Nasser's Olympic Back Attack

One-arm dumbbell rows

This effective exercise lets you squeeze and contract one lat at a time. Never pull too much with your shoulders, instead of your lats, especially when the weight is getting progressively heavier from one set to the next. Keep your back straight and bring your head up as you lift the weight; lower your head as the weight goes back down.
This technique ensures that you perform the movement strictly and precisely. Take each set at a slow pace and concentrate intensely on the contraction.

Hammer Strength machine rows

I alternate one-arm dumbbell rows with Hammer Strength machine rows, which can be performed either unilaterally or bilat-erally. I go back and forth between these two variations, always lifting heavy with strict form. The advantage of the unilateral version is that you can put more emphasis on your weaker lat, if that’s a problem for you.

The configuration of the ma-chine allows you to vary the seat position: When the seat is higher, you target upper back; when the seat is lower, you’re prioritizing the low- to mid-back region. Al-ways keep your upper body as upright as possible and pressed against the chest pad — the heavier the weight, the greater the risk of jerking the weight back. The chest pad is your safeguard against injury; it also enables you to stay as strict as possible.

Dumbbell pullovers

The end of the road on back day is the dumbbell pullover, which quite a few bodybuilders think of as a chest exercise. To start, lie with your shoulders on a bench. Grasp a dumbbell with both hands and hold it straight over your chest; then, lower the dumbbell in an arc behind your head. While lowering, keep a slight bend in your arms — I call this rounding out — to shift the emphasis over to your lats; the straighter your arm position, the greater the emphasis on chest and triceps.

I should warn you that many people can’t do this exercise correctly because they don’t know how to stick their lats out. It takes time and practice to learn how to do this properly, but, after years of training, I’ve learned how to keep my lats relaxed and flexible. Hold your butt down for the best results. The heavier the weight, the greater the tendency to raise your butt. Trust Nasser: Keep your butt down and you should still be able to handle the weight. Dumbbell pullovers are a perfect mass builder and a perfect stretching exercise.

Barbell rows

For these, I alternate between an EZ-curl bar and a straight bar, as the former places less stress on the wrists. I like an underhand grip because I can pull my elbows farther behind my back; in essence, it helps to extend the range of motion by an inch or two.

I go heavy on these for a simple reason. Barbell rows are a free-weight movement. In my training book, all free-weight movements require heavy poundages. I’ve never heard anyone — a judge at a contest or a casual observer in a gym — complain about an athlete’s back being too big for his body. The only way to build a big back is to lift heavy weights, so don’t be reticent about packing on the plates.

I always tell people to keep their backs flat on barbell rows. The more you stay upright, the greater the stress on the upper back. I use this exercise to emphasize my lower back; in order to do that, I prefer to keep my back at a 45-degree angle to my legs.

Seated rows (not shown)

Seated rows are a cable exercise, but I treat them as a mass builder nonetheless. The key, as with all back exercises, is to concentrate on the working mus-cle while exercising slowly and methodically — but never robotically! Keep your upper body at a 90-degree angle to your legs — if you lean too far back at the top, it probably means that the weight is too heavy. At the midpoint, imagine that you are trying to bring your shoulder blades together as you squeeze your entire back. Don’t let your arms absorb the brunt of the load — your arms should act as hooks to assist with forcing all of the resistance onto the lats.

Originally featured in: Flex September, 1999

Written by: Nasser El Sonbaty

Photos by: Chris Lund