Nutrition & Health OnLine Magazine

BASICS OF TRAINING: Part 14
Exercises for the Back Part 2

Davey Dunn

Your back contains some of the largest muscles in your upper body but for many people these muscles are neglected in order to spend more time training the favored muscle groups like the Chest and Arms. For a properly developed well-balanced physique it is essential that you devote the same quantity and quality of training effort to your back and in the last issue we discussed exercises that can be used to develop the muscles of the upper-back. This issue we will pick up where we left off last issue and discuss exercises that can be used to develop the muscles of your lower-back.

The main muscles that comprise your lower-back are the Erector Spinae muscles which run along each side of your spine in your lower back. These muscles are extremely important for stabilizing your lower back and preventing painful back injuries. Detailed below are some of the exercises that can be employed to develop these different muscles of your lower-back.

DeadLifts are a mult-joint exercise that heavily involve the Erector Spinae muscles as well as also training your quads, gluts, hamstrings and many other smaller muscles. Because deadlifts involve so many muscle groups and puts so much stress on the lower back it is recommended that you not perform the lift more than once a week. For more detailed information on training the deadlift read the Nutrition & Health OnLine article called: THE DEADLIFT: A SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS

You begin the exercise by positioning yourself over the bar with approximately a shoulder width grip. Some people prefer an alternating grip or lifting straps when handling heavier weights. Once the proper grip is attained you lower your hips into position as shown in the first picture below and then drive with your legs while simultaneously extending your torso. Be careful not to jerk the weight from the floor since this will cause your hips to shoot up and place more stress on your lower back than is intended. Proper form maintains a relatively flat back throughout the movement until an erect position is achieved as shown in the second picture. The bar is then lowered to the floor in a controlled manner and the lift is once again repeated.

Stiff Legged Deadlifts are exactly like regular deadlifts except that as the name implies you keep your legs almost stiff using extension in your torso to perform the lift. For the purpose of training your lower back muscles it is essential that you maintain a slight bend in your knees otherwise you will not involve your Erector Spinae muscles but instead use your hamstrings and vertebral ligaments to perform the lift. When done properly, Stiff Legged Deadlifts will improve the isolation of the lower back muscles and promote growth. The best way to perform the lift is by standing upon a block in order to maximize the range of motion during the lift. You begin by grasping the bar as you would in a regular deadlift and then perform a regular deadlift until you are standing erect which is the starting position. From there you allow the weight to descend slowly in a controlled manner keeping a slight bend in your knees while allowing you torso to bend forward until the bar is just above your feet. At this point you reverse the direction of the bar using your lower back to pull the weight smoothly back to the starting position.

Good Mornings can be a pretty tough exercise to perform but they do provide good isolation for the Erector Spinae muscles and involve fewer secondary muscles than regular deadlifts . You start the lift with the weight positioned on your shoulders similar to the starting position for squats. You then bend forward in a controlled manner until your torso is approximately perpendicular to floor as shown in the second picture below. From here you use primarily you lower back muscles to move your torso back to the starting position.

Back Extensions are similar to good mornings except that you use a machine to perform the movement which reduces the amount of other muscles involved during the lift. An important point to remember during Back Extensions is to not exceed perpendicular in the upward position otherwise you will unduly stress the spine and lower back. You begin this lift by positioning yourself on the apparatus with your torso perpendicular to the floor as shown in the first picture below. Allow the weight to pull you down until you torso is approximately ninety degrees in relation to your legs and hip as shown in the second picture below. From here use your lower back muscles to bring your torso back to the starting position.

Reverse Extensions may be the best exercise for purely isolating the lower back muscles because they utilize movement of your legs instead of your torso. You can perform this lift with any regular bench press and can increase the intensity by wearing ankle weights or holding a barbell on the backs of you legs. You begin with your knees bent straddling the lower end of the bench as shown in the first picture below. You pull your legs out and up using your lower back muscles as shown in the second picture below. Control the weight while you lower it back into the starting position and the repeat the lift

It is important to understand that your Erector Spinae muscles are involved to some extent in every workout you perform so care should be taken not to overtrain this muscle group. Exercises like Deadlifts, Stiff Legged Deadlifts and Good Mornings should not be trained more than once a week because of the amount of stress they place on the lower back. Reverse Extensions is the only lift that you should consider performing more than once a week and only when properly planned into the overall workout scheme according to the principles of Specificity, Variation and Periodization.

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