The most difficult part of the back to develop is by far the middle. This area is formed by the middle and back portions of the trapezius muscle. In order to properly “load” this part, it is necessary to concentrate as much as possible on the very moment of bringing the blades together at the moment of thrust. This is quite difficult to do, and you have to concentrate on each repetition of the deadlift, trying to shift the load from the lats to the middle of the back. Fortunately, there is a simpler and more energy efficient method to develop your mid-back muscles - standing barbell rows. How technically this exercise is performed and what mistakes beginner athletes most often make when performing it - we will tell in this article.
The benefits of exercise
This exercise is called the barbell pull behind the back, in other words - the Lee Haney deadlift. It is this legendary athlete from the bodybuilding world who is considered the "inventor" of the exercise in question.
Remarkably, the barbell row serves more than just the aesthetic demands of bodybuilding judges. The fact is that the muscles related to the interscapular space are often hypotrophied in people leading a sedentary lifestyle. Also, the middle of the back is chronically turned off for representatives of certain professions - jewelers, violinists, accountants, programmers. This leads to impaired blood circulation in this area, therefore - to a violation of the blood supply to the thoracic spine.
Recall that it is in the middle part of the back that the attachments of the ribs that form the chest are located. Hence, intercostal neuralgia, a chronic feeling of lack of air, pain in the thoracic spine are possible.
In addition, the middle and lower portions of the trapezium, together with the posterior delta, biomechanically "align" the upper shoulder girdle with respect to the distribution of the latter's weight over the chest. What does it mean? With the weakening of the listed complex of muscles, the shoulder joints go forward, under the action of traction from the small and large pectoral muscles.
It would seem, what is so terrible? With this position of the body, the weight of the upper shoulder girdle falls on the 7th cervical vertebra, and this inevitably leads to hyperlordosis of the cervical spine. It is this disease that is the cause of acute headaches, deterioration of visual acuity, chronic headaches.
And precisely in order to prevent these conditions, we must develop the muscles of the interscapular space. And the easiest way to do this is to pull the barbell behind your back while standing.
What muscles work?
We hope that in the previous section we were able to convince you of the benefits of such an exercise as the barbell row behind the back. And in order to finally dispel your doubts about whether or not to include the exercise in your training program, carefully read which muscles work when performing the barbell row behind your back:
- middle and lower portion of the trapezius muscles;
- deeply lying rhomboid muscles;
- posterior bundles of deltoid muscles;
- long bundles of the biceps muscles of the arms, brachioradial muscles are indirectly involved.
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Execution technique
The correct technique for performing the barbell row behind your back while standing looks like this:
- We put the barbell on the racks at the level of the palms of the lowered hands.
- We stand with our backs to the bar, grip - at shoulder width.
- With a controlled movement, we remove the barbell from the racks, slightly bring the pelvis forward. Without spreading the elbows to the sides, pull them up. At the same time, the shoulder blades are brought together.
- We smoothly return the projectile to its original position. The elbows are constantly parallel to each other.
After completing 12-15 repetitions, you should feel as if someone has blown a balloon between your shoulder blades. Throughout the exercise, the feeling of tension should be concentrated primarily between the shoulder blades. It is possible that a feeling similar to “creeping crawl” may arise.
To do this exercise correctly, you should not confuse it with barbell shrugs. In shrugs, you practically do not bend your elbows, the exercise is reduced to shrugging the shoulders, the amplitude of movement of the projectile is very small. In contrast, in the Lee Haney deadlift, you should bend your elbows, trying to move the emphasis from the top of the trapezoid to the center of the back.
Common beginner mistakes
The range of motion is not particularly large. There are not very many possible trajectories of the barbell movement either. But, in spite of this, even in the barbell pull behind the back, mistakes are possible, leveling all the advantages of the described exercise. There are three most common mistakes:
- The deadlift is performed with the biceps force. In this case, the exercise becomes absolutely useless, moreover, the risk of tearing the anterior pole of the shoulder joint capsule increases.
- Elbows move apart. With such a technical error, thoracic kyphosis increases, creating a number of the problems described above. This technique is strongly discouraged as it is potentially dangerous.
- Excessive weight is used to prevent full range exercise. Again, the exercise becomes completely useless if it is not performed at full amplitude. No amplitude - there is no involvement of working muscles and, therefore, there is no expected effect. The author of the deadlift, Lee Haney, performed this exercise with a weight of 40 kilograms. Therefore, it will be advisable to start with an empty bar and do the back pull at the very end of the workout on the back.
Train smart! Be healthy!
