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@LexFitness's Top 3 Back Exercises To Maximise Gains | Masterclass Special | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
@LexFitness shares his top 3 back exercises and his favourite variations to maximise muscle growth and improve overall strength.
In this Masterclass Special we got an exclusive gym session in with Lex Griffin for him to share some of his favourite moves for increasing back size & strength.
He covers 3 key exercises that you absolutely need to get into your back day routine, with extra tips on how to nail the technique and variations to get the most from every single set.
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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:17 - Seated Row
02:18 - Unilateral Lat Pulldown
04:52 - Rack Pulls
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0:00
what's up guys i'm lex griffin aka lex
0:02
fitness and we are back with the
0:03
myprotein masterclass and today we're
0:05
going to take a look at some of my
0:07
favorite back exercises with a little
0:08
few tweaks to make them hit that little
0:10
bit better
0:13
[Music]
0:16
seated row this is an absolute favorite
0:18
on back day and one that can be really
0:19
good at building a thickness in the back
0:21
but there's a couple things here that
0:22
people tend to do which means they're
0:24
losing out on about 20 of the movement
0:25
they could be making gains from we're
0:27
going to fix that now seating position
0:29
we're gonna start legs bent never locked
0:32
out you can drive up with the weight to
0:34
help get it up but you're gonna end with
0:35
them not being locked out and static
0:37
none of this
0:38
none of this we're not a dog we don't
0:40
have worms look at this handle we're
0:42
gonna be using a close grip handle for
0:43
this one but there are variations you
0:44
can do a wide grip you can do underhand
0:46
grip but all the principles of the body
0:47
movement are going to stay the same so
0:49
starting with a moderately lightweight
0:50
you're going to be able to drive up and
0:52
lift the weight just with that leg drive
0:54
but if we were to increase the weight
0:56
i'm going to show you a little hack that
0:57
i do that helps me set my shoulders i
0:59
lie all the way back driving through
1:01
with my legs and then from here i'll set
1:02
my scapula and then raise myself back up
1:05
maintaining that scapula hold to a
1:07
seated position for a nice start and
1:09
finish point if you start right you'll
1:11
finish right start wrong you'll finish
1:13
wrong so from here what we're looking to
1:15
do is keep our chest up and we're
1:17
looking to move from the hips and not
1:18
let our shoulders pop forward
1:21
so as we move forward we're going to
1:22
allow those arms to be extended we're
1:23
going to extend from the hips chest up
1:25
we're then going to drive back with our
1:26
lower back and upper body and then pull
1:28
through with our elbows at the top of
1:30
the range what we're not doing is over
1:32
extending and then pulling here because
1:35
if i now sit upright look how much of
1:37
this movement we've missed and that's
1:39
that extra 20 you're gonna make the
1:41
gains from so one more time legs are
1:43
bent they're going to stay that other
1:44
than that little drive that lets you
1:45
lift the weight off from here shoulders
1:48
back chest up we extend forward with the
1:50
body allowing that stretch down the lats
1:53
up to heated position chest up drive
1:55
through the elbows squeeze release back
1:58
to a full extension and then follow
1:59
through with the body not allowing the
2:01
shoulder spot forward or the body to
2:02
round
2:03
do this right and you'll see some extra
2:05
gains on those back days
2:08
[Music]
2:18
the lat pull down one that we all know
2:19
and love but there's a different way of
2:20
using this simple machine and that's to
2:22
make it into a unilateral that pull down
2:24
and by that i mean we're going to work
2:26
each arm independently but each arm
2:28
that's not working is still going to be
2:29
working in a specific way you'll see
2:31
what i mean in a second so we're going
2:32
to grab the bar in the same way that you
2:34
would a normal lap pull down one of the
2:35
biggest things on this is to not go
2:37
overly wide unless you're six foot three
2:39
or four you don't need to grab it at the
2:40
ends of the bar so grab somewhere that's
2:42
comfortable just past shoulder width
2:44
sitting down we're going to want to make
2:45
sure that our legs are completely pinned
2:47
into the machine don't allow any gap
2:48
there because this is our anchor to the
2:50
floor so make sure that's nice and tight
2:52
once we're underneath what we're going
2:53
to do
2:54
is we're going to make sure that our
2:56
shoulders are set now there are two ways
2:57
of doing this you can do this with
2:58
scapula disengaged or engaged now if
3:01
you're going to disengage you're just
3:03
gonna need to remember to re-engage your
3:04
scapula before you pull through
3:06
we're gonna do this with our scapula
3:07
engaged just to keep it simple now
3:09
enough will that pull down your pull
3:11
from the elbows chest up arching that
3:13
lower back
3:14
you would drive through pulling the bar
3:16
to the top of the chest and squeeze
3:18
what we're going to do different here
3:19
