The previous article on back training is essential for you to read before jumping into this series of back workouts. In the former article, I laid some training concept and biomechanical groundwork that is crucial to your success.

Warm up. Enough said. Well, almost enough said…You may feel like you're ready to train but a lot of low back injuries can be avoided if core temperatures were higher and muscles were full of blood prior to beginning the workout. Hammering out a couple light sets before jumping in isn't going to cut it. Warm up thoroughly including opposing muscles like chest to make sure the shoulders are ready to handle the movements.

It's not a controversy. It's not a debate. It's not a matter of preference. If you want to be your biggest and best, you have to train with core movements as a base. You will never have your best back without deadlifting or without squatting. You can vary the form and there are injury exceptions that limit this rule for some people, but for most, it's the law. Watch someone who uses good form but goes to the extreme in these two exercises. Observe how every muscle in their body is overloaded in the effort to finish the compound movement. There is a lot of carryover for growth in other body parts as well as the established hormonal response you get only from intense core lifts. Not deadlifting and squatting is like trying to drive a Yukon on thirteen inch Sentra tires.

Conventional deadlifts are great for overall back work. This is where you use a straight bar with a shoulder width foot placement and hands outside of your shins. Keeping your head up and butt down (with the low back straight) you pull the weight off the floor. Start your downward motion by bending at the hips with the low back still locked into place. Keep going down like a stiff-legged deadlift until you get close to your knees and then bend your knees to come within an inch of the ground. Reverse and come back up pulling the bar into your waist and squeezing your lats. This contraction ensures that you're involving as much lat and lower trap into the movement and not just erector spinae. Using a trap bar is a good alternative that allows the center of gravity to be kept back and decreasing the amount of sheer force to the spine. You mimic a squat with this variation and can use more weight with better safety for the low back. What you gain in safety however, you can lose in lower lat work because of the more upright posture. I like both movements, but they're distinctively different. I'll use the trap bar in the offseason when I'm trying to move the most weight possible but then I switch for variety and to get more tangible back contractions. Either one will work very, very well. Sumo style is also very easy on the low back but you're so upright it becomes an adductor and trap dominant movement. As a core lift it still works all the muscles we're after but not as directly. It's for powerlifters who need the most leverage to get the most weight without concern for what muscles are getting the most work. I deadlift every two weeks and recommend this to everyone. That way you get an alternate workout with more rowing and you can recover better. If you deadlift every week and you're training legs hard, you'll have a difficult time recovering.

On my deadlifting day, I make it the central and first movement using straight sets. This typically takes thirty minutes or more. As part of my warm-up I would have already completed a few sets of pulldowns and/or rows, so I'm thoroughly warmed up and ready to finish with a couple auxiliary movements. Your low back will be so fatigued that you won't want to do any unsupported rows, so I would go to a machine row and do about 3-4 sets. Starting at a 10-12 rep set and adding weight so that the last set hits failure around 4-6 reps and then I'm off for 2-3 sets of chins.

Trust me when I say that if you do this workout with maximum intensity, you'll be ready for a nap and the next day you'll know you covered every square inch of real estate from shoulder to shoulder and skull to pelvis. Since the deadlift works your low back and traps so thoroughly, you don't need hypers or shrugs, but the next week (a non-deadlifting workout) you will throw those in at the end after rows and pulldowns. The next back training article will outline variations of this sort. Until then, make sure you try the deadlift and get some instruction if you're not sure of form. It's very important to be confident with your form.