back, pop out your chest, and pull up until your chin clears the bar. Don’t pull behind the neck, and get a full range of motion. Forget about jerky half-reps. You will get better results from a set of just four properly executed chin-ups than you would from 10-12 reps with poor form. One way to do it if you can only get a few reps is to pick a number like 20, and do as many sets of quality reps as it takes to complete.

T-Bar Rows

T-bar rows build the meat of the back just like barbell rows. But it has to be the right type of apparatus. I’ll never forget years ago at a Muscle Camp in California when I announced that the one they had was garbage and clearly designed by someone who didn’t train— little did I know he was standing in that room with us! The platform should be level to the ground, not inclined up. The most worthless type of T-bar row I see is that “supported” version with the chest pad. It’s touted as being better at isolating the lats. Well, guess what? The T-bar row, just like the barbell row, is supposed to be a compound movement! Take away the involvement of your core, your glutes and hams, and you’re not left with much. As for the pad, you load substantial weight on the bar and it will feel like a 400-pound man is standing on your chest. It’s just a lazy way of doing T-bar rows, and you’re better off sticking a barbell in a corner like Ronnie was known to do.

Half-Rep Nonsense

This really applies to all training, so I wanted to make a note about it here in the first installment of this series. The “new school” of thought says that half-reps are superior for building muscle. The evidence in terms of champion physiques says otherwise. For the best results, use a full range of motion. Get a good contraction and a good stretch on every single rep.

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