Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel regularly educates his followers on the best muscle-building strategies and training techniques. In a recent YouTube video shared on October 21, 2024, Dr. Israetel revealed his top five exercises for building a beastly back while providing form cues and expert tips.
With a PhD in sports physiology, coupled with his experience as a competitive bodybuilder and professional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu grappler, Dr. Mike Israetel has a deep understanding of exercise mechanics. His knowledge has allowed him to amass a large following on social media, where he discusses a broad array of topics, including how many days per week to train to make unreal muscle gains and if creatine can cause undesirable side effects.
Dr. Israetel has also become well known for dissecting the training routines of legendary bodybuilders and famous Hollywood stars. From eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman to Hugh Jackman, exercise scientist Dr. Israetel always has some meaningful insights.
Dr. Mike Israetel Breaks Down His Top 5 Favorite Back Exercises
However, Dr. Mike Israetel doesn’t just critique other individuals’ workouts. Instead, he incorporates science-based training techniques to show his fans the best way to get in a good pump. In his latest offering on YouTube, Dr. Mike Israetel walked his followers through his five favorite exercises for building the back, demonstrating proper form along the way.
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Dr. Israetel’s Top Five Back Exercises
- Pull-Ups
- Cable Flexion Rows
- Machine Rows
- Lat Prayers
- Barbell Rows
Before getting into the workout, Dr. Israetel emphasizes that these movements are in no particular order nor are they tiered by importance.
“Today, we are going to talk about my five favorite back exercises. That doesn’t mean they are the only ones you should be doing. That doesn’t mean all the other ones suck. And this is not a tier list so it’s not like the first one is better than the fourth.”
Pull-Ups
Beginning with pull-ups, Dr. Israetel highlights the benefits of ending each repetition with a dead hang.
“A couple of parameters on pull-ups. First, make sure every single one ends in a dead hang. If you dead hang at the bottom, it stretches your lats under a crap-load of load. It gives them more muscle growth. It also makes you resilient against injury in weird movements.”
“If you just get the bar to chin height every single time, that’s a real good place to start. Come up, chin height, if you want more of a bias specifically to your lats, you can keep your elbows tucked in a little bit more.”
Cable Flexion Rows
Next, he explains that there are two parts to the cable flexion rows, the eccentric component and the concentric phase.
“This movement basically has two components: the eccentric component where you’re reaching as far forward as possible as you can with slightly bent legs, you’re rounding your entire back, you’re loosening your shoulders, it’s like trying to grab something that’s all the way over here.
The second part of the movement is the concentric phase which involves the arching of the back and secondary, the pulling back of the arms.”
Machine Rows
With machine rows, Dr. Israetel points out that this movement utilizes almost the entire back.
“He’s going to protract his scapulae, round his whole back, everything is forward, shoulders forward, and then he’s going to put his elbows, shoulders back and his chest is going to push up at the top.”
“That’s going to utilize almost his entire back at the same time to get this implement from point A to point B.”
Lat Prayers
Concerning lat prayers, he emphasizes cues to keep in mind to ensure you perform this movement properly.
“You’re going to bend your body so that you’re almost if not parallel to the ground. And at the top of the exercise, you’re going to let the cables stretch your lats and arms as much as humanly possible. You’re going to have either completely locked-out elbows or almost locked-out elbows.”
He says that you should feel a ‘super big stretch’ at the top during the execution of this exercise.
You’re going to get this super big stretch at the top and as you come down, you’re going to come up just a little bit tilting your face and head up for only one reason. The cable will literally hit you in the face otherwise.”
“A good cue to use is when you’re pulling down you cue chest up. When you’re pushing back through you cue chest down,” he shares.
Barbell Rows
Finally, Dr. Israetel revealed that this movement provides a massive mechanical advantage and promotes the most muscle growth.
“The one that I have preferred recently takes advantage of the idea that your stretched muscle positions are the most muscle growth promoting. This is a little bit of a problem for the conventional bent row where you keep your hips in one plane of alignment and you never move your spine with respect to your hips.”
“Tilt your entire upper body, not just your back, everything, through your glutes, you’re going to tilt up to go from a nearly parallel angle to something like a 45-degree angle. That gives you a huge mechanical advantage.”
This isn’t the first time Dr. Mike Israetel has shared his favorite exercises. In the past, he has broken down the best movements for chest growth, which included dumbbell flys and deficit pushups. He also provided a thorough explanation for why each exercise was included in his top five and gave form cues along the way.
Whether you are just getting started on your fitness goals or have been at it a while, Dr. Mike Israetel’s science-based approach to training makes it easier than ever to improve. If you give Dr. Israetel’s top five back-building exercises a try, be sure to let us know how it went in the comments below!
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