John Jewett has major plans for his upcoming bodybuilding contest in just under two weeks. In the meantime, he shared three of his favorite exercises he employs to build a massive and defined back.
Throughout the 2023 bodybuilding season, John Jewett proved to be a formidable opponent on the competitive stage. Jewett secured his ticket to the Olympia after his win at the Lenda Murray Atlanta Pro Show. Then, shortly after, he stood out during his Men’s Open debut at the Legion Sports Fest Pro, where he took home second place.
Surprisingly, even after qualifying for the 212 Olympia, John Jewett decided to commit to the Open. He chose not to compete at the Olympia. Instead, he took the time to hone his physique and prepare for the upcoming year. In his latest contest, Jewett secured third place at the recent 2024 Toronto Pro Supershow.
Bodybuilder John Jewett Shares His 3 Favorite Exercises That Make Up His ‘Comprehensive Back Workout’
Now, Jewett is gearing up to take the stage at the 2024 Vancouver Pro, just under two weeks away. In a recent YouTube video, John Jewett walked his fans through his top three back exercises that have become staples in his routine before hopefully securing his ticket to the 2024 Mr. Olympia.
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Jewett’s Top Three Back Exercises
- Lat-Bias Pulldown
- Lat-Bias Row
- Upper Back Row
Before jumping into the exercises, Jewett explains that these three movements are meant to focus on multiple parts of the back.
“These are three primary ones that could make a very comprehensive back workout. And when we’re talking about back, we’re going to focus on the lats, traps, rear delts, rhomboids, and all the other smaller musculature that surrounds that part of the back” Jewett said.
Lat-Bias Pulldown
His first exercise is the lat-biased pulldown.
“A lat-biased pulldown, for a lat-biased pulldown we want something that’s going to be slightly out in front of us and there’s lots of variations that you can have.”
“If you want to do a straight bar pulldown with the elbow flared out a little bit more, you’re absolutely still going to be training the lat. However, the lat functions really well when it starts getting that elbow a little bit more tucked closer to the body and finishing close to the hip.”
Jewett explains another way to position the body to focus more on shortening the lats.
“If you’re raising overhead and right before you start to internally rotate the arm, and get directly overhead, the lat actually shortens a little bit. So, one function that we have of the lat is that it’s going to help with translating this humerus back and forth.”
Lat-Bias Row
His next movement is lat-bias rows where he emphasizes the importance of keeping the elbows tight to the body.
“Exercise number two is going to be a lat-biased row. Now, with the lat-biased row, we want to remember what we talked about with our pulldown. The lat is really going to function well when this elbow is kept tight to the body.”
Additionally, he explains why you should pay attention to how the humerus moves and goes over a Roger’s row movement that he prefers for its more natural positioning.
“Also pay attention to how this humerus moves. It moves down and towards the hip. So if we’re looking at machine setups, we want one that emulates that path. So, a lot of times with cables, cables usually move in a straight line right? So it’s hard for this humerus to want to move down towards the hip.”
“You might want to actually queue that arc to take place. Here’s one exercise that works well. This is a Roger’s row movement. I like this one because it does move this natural path.”
So what you can do for one, set this up, I like something that has a chest brace so it counter this force pulling towards you and you can use the other arm to also prevent that rotational component from twisting you. And we’re going to do the same type of queue that we did with our pulldown.”
Upper Back Row
Finally, John Jewett moves into upper back rows where he once again shares that elbow placement plays a big role in what back muscles are being targeted.
“My third favorite exercise is some kind of upper back-biased row. There’s lots of different variations that we can show for equipment-wise. Also, several different kind of arm paths that you can be in to work, this entire upper back musculature, which we’re kind of saying for back, rear delts, traps, a little bit of Terry’s major involved, probably some upper lat as well. But a little bit more elbow that gets tucked, a little bit more lat is going to be involved within this.”
Since this exercise focuses on the humerus and also the scapulas, he prefers a chest-supported t-bar row to counteract being pulled forward.
“We’re not really queuing a lot to happen with the scapulas, we’re really focusing on the humerus and where we want to do with that.
Now, with our upper back movement, we really want to focus on moving these scapulas a lot. Why I like a chest-supported t-bar row is for one, you’re going to have a chest brace that’s going to counter this force trying to pull you forward.”
John Jewett intends to make his mark in the Men’s Open division. If he is successful at securing his qualification for the 2024 Mr. Olympia, he will be going up against some of the sport’s finest. This includes the current Olympia titleholder Derek Lunsford as well as the former champion Hadi Choopan.
With other notable Men’s Open competitors like Nick Walker, Samson Dauda, and former 2019 Mr. Olympia Brandon Curry in the mix, Jewett has his work cut out for him. In the meantime, Jewett is preparing to potentially secure his ticket to the 2024 Mr. Olympia at the Vancouver Pro with the help of his favorite back exercises. Will you be giving John Jewett’s top three movements a try?
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