Health
This Is Our Trainer's Favorite Routine for a Bigger, Stronger Back
![](https://i1.wp.com/www.mensjournal.com/.image/c_fit%2Ch_800%2Cw_1200/MjAxNTU4NzQ0OTE0NDcwMjcz/romanian-deadlift.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
When it comes to weight training, there’s a simple but underrated truth everyone should know: your pull muscles are more important than your pushing muscles—even if by just a bit.
The muscles responsible for pull exercises comprise your posterior chain. These are the muscles you can’t see when you look in the mirror. Their strength and development, however, will have the greatest reach toward an impressive physique, healthy joints, and even stronger performance in other movements that are push oriented.
What Are Pull Muscles?
What do we mean by posterior chain, exactly? Here’s a list of its key muscles:
- Hamstrings
- Glutes
- Lumbar muscularture
- Lats
- Rear deltoids
- Rhomboids
- Traps
It’s imperative each of these muscle groups can pull their own weight in order to prevent imbalances and promote overall strength and healthy function. Strong glutes and hams are the cornerstone of athletic power and pain-free hinging. A nice, wide, and thick upper back also presents better when it comes to standing posture, overall width, and imposing size.
Related: This Push Day Workout Will Bring Size and Strength Gains in 6 Weeks
What Is a Pull Day Workout?
Many athletes schedule their weekly strength training around a push-pull-legs split. That’s three strength sessions, each dedicated to a specific set of muscles, spread over seven days. Breaking training programs into push, pull, and leg days is ideal if you’re seeking more muscle mass because it allows you to direct more volume and working sets to fewer groups of muscles that all serve a similar function.
Pull exercises differ from push exercises simply due to the nature of the motion. It’s as plain as, if you’re moving the weight toward you, it’s a pull pattern. If you’re moving the weight away from you, it’s a push pattern.
Related: 50 Best Shoulder Exercises To Target Full Range of Motion
The Best Pull Day Workout
What makes this program so damn effective? Put simply, it starts big, so you have the neural drive for the exercises that provide the most bang for your buck. As you get a bit more fatigued (which means it’s working), the workout shifts toward isolated movements that require less horsepower but more precision to complete. These lifts focus on the little things to sculpt your posterior chain. It’s the perfect storm. Perform this weekly pull-day workout for six weeks to see gains in size, strength, and power.
1. Barbell Deadlift
James Michelfelder
Muscles Worked: glutes, hamstrings, quads, core
How to Do It
- Step up to the loaded barbell, and get close, to ensure the bar is above the shoelaces. Keep the feet hip width apart.
- Without bending at the knees, reach down and place the hands on the bar, just outside the shins. Your back should be fully rounded.
- Next, dig in. Wedge your body into a tight position by dropping your hips down and raising your chest up as high as possible. This tension you place on the bar should help get your spine flat. It helps to think about turning your elbows to face behind you and squeezing your armpits down.
- Keep a full stomach of air, and stand up with the barbell. Squeeze the glutes and get tall.
- Lower the weight, keeping it close to your body. Push the hips back first, and think about sitting once the bar has crossed the knees on the way down.
- Perform 5 sets of 4 to 6 reps.
2. Pullups
Beth Bischoff
Muscles worked: lats, biceps, infraspinatus
How to Do It
- Using an overhand grip just outside shoulder width, hang from the pullup bar. Keep the thumbs wrapped around the bar; don’t use a false grip with the thumb on the same side as the fingers.
- Keep the body tight and still. Avoid any swinging. The arms should be fully extended. This is your start position.
- Set the shoulders by raising the chest and lengthening the neck first. You should feel your upper back pull your shoulder blades down toward your back pockets when you do this correctly. This is how to initiate each pull and engage your back more than your arms.
- Pull through your elbows until your chin clears the bar. Lower slowly and repeat.
- Perform 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps (or max reps, if fewer).