we're only going to pull one arm at a
3:21
time so we're looking at doing the same
3:23
motion or squeezing at the bottom
3:25
keeping that chest up but the important
3:27
part here is the arm that is not lifting
3:29
so in this case the right hand side i'm
3:32
going to make sure that this arm is
3:33
completely relaxed and maintaining a
3:35
full extension it's going to want to
3:36
have the tendency to have a little bit
3:38
of a pull on it you've got that mind to
3:40
muscle of pulling both at the same time
3:42
you want to disconnect that make each
3:44
side work absolutely independently so
3:46
avoid this little tweak here as you pull
3:48
on each side it's going to happen you
3:50
don't want to avoid it totally from the
3:51
beginning but you're going to get better
3:52
at avoiding it so just make sure you're
3:54
paying attention to that happening if it
3:55
does happen don't panic just release and
3:57
extend and then carry on so unilaterally
4:00
we're going to work we're going to pull
4:01
squeeze make sure that the other side is
4:03
fully extended and relaxed
4:05
as it comes back up to the top we stop
4:07
and then we start again what we're not
4:09
doing
4:10
is see-sawing so everything is a start
4:12
stop motion pull squeeze extend pull
4:16
squeeze extend if you want to add an
4:18
added burn at the end once you've done
4:21
whatever rep range you choose just
4:22
finish with an amrap
4:24
two armed lat pull down just for that
4:27
extra
4:28
squeeze
4:30
and burn there you go unilateral that
4:33
pull down
4:34
done
4:35
[Music]
4:51
rack pulls this is another great one for
4:53
building strength on your back days it's
4:54
also going to develop that upper back
4:56
thickness but it's also going to improve
4:58
your upper power through the deadlift
5:00
does that make sense upper power upper
5:02
range you know the bit where you do this
5:04
it's going to get better but what this
5:06
allows us to do is get a lot of weight
5:08
on the bar and still lift very strictly
5:10
we're going to be starting with the bar
5:12
just above knee height now as low as we
5:15
can get on the safety bars the better
5:17
some like this will be restricted on how
5:19
low they can go
5:20
so just get it as low as you can without
5:22
being kind of past this kind of stat she
5:25
wants it kind of no lower than knee
5:26
level from here we're going to do we're
5:28
going to grab as we would with a normal
5:29
deadlift stance we're going to be going
5:30
just over hip width apart now you can go
5:32
over under or you can go over over or
5:34
you can use straps up to you what we're
5:35
going to do here is making sure that
5:37
we're going to keep our core nice and
5:38
tight we're going to be keeping our
5:40
chest up we're going to keep our
5:41
shoulders back and we're going to be
5:42
squeezing tucking our lats underneath
5:45
our armpits and really engaging that
5:46
back from here what we're looking to do
5:49
is looking to drive through the heels
5:51
hips power up and through not letting
5:53
those shoulders round so as the weight
5:54
gets heavier what we don't want to do is
5:56
drive and leave the shoulders where they
5:57
are we want that bar to move the moment
6:00
that we push through the floor so
6:02
setting that scapula back chest up we're
6:04
going to be looking to drive the hips
6:05
through and raise the chest up
6:07
boom just like this
6:09
then we're gonna actually touch the bar
6:11
back down onto the safety bars and then
6:13
we're gonna reset
6:15
and lift again now a couple of major
6:16
points on this is gonna be tucking the
6:18
elbows and squeezing those lats
6:20
underneath the armpits so what you want
6:21
to do once you grab the bar you're going
6:23
to roll those elbows in and immediately
6:25
you'll feel that back engage so we're
6:27
going to roll the elbows in we're going
6:29
to drive our weight down into our feet
6:31
we're going to pull the slack out of the
6:32
bar just like you would on a deadlift
6:33
then the moment we're going to fire our
6:35
hips through drive through our hips and
6:36
heels and we're going to keep our chest
6:38
up neck nice and neutral and explode and
6:41
squeeze at the top before returning as
6:43
we return what we're looking to do is
6:45
keep the core tight keeping that chest
6:47
up and then touch the bar back down
6:49
again stay nice and controlled on this
6:50
especially when you get more weight just
6:52
stop any of that bounce at the bottom
6:53
give it a second to settle before
6:54
returning but eventually what you can
6:56
get
6:57
is a nice
6:58
strict
6:59
regimented and heavy movement that's
7:03
going to improve
7:04
back thickness
7:06
and
7:07
deadlift potential
7:10
rack pulls
7:11
done
7:13
[Music]
7:26
there you have it some of my favorite
7:27
little tweaks to make those exercises
7:28
feel a little bit better have a go let
7:31
us know if you've got any questions hit
7:32
us up in the comment section below also
7:33
let us know if you enjoyed what we've
7:35
done here and we can do some more for
7:36
you as always make sure to hit that
7:37
notification bell select to be notified
7:39
of all of the downloads uploads and
7:42
sideways load so you don't miss anything
7:44
that's going on i've been lex this has
7:45
been my protein we'll see you in the
7:47
next one
7:48
[Music]
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