Back width is perhaps the single most important factor in determining who walks away with the overall trophy in bodybuilding competitions.  We’ve seen men like Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, and Ronnie Coleman dominate in bodybuilding competition, despite injuries and conditioning shortcomings, simply because they had the biggest and widest backs in the sport at the time.  When they turned around, it was “Lights Out!”  In fact, in 2006, Ronnie Coleman sustained nerve damage in his lat muscle, the exact same year that Jay Cutler entered the show with the widest back he had ever shown on a pro stage.  And, true to tradition, Cutler walked away with the Sandow trophy.  Bodybuilding standards are simple – the man with the biggest back usually wins the show. 

Obtaining the biggest – more specifically, the widest – back onstage isn’t an easy thing for most bodybuilders to do. Typically, the training we engage in during our early years, coupled with our genetics and natural frame, will determine about how wide our back is going to be. Training, supplementation, a solid diet, and use of AAS can go a long way in making a back wider, however. Selecting the correct exercises is key.

When it comes to back training, most trainers aren’t too exact.   They will tell you to “hit it from all angles” to make sure you cover all you bases.  This methodology of “fire all your bullets and hope you hit something” can lead to wasted energy, time, and recovery resources. Yet despite this, most bodybuilders use this technique. They bounce between each and every back machine in the gym, figuring they must be hitting whatever group causes back wideness. After all, they’ve done it all. How could they have missed anything?

The more advanced trainers may tell you that wide-grip movements of some back workouts are more effective for increasing width – but they probably won’t be able to tell you why. Nor will they be able to tell you if the wide-grip variation to the front, or to the back, is more effective. Well, researchers at the University of Miami decided that the supposition of personal trainers worldwide just wasn’t enough for them. They decided to employ electromyography technology to bodybuilders using all variations in grip for back pull-down movements.

Their findings were consistent with those beliefs of personal trainers. Plus they were able to take it a step further and specifically determine the most effective exercise for width. Wide-grip lap pulldowns to the front were determined to be the absolute most effective movement for adding width to the back. The use of this movement resulted in the most possible muscle fibers being recruited.

How can this information be useful for you? If your goal is to win a lot of bodybuilding shows, then you’re going to want a wide back. Instead of randomly completing 14 sets of different back movements, focus on wide-grip pulldowns to the front. Begin your back day with 4 to 6 sets of heavy wide-grip pulldowns, and watch your back keep getting wider and wider and wider…

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