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hey folks Dr Mike here for anos sounds
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periodization today's video is to ask
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the question of how different grips and
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positions and widths hit your back
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differently in rowing and in vertical
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pulling let's take a look so first rows
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these are all generally so there are
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definitely exceptions and your
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experience may be different but on
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average in most cases there is a little
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bit of a difference between how narrow
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grip
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rows versus wide grip rows hit your back
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narrow grip rowing generally hits the
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lats proportionately more and other
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parts of the back a little bit less wide
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grips generally train the rhomboids and
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the mid traps kind of what some people
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call the upper back a little bit more
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and the lats a bit less but really the
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main factor here is how that grip
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position affect the lines of pull
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specifically where your elbow goes so
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that's actually the second part of
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rowing the question here is what is the
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effect of having your elbows flush to
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your sides when you're rowing
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versus up and out flush through the body
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trains more lats it's directly in that
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line of pull and up and out trains more
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rhomboids and mid traps quote unquote
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upper back both positions train the rear
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delt similarly and actually I might say
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quite well so well in fact that I think
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good God I got something in my fucking
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eye God damn
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it oh I can see oh my God I'm on camera
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oh I'm not naked oh well it's not the
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dream I had last night the Scott is it
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okay if I get
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naked I mean that help withs yeah Show
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Business see rear delts are trained very
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well during back training especially if
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you get that deep stretch and a lot of
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people will train lots of rear delt work
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lots of front delt work and lots of side
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delt work and I think most of those
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people are better served doing very
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little front delt work because all the
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chest pressing you're doing trains them
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very well very little rear delt
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isolation work because all the back work
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you're doing trains them very well and
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then focusing mostly on side delts in
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their delt training which is what I do
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in my program what Jared feather ifb Pro
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does and it seems to work really really
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well there are cases where you can
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specialize and focus on the rear and
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front delts but back training of all
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kinds really trains the rear dos super
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super well and it doesn't much matter
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where your shit points next more rowing
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variations on how they affect the back
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development whether you were rowing to
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your chest or if you were rowing to your
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hips High Row versus low row rowing to
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your hips generally trains the lats more
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rowing to your chest generally trains
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the rhomboids and mid traps more
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especially if and usually because when
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you low row you low row when you low row
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actually works both ways when you row
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low you usually because you're trying to
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go low you push your elbows down and it
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ends up flushing your elbows to the
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sides and when you're rowing High
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imagine doing a high row but with your
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elbows to the sides the fuck does that
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even look like when you're rowing High
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almost always you'll catch your elbows
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and pull up and out so yes rowing to the
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hips hits the lats more rowing to the
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chest and higher hits the upper back a
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bit more but mostly that's an artifact
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of where your elbows end up going so the
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real critical thing to understand here
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is elbows in and flush more lats elbows
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up and out more rhomboids teras major
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mid traps lower traps quote unquote
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upper back lastly for rowing is the
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question of overhand versus neutral
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versus underhand position for back
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activation and growth it seems to me my
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best guess is that there actually no big
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differences here mostly these things end
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up being a proxy for elbow position
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anyway overhand grip means more flared
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elbows in most cases neutral
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automatically brings your elbows in most
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cases flush to your sides and thus
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neutral is more for lats but it's not
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the neutrality of it because if you take
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a close grip on a on a row you can still
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push your elbows in just as much neutral
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grip kind of guarantees that but an
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overhand grip can still hit your lats
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exactly as much as a neutral grip will
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and underhand typically also lets you
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bring your elbows in more naturally so
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really it's just about elbow position in
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most cases and not about which grip you
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take so if you're like wondering if you
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want to hit your lats more or kind of
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your upper back more and you're like ooh
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should I do overhand or neutral or
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underhand grip for rowing it just
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doesn't seem to matter much which really
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is another way of saying that there's
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kind of no wrong answers and do whatever
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you want as long as your elbows are
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flush to your sides you're hitting lots
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of lats and if your elbows are up and
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out you're going to be hitting less lats
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and more of what many people would call
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your upper back though I thought the
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lats were part of the upper back the
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fuck do I know now next part second part
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of the video vertical pulling okay
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pull-ups assisted pull-ups pull Downs
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Etc narrow grips allow you to stretch
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the lats more at the top and because
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that stretch is so muscle growth
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promoting narrower grip vertical pulling
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generally trains the lats a little bit
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more wider grip is okay for variation
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and to get good at wider grip but too
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wide a grip means most of the muscles of
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the backs don't get a very good
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stretching anymore especially with the
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lats and I think it's just a net
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negative so what I would say another way
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is you can totally use wide grip
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vertical pulling for variation just if
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it feels good good stimulus to fatigue
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ratio but unless you're compelled to do
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that I would say medium and closer grip
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on vertical pulling generally trains the
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lats and really most of the back a
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little bit better than wider grip on
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average next is elbows flush to the side
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or out I think there aren't any huge
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differences as long as the elbows Point
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towards the hips at the bottom so what
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do I mean by that I mean that if you
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bring your elbow down in front of you
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and then it points down to the hip at
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the bottom you're hitting a lot of lats
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and a lot of back if you bring your
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elbows out from the sides and Arc but
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the arc ends up not going back to like
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behind you but all the way down to still
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point to your
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hips you're still getting an
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unbelievable back and lat stimulus so
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the good news here is that because both
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elbows out and elbows flush hit the back
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and lats very similarly in vertical
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pulling if you bring the elbows to point
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down to your hips at the very end and
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then Arc whichever way you want be it up
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or be it forward it's easy to just use
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them both as excellent variations so you
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can use one variation for a while it
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gets a little stale on you you switch to
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another one no big deal for me if I keep
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my elbows flush it does seem to hit the
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lats a little bit more but I don't think
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that's a Dependable thing I would say
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works for everyone try it yourself let