3A. Bentover Row
Muscles Worked: lats, rhomboids, spinal erectors, trapezius
How to Do It
- Stand upright, and hold a barbell with your bench press grip. Hinge forward so the weight is hanging at just below knee level. Keep a flat spine.
- Create tension in your upper back by drawing the shoulder blades together, and row the weight up by pulling through the arms. Aim to make the weight contact the ribcage. Keep the elbows wide.
- Perform 10 reps and move on to 3B without resting to form a superset. Do 3 total supersets.
3B. Cable Reverse Flye
Muscles Worked: rear delts, rhomboids, trapezius, lats
How to Do It
- Set up two cable pulleys at forehead level and stand between them. It’s best if they have no handle attachment. Load them light.
- Stand tall, and hold the left pulley with the right hand, and the right pulley with the left hand. Keep the arms long, and abduct the arms for a flye pattern.
- Squeeze the shoulder blades together on each rep to encourage upper back activity.
- Perform 12 reps, supersetting with 3A’s bentover row 3 times.
4. Swiss Ball Hamstring Curl
Beth Bishoff
Muscles worked: hamstrings, glutes, abs, lumbar
How to Do It
- Lay on your back with a Swiss ball positioned under the feet (start with straight legs).
- Elevate the hips and remain stable. Brace your core so the ball doesn’t roll you to the left or right. Pressing the arms into the floor can also help.
- Keeping the hips high, roll the ball in toward your glutes, using your heels. When you’ve gotten the ball in as close as possible, return to full extension slowly. The eccentric rep matters more than the concentric here, so be mindful of keeping it under control.
- Perform 4 sets of 12 reps.
5. 45-Degree Back Extension
Muscles worked: glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors
How to Do It
- Set the back extension machine to a position where the pad is located just below hip level. This will allow unrestricted freedom of rotation around that joint.
- Position yourself in the machine, and be sure the thighs are pressing firmly against the pad on the front, while the calves and ankles are pressing firmly against their support behind.
- Maintain a flat spine and pivot downward as far as your spine will allow. You should feel a good stretch in the hamstrings.
- Squeeze the glutes first in order to initiate the movement up to the top position. If you want to involve your glutes more than your lower back, then keep the ribs tucked downward (shoulders will round a bit to do this). If you want more lower back involvement, then allow the ribs to flare upward. Lower slowly and repeat.
- Perform 3 sets of 12 reps.
Health
Walmart Is Selling a $300 Power Tower for Just $128, and Shoppers Say It's 'Surprisingly Sturdy'
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.mensjournal.com/.image/c_fit%2Ch_800%2Cw_1200/MjA5MTAzOTU0NzQ5OTU3NzQ0/pooboo-body-champ-multifunction-power-tower.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
Men’s Journal aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.
When building a home gym, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the equipment options, especially when you’re working with limited space and a tight budget. But when you focus on versatile gear and hunt for deals, creating a useful setup is easily doable. Thankfully, Walmart has been slashing prices on a ton of fitness equipment, including its bestselling adjustable dumbbells and even a complete home gym system. Now, it’s reduced the price of a popular power tower by over $170, and it even ships for free.
The Pooboo Body Champ Multifunction Power Tower is on sale for $128, a 57% discount on its normal price of $300. This incredibly versatile workout station has earned nearly 250 five-star ratings from Walmart shoppers who’ve praised its “strong and sturdy” build and “quality fit and finish,” and it’s currently one of the top 5 bestselling models on the site.
Pooboo Body Champ Multifunction Power Tower, $128 (was $300) at Walmart
Don’t let the brand’s bizarre name fool you—this power tower is a well-made piece of gym equipment. It features steel construction and is rated to hold up to 480 pounds (the tower itself weighs 66 pounds). A nearly 42-inch H-shaped base gives it excellent stability, so it won’t wobble or shake when you’re exercising, and anti-slip feet on the bottom keep it securely planted on the floor. It’s also adjustable (from 71.4 inches to 94 inches) to accommodate users of varying heights. And, once it’s set up, you can use it for a huge range of exercises, including dips, pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, vertical leg raises, knee raises, and more.
