Trained back at Strength Beyond in Kalamazoo. I ended up forgetting my gym bag and didn't have any lifting straps for the workout...so I had to pretend like my girl hands grew a pair and man-hand all the exercises.
I was pretty rushed today--my middle child is in the 4th grade choir and they were "wassailing" in the park at nightfall, so I was with the fam damily watching them tear it up to "oh Holy night" and the like.
I went straight from wassailing to the gym so I didn't have a chance to pump myself up by watching youtube videos and thinking of my 3rd grade bully beforehand.
Reverse grip pull downs.
Five sets of 12 reps.
On these I really try to take a wide grip. It helps me keep my elbows tucked in actually. I have been really working on bringing up my lower lats, and this is one of my favorite exercises from years past in bringing up my lower lats.
Regular grip pull downs (medium grip).
Three sets of 12 reps.
On this exercise I really focus on keeping my elbows forward, and pulling the bar down to my lower chest, upper abdomen region. It's really more of a pull over, not a pull down, but again, this is another exercise that really seems to hit my lower lats.
Dumbbell rows lying on an inclined bench.
Four sets, 15 reps.
There is nothing special about this exercise. I am just, this is almost like a rest period for me. I am kind of burned, fried on the pull downs. So I do these. I use 45 pound dumbbells. Just bang them out. It gives me good pump in my lats, and gives my brachioradialis a rest.
Pull ups.
Two set about 6 actual reps with ~3 convulsions/half pull ups.
I have never been good at pull ups. Every once and a while I tell myself that I am going to get to a phase where I am going to learn to get good at them, but just something about it...maybe my weak lats or my excessive body weight, but whatever it is I've just never been good at pull ups.
Bent over rows.
Three sets, 12 reps.
I do these pretty far bent over. My upper body kind of parallel to the floor. I wasn't standing on a block this time, but I still try to bend over as much as I could. I only went up to 225 pounds but that was pretty decent amount of weight. If I go higher on that where I stay parallel, I start pulling myself upright, swinging the weight a little too much.
Behind the neck pull downs.
Three sets, five reps.
Really trying to work on my ... Well I am trying to bring up my entire back, but primarily my lower lats and traps, which I feel like have always lagged. My mid-back thickness has been fine, but this is just another exercise to work the traps that isn't a shrug.
Machine shrugs super setted with cable shrugs.
Three sets, 20 reps each.
This is just to finish it off. Kind of get a pump in my traps. Nothing special here. I went up to the whole stack on cable, and I think about 225 on the machine shrugs. It really was pretty light, but I was mostly trying to get a pump in my traps. I do my second back day two days from now where I do all my heavy exercises. Everything today is pretty much focused on getting a pump, and primarily trying to get some blood in my traps and lower lats. That's it.