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us know in the comments which one seems
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to work a little better for you but
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remember something working a little
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better doesn't mean it's better forever
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if you prefer pasta versus rice 60% of
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the time that doesn't mean you never eat
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rice again that means you might eat
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pasta more often but at some point your
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girlfriend's like hey do you want to do
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Italian you're like H let's do Chinese
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man I'm feeling some rice and she's like
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I thought you don't like rice like I
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like pasta better but you get sick of
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everything so just the same way if
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you're doing a lot of neutral grip
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pulling with your elbows flush yeah it's
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great but at some point you're going to
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get like some dings and wears and tears
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and the fatigue is going to suite and
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you're going to have a situation where
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it's a stale and you're going to want to
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do some maybe wider grip work maybe with
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your elbows coming out and it's still
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excellent excellent back work is going
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to work super well for you couple months
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later you're like ooh I missed the
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neutral grip shit and you're going to go
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back to that next variation in vertical
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pulling is where to pull do you pull
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somewhere uh to roughly the clavical
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area or do you pull down to the nipple
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line which is a fun thing to say in most
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contexts I've actually said the word
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nipple line in a formal University class
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of dozens of students those were
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learning about training technique and I
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swear to God every time you say this in
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public at least one person you can tell
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them trying to squash the biggest giggle
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of their life you're like and the nipple
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line you look around the room and some
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guy's
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like be like really Jim what part of
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that is funny to you nipples nipples are
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hilarious they're just this huge comedy
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Trope Jim why don't you stand up and
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write tell us a story about nipples and
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why they're hilarious of course at that
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point I think you're technically
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harassing your students maybe even
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sexually that's why I got fired from the
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University and no no wait it was for
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something else nah never can't tell in
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any case clavicles versus nipple line
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where to pull cuz it's going to feel a
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little bit different I don't think that
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there is a huge difference which one you
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pull to is just variation so sometimes
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you pull to the nipple line for a while
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and that feels really great then it
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feels a little stale you start pulling
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to the clavicle so you can maintain a
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more vertical posture it feels great I
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don't think there's any wrong answers
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there lastly for vertical pulling what's
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the difference between overhand neutral
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and underhand grips I think again it's
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just a matter of how this affects elbow
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position if you pull vertically overhand
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and your elbows end up kind of behind
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you at the
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bottom not going to be as much work for
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your lats and more for your upper back
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whereas if you pull overhand but you
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make sure to really drive your elbows
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down to your hips then it really isn't
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much different or different at all than
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a neutral grip or an underhand grip but
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in most cases a neutral grip or a close
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underhand grip will promote your elbows
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going down to your hips anyway and thus
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probably hit the last a little better
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now I love overhand pull-ups they are my
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favorite type of Pull-Up by a mile and I
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get the craziest stimulus to fatigue
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ratios for them so I can tell you this
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even though overhand pulling is by a
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small margin a little bit more
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challenging uh way to which to hit the
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lats and neutral and underhand puts you
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in a slightly predetermined better
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position for that for me and for many
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others even still overhand pull-ups and
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pull Downs are still my best choice
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they're still the best sfr for me so
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what I'm saying is here there are these
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margins that are like by a really small
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margin on average for people neutral
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grip and underhand might promote
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slightly better lat growth but there are
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more exceptions than there are rules in
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this case and at the end of the day the
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stimulus to fatigue ratio you feel how
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pumped the lats are getting how pumped
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your back is getting how tired it's
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getting how sore it's getting how much
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stronger you're getting over time versus
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how much it hurts the joints and how
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tough it feels if you get all the right
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answers just follow what your person
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personal sfr is if it starts to degrade
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and go stale switch grips switch
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exercises find whatever works best for
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sfr cook that for a few weeks few months
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when it gets stale you just repeat the
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process and continue so to wrap up this
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video the tldr here is this back growth
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is much simpler than many people would
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have you believe now some people have
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trouble connecting with their back they
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have trouble connecting with their lats
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the traditional exercises don't seem to
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work well for them in that case go give
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CM Hansen a follow on Instagram I think
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he has a YouTube too and he'll do all
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the he'll teach you all the Cass
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bullshit which is term I came up with uh
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ironically and it's all this great
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exercises that are for one arm specific
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kind of reach around pull around type of
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stuff and it really lets you develop an
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awesome mind muscle connection with
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especially your lats and other parts of
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your back as well on occasion some folks
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May really benefit from that stuff but
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most people will do amazingly well with
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back work of every single different kind
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of variety so what I'll say this uh to
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you is two things if you're a beginner
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intermediate do all the grips that you
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think are fun and you think are cool to
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try do all the different positions pull
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High pull low pull to nipples pull to
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clavicle underhand overhand neutral it's
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all right answers you just use all the
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variations your back is going to get big
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as you get more advanced you may notice
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that some of those lines of pull are
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better for you than others and then
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definitely make more inroads on the ones
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you feel the most benefit from and if
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you're struggling with the traditional
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exercises and you've already mastered
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what you think is a very good technique
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try some unconventional exercises that
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someone like uh cassm Hansen can teach
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you in that case you might be able to
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really work on those exercises really
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get some great gains and then maybe take
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your new found Bine muscle connection
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and be like oh my God I can now do
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pull-ups way more productively because I
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know what it's like to feel a lat
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contraction give that some thought let
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us know in the comments which what your
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experiences are with your own back
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training which grips and positions and
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pulling angles you have found to be best
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for you and maybe I'll get in there and
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comment and maybe I'll just look at the
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comments and just just watch and he
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listens and he waits and he never
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comments cuz he's so
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Sly
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yeah I'm fucking weird all right I'll go
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be weird somewhere else see you guys
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next
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[Music]
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time
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it