According to Walmart reviewers, the Pooboo Body Champ stands out for its solid build and usefulness. “It’s a surprisingly sturdy piece of equipment,” a shopper said. “Everything about this fitness tower is perfect. I originally purchased this with the intention of only doing pull-ups on it, but after quickly assembling the power tower, I came to realize just how versatile it is. It has cushions for knee and leg raises, it’s sturdy, and the perfect width for dips.” Another shopper agreed, saying, “This was a much-needed addition to my home gym.”
“This thing is amazing and worth every penny,” said another, who added that it’s “easy to install and can hold a lot of weight.”
At just $128, this Pooboo power tower is a screaming deal, and it’s sure to get lots of use during your workouts. But this discount won’t last long, so grab one today before the price pumps back up.
Health
Alzheimer’s Drug May Save Lives Through ‘Suspended Animation’
![](https://i0.wp.com/goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ryan-braxton-8ETf-8s6QPA-unsplash.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
![](https://goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ryan-braxton-8ETf-8s6QPA-unsplash.jpg)
![](https://goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ryan-braxton-8ETf-8s6QPA-unsplash.jpg)
By Lindsay Brownell | Wyss Institute Communications | Harvard Gazette
Could buy patients more time to survive critical injuries and diseases, even when disaster strikes far from a hospital
Donepezil, an FDA-approved drug to treat Alzheimer’s, has the potential to be repurposed for use in emergency situations to prevent irreversible organ injury, according to researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
Using Donepezil (DPN), researchers report that they were able to put tadpoles of Xenopus laevis frogs into a hibernation-like torpor.
“Cooling a patient’s body down to slow its metabolic processes has long been used in medical settings to reduce injuries and long-term problems from severe conditions, but it can only currently be done in a well-resourced hospital,” said co-author Michael Super, director of immuno-materials at the Wyss Institute. “Achieving a similar state of ‘biostasis’ with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year.”
This research, published Thursday in ACS Nano, was supported as part of the DARPA Biostasis Program, which funds projects that aim to extend the time for lifesaving medical treatment, often referred to as “the Golden Hour,” following traumatic injury or acute infection. The Wyss Institute has been a participant in the Biostasis Program since 2018, and has achieved several important milestones over the last few years.
Using a combination of predictive machine learning algorithms and animal models, the Wyss’ Biostasis team previously identified and tested existing drug compounds that had the potential to put living tissues into a state of suspended animation. Their first successful candidate, SNC80, significantly reduced oxygen consumption (a proxy for metabolism) in both a beating pig heart and in human organ chips, but is known to cause seizures when injected systemically.
In the new study, they once again turned to their algorithm to identify other compounds whose structures are similar to SNC80. Their top candidate was DNP, which has been approved since 1996 to treat Alzheimer’s.
Achieving a similar state of ‘biostasis’ with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year.
–Michael Super
“Interestingly, clinical overdoses of DNP in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have been associated with drowsiness and a reduced heart rate — symptoms that are torpor-like. However, this is the first study, to our knowledge, that focuses on leveraging those effects as the main clinical response, and not as side effects,” said the study’s first author, María Plaza Oliver, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute when the work was conducted.
The team used X. laevis tadpoles to evaluate DNP’s effects on a whole living organism, and found that it successfully induced a torpor-like state that could be reversed when the drug was removed. The drug, however, did seem to cause some toxicity, and accumulated in all of the animals’ tissues. To solve that problem, the researchers encapsulated DNP inside lipid nanocarriers, and found that this both reduced toxicity and caused the drug to accumulate in the animals’ brain tissues. This is a promising result, as the central nervous system is known to mediate hibernation and torpor in other animals as well.
Although DNP has been shown to protect neurons from metabolic stress in models of Alzheimer’s disease, the team cautions that more work is needed to understand exactly how it causes torpor, as well as scale up production of the encapsulated DNP for use in larger animals and, potentially, humans.
