For true upper body strength, exercising and strengthening your back muscles is paramount. In combination with improved strength, incorporating a range of back exercises into your workout routine can help to improve your posture and reduce the risk of suffering from back pain, Snap Fitness relates.
After all, your back is the main support for your entire body, so keeping it in a fit and healthy state will reward you with numerous benefits.
If you’re stuck for ideas with regard to what back exercises to perform, or you want to make gains in less time, then you should check out this back workout superset from fitness trainer Paul Sklar. Supersets, as Barbend state, is where you “perform two exercises back to back with little to no rest in between.” Essentially, you’re doing double the work in less time, which is claimed to result in greater gains.
In the case of Paul’s back workout superset, he performs deadlifts immediately follow by some pull-ups. Two of the trickiest back exercises to get right with regard to form, but also two of the most effective.
The deadlift, as we’ve discussed before, is often regarded as “the king of lifts”. It can be hard to get the form right though, and can lead to injury if not performed correctly. There are variations you can try before attempting a regular barbell deadlift, such as the trap bar deadlift, which Conor McGregor perfectly demonstrated recently.
We won’t go into detail here with how to perform a deadlift, but you can check out our full step-by-step guide. If you’re new to the deadlift, however, be sure to start with a lighter weight to help improve your technique.
Once you have performed five deadlift repetitions, you then want to move immediately on to performing five pull-up repetitions. Once again, Conor McGregor has previously gifted us with some advice on how to perform perfect pull-ups.
For both back exercises, you want to make sure you keep the tempo slow and controlled to help increase time under tension, something Paul Sklar himself has spoken to the benefits of. He adds for this workout, to perform five sets of the superset, and to take 90-seconds of rest in between each one.
It may look simple, but your back muscles will be certainly become fatigued as you progress. But as they say, no pain no gain.
Give this back workout superset a try next time you’re in the gym and watch those gains roll in.
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