A large chest and a broad back are two of the main ‘obsessions’ in the world of Fitness because of the aspect of corpulence that they generate. Building muscle in these two major muscle groups requires a great work of hypertrophy, in addition to a caloric surplus in the diet -especially if you are not a beginner in the world of the gym-.
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The chest and back can be worked in a thousand wayss: with dumbbells, bars, pulleys, machines and even with calisthenics exercises such as pull-ups, funds, push-ups… With both more specific and multi-articular work. Progressive overload – that is, progress in the ability to lift weights (without neglecting the technique) and thus give the muscle a stimulus to continue growing – is vital and there are some exercises that allow significant progress, in addition to being tremendously effective in building muscle.
The basics are really important -bench press, pulldowns, incline press…-, but to add variety to training there are also very interesting exercises due to their hypertrophic value -muscle development-.
There is different ways to distribute the muscles throughout the week and to divide the workouts. You can go from a longer rest between series to a type of training that includes super series -that is, take two antagonistic muscle exercises and do them alternately, for example the back and chest are two antagonistic groups in the torso and while you exercise one the other is resting without having to stop between series-.
Within this second class, the magazine Men’s Health proposes a training session to work both groups -chest and back- in a fast way and that favors muscle growth. The proposal consists of a superset with two exercises: a standing press (or upper or military style) and a row, both with a bar. The idea is to do eight repetitions in the press and without stopping, with the same bar and the same weight, do 12 rows. Stop for a minute and add 5 kilos, doing the same thing again (8 in the press and 12 in the row) and As the demand increases with the weight, also increase the rest a little, setting it at two minutes. The idea is to increase five kilos each time until you reach a set in which you can no longer perform more than four repetitions on the press and eight on the row.
Overhead or Military Press
It is a very common exercise and works both the shoulders and the back.The upper pectoral, which is one of the three parts that make up the chest that gives a sensation of greater volume. It is about taking the bar and raising it to the sky starting from the neck. It can be done sitting down to improve stability or standing up to help your knees when going up and to be able to carry a little more weight with the impulse.
Barbell Row
In this case, the back is straightened and the buttocks are thrown back with the knees bent. The bar is ‘dropped’ to the ground and you go up trying to bring the bar to the upper area of the navel (simply speaking: doing a pull as if you wanted to put your elbows in your pockets). In this way you will get a wider and stronger back.
