Bodybuilding veteran Lee Priest is still unearthing details about the training routines he used to reach the top of the sport. On February 11, 2025, he named and justified his top two back workouts for adding muscle thickness.
Lee Priest made a name for himself in the Men’s Open division throughout the 1990s and 2000s. During his illustrious tenure, he managed to defeat bodybuilding legend Ronnie Coleman seven times. Before leaving the sport, he strung together three victories in a row at the 2006 NOC New York, PDI Night of Champions, and 2013 NABBA Mr. Universe.
Having taken valuable training lessons from names like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Platz, Priest boasts a wealth of knowledge when it comes to working out. Today, he dives into a pair of back exercises that are sure to add thickness for a more complete look.
These Are the Back Exercises Lee Priest Would Choose if He Could Only Pick 2
Find his selections below:
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- Chin-Ups
- Seated Row/Barbell Row/Dumbbell Row
If he had to choose two back exercises, he’d go with chin-ups and a rowing variation.
“Chins and either a seated row or barbell row,” he shared. “Yeah, that’s what I’d do. Like body weight chins or add weight while you’re doing chins and some sort of rowing movement for the thickness. And that’s it.”
He believes there was no need to include lat pulldowns since he achieves the same effect with chin-ups, which many consider to be more difficult.
“No [lat pulldown], you’re doing chins for that. Normally, chins are harder than lat pulldowns. I see guys that might weigh 180 pounds and they can’t do one chin but they are pulling 300 pounds down on the lat pulldown.
I’m thinking, what, you can’t pull your body weight up but you can pull 300 pounds down because they got the momentum going.”
As for the rowing movement, any will do, but he named barbell rows, dumbbell rows, t-bar rows, and the seated cable row machine.
“If I had only two exercises it’d be chins and maybe a barbell row,” he shared. “Yeah T-bar, any type of row, could be dumbbell row. But if you only got two, those, a chin and a rowing movement. There’d be no use in doing the chin and a pulldown type because it’s pretty much the same.”
Priest recently turned heads after renewing his IFBB Pro card for the 2025 bodybuilding season. While he may have made this move to avoid the new ruling on inactive competitors, others are speculating that he might return to the stage. At 52 years old, he’d be the perfect candidate to compete at the 2025 Masters Olympia contest, scheduled for August 9-10 in Tokyo, Japan.
Priest still sports an incredible physique since retiring from the sport. While we’re unsure if he’ll ever mount a comeback, he continues to offer lifters insightful advice for mastering form and technique!
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