“Donepezil has been used worldwide by patients for decades, so its properties and manufacturing methods are well-established. Lipid nanocarriers similar to the ones we used are also now approved for clinical use in other applications. This study demonstrates that an encapsulated version of the drug could potentially be used in the future to buy patients critical time to survive devastating injuries and diseases, and it could be easily formulated and produced at scale on a much shorter time scale than a new drug,” said senior author Donald Ingber, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
This research was supported by DARPA under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-19-2-0027, the Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha (NextGeneration EU UNI/551/2021).
—
This story is reprinted with permission from The Harvard Gazette.
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community. A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities. A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: unsplash
Health
Can Stuff in Rosemary Extract Fight Cocaine Addiction?
![](https://i2.wp.com/goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/iStock-1216315320.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1)
Researchers have discovered that an antioxidant found in rosemary extract can reduce intakes of cocaine by moderating the brain’s reward response, offering a new therapeutic target for treating addiction.
![](https://goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/iStock-1216315320.jpg)
![](https://goodmenproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/iStock-1216315320.jpg)
The study in the journal Neuron describes researchers’ focus on a region of the brain called the globus pallidus externus, which acts as a gatekeeper that regulates how we react to cocaine.
They discovered that within the GPe, parvalbumin-positive neurons are crucial in controlling the response to cocaine by changing the activity neurons releasing the pleasure molecule dopamine.
“There are currently no effective therapeutics for dependence on psychostimulants such as cocaine, which, along with opioids, represent a substantial health burden,” says corresponding author Kevin Beier, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of California, Irvine.
“Our study deepens our understanding of the basic brain mechanisms that increase vulnerability to substance use disorder-related outcomes and provides a foundation for the development of new interventions.”
Findings in mice revealed that globus pallidus externus parvalbumin-positive cells, which indirectly influence the release of dopamine, become more excitable after being exposed to cocaine. This caused a drop in the expression of certain proteins that encode membrane channels that usually help keep the globus pallidus cell activity in check. The researchers found that carnosic acid, an isolate of rosemary extract, selectively binds to the affected channels, providing an avenue to reduce response to the drug in a relatively specific fashion.
“Only a subset of individuals are vulnerable to developing a substance use disorder, but we cannot yet identify who they are. If globus pallidus cell activity can effectively predict response to cocaine, it could be used to measure likely responses and thus serve as a biomarker for the most vulnerable,” Beier says. “Furthermore, it’s possible that carnosic acid could be given to those at high risk to reduce the response to cocaine.”
The next steps in this research include thoroughly assessing negative side effects of carnosic acid and determining the ideal dosage and timing. The team is also interested in testing its efficacy in reducing the desire for other drugs and in developing more potent and targeted variants.
Scientists from the University of West Virginia and the University of Colorado participated in the study.
Support for this work came from the National Institutes of Health, One Mind, the Alzheimer’s Association, New Vision Research, BrightFocus Foundation, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Source: UC Irvine
—
Previously Published on futurity.org with Creative Commons License
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community. A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities. A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock
-
African History5 years ago
A Closer Look: Afro-Mexicans 🇲🇽
-
African History8 months ago
Black History Facts I had to Learn on My Own pt.6 📜
-
African History5 years ago
A Closer Look: Afro-Mexicans 🇲🇽
-
African History1 year ago
Major African Tribes taken away during the Atlantic Slave Trade🌍 #slavetrade #africanamericanhistory
-
African History1 year ago
Cameroon 🇨🇲 World Cup History (1962-2022) #football #realmadrid #shorts
-
African History1 year ago
What did Columbus Find in 1493? 🤯🔥🔥 #history #civilization #mesoamerica #africa #kemet
-
African History7 months ago
Black History Inventors: Mary Kenner 🩸
-
African History1 year ago
Origin Of ‘Cameroon’ 🇨🇲😳#africa