# Always feel it more in my arms than back when doing back exercises.



## filberto (May 14, 2010)

Whenever I do back exercises, such as seated rows, lat pulldowns, sometimes bent over rows, my biceps tend to feel more worked than my back. I have had a lot of people watch me do it, my form is fine - straight back, slow reps.

Has anyone suffered from this kind of problem before, or have any suggestions? I assume I am pulling too much with my arms but I am trying incredibly hard not to!

Thanks a lot.


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## Foamy (Jul 2, 2010)

I used to get bad bicep pump with low pulley rows. Some one told me to concentrate on squeezing my back muscles on the contraction and it sorted it right out.

Now if only my hands wouldn't hurt doing shrugs.....


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## piper (Jan 4, 2009)

Weights too heavy or squeezing arms on contraction rather than back


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## piper (Jan 4, 2009)

Krb- buy some straps, I found I can lift 40kg more on deds with them so shrugs would be the same.


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## ryoken (Jan 8, 2009)

filberto said:


> Whenever I do back exercises, such as seated rows, lat pulldowns, sometimes bent over rows, my biceps tend to feel more worked than my back. I have had a lot of people watch me do it, my form is fine - straight back, slow reps.
> 
> Has anyone suffered from this kind of problem before, or have any suggestions? I assume I am pulling too much with my arms but I am trying incredibly hard not to!
> 
> Thanks a lot.


change your grip to thumbless grip on back work as ime it takes arms out of it alot more , i use thumbless grip for all back work (except deads)


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## filberto (May 14, 2010)

So what advice do you have to focus on using the back muscles? I try to keep my elbows in, straight back and what not.

I guess I will try to get my shoulderblades to touch essentially, that should make me squeeze my back muscles?

Thanks ryoken, thumbless grip is something I haven't tried, and I can imagine it working, I will keep you posted!


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## ryoken (Jan 8, 2009)

filberto said:


> So what advice do you have to focus on using the back muscles? I try to keep my elbows in, straight back and what not.
> 
> I guess I will try to get my shoulderblades to touch essentially, that should make me squeeze my back muscles?
> 
> Thanks ryoken, thumbless grip is something I haven't tried, and I can imagine it working, I will keep you posted!


not trying to teach you how to suck eggs but the way to learn on cencentrating the lats is to lower the weight then go slower whilst fully conracting/concentrating on contracting the lats through range of motion, when you have it nailed up the weight a bit and go again etc

ime if you up the weight to much on things like lat pull downs,seated cable row etc your arms will take over alot of the work:thumbup1:


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## egyption t (May 21, 2009)

i guess u do bieceps the day be4 back or the day be4 tht....thts could b da reason


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## gambitbullet (Dec 12, 2008)

instead of focusing on pulling the bar to your chest, focus on brnging your elbows back, sounds silly, but works.

same for lat pulldown, focus on bringing your elbows in and the arc they make, not pulling down the bar to your chin


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## jake87 (May 7, 2010)

think of your forearms and hands as hooks and use your elbows to pull the weight down and back.


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## Greyphantom (Oct 23, 2003)

gambitbullet said:


> instead of focusing on pulling the bar to your chest, focus on brnging your elbows back, sounds silly, but works.
> 
> same for lat pulldown, focus on bringing your elbows in and the arc they make, not pulling down the bar to your chin





jake87 said:


> think of your forearms and hands as hooks and use your elbows to pull the weight down and back.


Spot on... exactly what I was going to say, takes a lot of the arm out of the movement... pull through the elbows...


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## OJay (Mar 7, 2008)

gambitbullet said:


> instead of focusing on pulling the bar to your chest, focus on brnging your elbows back, sounds silly, but works.
> 
> same for lat pulldown, focus on bringing your elbows in and the arc they make, not pulling down the bar to your chin


I'll second this, definitely helps, imagine your hands are just hooks to hold the weight go slowly and feel the contractions

Also could try just going through the motion with no weight squeezing the muscle before working sets


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## RyanClarke (May 7, 2009)

Hook the bar, with your fingers. Not wrap around


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## ws0158 (Jun 23, 2010)

work your biceps first before back on the same day, so there exhausted then your backs gotta work harder to lift the weight, i had this issue couldnt really feel my back working untill i tried this


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## dtlv (Jul 24, 2009)

Thumbless grip, wider grip, trying to minimise ROM at the elbow and maximise it at the shoulder... those are the best generalised tips i think to try to avoid using too much 'arm' on back exercises.


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## carl stull (Jul 22, 2010)

ryoken said:


> change your grip to thumbless grip on back work as ime it takes arms out of it alot more , i use thumbless grip for all back work (except deads)


No it takes the grip out of it a lot more. Same with the straps. The bicep contracts at the elbow not the wrist or phalanges.

If its your grip thats failing you must stregthen your grip by using a fatter bar, a towel around the bar and grab onto the towel, or buy a pair of Fat Gripz.. they about 40-50 bucks for a pair.... or you can use the straps and just have a pussy ass grip.


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