By the healthiergang writer , personal trainer with a degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences.
Back muscles
The lats, often hastily called the "back," are between the muscles larger of the body, and they are also among those that we most want to develop when we decide to start any path in the gym, thanks to the great visual impact that they can donate to the body.
How is the back composed?
The muscles of the back, also called muscles of the spine, are divided into extrinsic ed intrinsic, depending on their depth; the extrinsic muscles, also called spinoappendicular, are the great dorsal, the trapezius, the rhomboid and the levator scapula; they all originate from the spine and fit on the shoulder blade and humerus, allowing some of the shoulder and arm movements.
The muscles intrinsic instead they are placed in an innermost layer, and are in turn subdivided into three different levels, according to the depth at which they are located; of these we will remember only the most superficial, namely i splenic muscles, which have the task of supporting the head and extending the neck, while the many muscles of the two underlying layers have, for various reasons, the fundamental task of supporting the spine and allowing micro-movements of the vertebrae, a task that is too often neglected, and source of many problems.
How does the "V-shape" develop?
Having a back strong and hypertrophic it means training the extrinsic muscles correctly and intensively, but paying equal attention to training and taking care of the intrinsic ones, which will allow us to prevent injuries and will intervene heavily on the posture we are going to keep. The fundamental exercises for the back they are: deadlifts, low pulley, lat machine (in all its variants), rowers with barbell and rowers with dumbbells, tractions.
As regards the intrinsic muscles instead, many work down as stabilizers in the aforementioned exercises, while for the rest it would be advisable to learn to do bodyweight exercises such as yoga and pilates "boats" and "bridges" in all their forms.
I limit myself to listing the exercises for a simple reason, no one is the same as someone else, so it would be useless and pretentious to propose "phantom tables" to have wide and thick backbones in four weeks, rather try to understand what genetics has equipped you with and work hard to improve the weak points and enhance the strong points. And what about the V-shape… Unfortunately, genetics dominate there too, if you have a favorable waist-shoulder relationship you are on horseback, if you don't have it you will have to spit blood, but in life everything is possible.
What are the other back muscles?
As I explained above, the ridges are just the tip of that huge iceberg called back, which is composed of dozens of muscles, each with its specific role, therefore start from the premise of facing this huge part of the body from several fronts, certainly pushing with weights, but never forgetting all those tiny paravertebrals and similar that make sure that everything remains standing as it should.
You won't immediately appreciate all that tedious bodyweight work, but when you drop nearly three times your weight or do more pull-ups than your wildest dreams, it will be thanks to those little guys too.
How to have a thick and strong back?
I have practically answered this question before too, and the answer is no, it is not enough. Or rather, the gyms are full of people with gigantic backs and trapezes, but with some rail fragilissime, often tormented by hernias and protrusions, precisely because they did not pay attention to the general picture, focusing only on what they could see.
The results of this neglect may be, at best, the need to drop out fundamental exercises like deadlifts and rowers because pain no longer allows their execution; while in the worst case you get to abandon the activity completely, unable to do the damage done.
In conclusion
With this overview I hope to have clarified some doubts about "training of the back", which maybe from tomorrow you will call "training of the back"; as I always repeat there are no magic formulas, but only commitment and desire to get involved, make mistakes and correct oneself, improve and move goals, always one step ahead.
