Hold the weight in place for 3 seconds, and then slowly lower your arm and shoulder to lower the weight. Control your arm as you release your hold position. A controlled lowering gives you the greatest benefit for this exercise.
Once you’ve done a full set of arm rows with 1 arm, switch sides to exercise the other half of your back.
Repeat for 3 sets of 10-12 reps. This will help your lats to bulk up quickly and will allow you to see fast results. If you need to work up to this goal, start with only 1 set of 12 reps. Throughout the bent over row, make sure that your knees and legs flexed slightly to support your lower back.
Make sure that you bring the bar in front of your head. If you try bringing it down behind your head, you may injure your shoulders.
Perform 1-2 sets of 6-8 reps until you’re comfortable doing more. As your back builds up, increase the reps to 10-12. If the weight and amount of reps are correct, you should struggle to complete the last 1-2 reps in each set.
To finish, slowly extend your arms to return to your start position. When doing cable rows, set the machine at a weight that allows you to do about 12 reps for 3 sets. Doing 12 reps will allow you to build up back muscle without exhausting yourself or potentially straining your muscles.
Slowly bring your arms back in to your chest. Bring your arms to your chest slowly, without letting the weight jerk your shoulders. Start out with 3 sets of 10-12 reps. If you’ve set the weight right, the last 2 or 3 reps of each set should burn. If this is too challenging at first, lower the weight and try to complete 1 full set of 10-12 reps.
If you jerk and twist your back as you pull yourself up, you’ll risk straining a muscle. Start with as many pull-ups as you can manage, and try to add 1-2 more each workout. For example, start with 10. Next time you do pull-ups, aim for 12.
Once you’re comfortable doing low planks, try adding high planks into your workout routine. The only difference is that, instead of resting on your elbows, you’ll fully extend your arms and rest on your hands.
You can increase or decrease the difficulty of the superman pose as needed. Try raising one arm at a time, then build toward raising one arm and the opposite leg at the same time. Move to raising both arms but not your legs, then both legs but not your arms to prepare you for the complete pose. This exercise works your back extensor muscles, which run down your spine and impact your posture.
Reverse snow angels will engage your mid-back lats, rhomboids, posterior deltoids, trapezius, and teres major.
