A good upper back workout

The creation of the chair, iPad, table and laptop has screwed our backs. We go to the gym and train the muscles we see in the mirror, mainly the front facing ones. This leads to a race of humans with droopy, weak looking rounded shoulders, cervical spine problems and eventually lower back problems. A good upper back is essential for health, and it gives us that broad shouldered look that and has a lot of functional carryover in daily life. For chicks, its a natural boob lift. It also balances out the tons of pushing work people do in the gym to develop pectoral muscles. The whole upper back musculature is complex, consisting of the trapezius, rhomboids, lattismus dorsi and rear deltoids. A good upper workout will recruit and stranghten all these muscles and should take about 1 and 1/2 hours a week ( two 45 minute sessions). Basicly,all pulling work involves the back. We should start with heavy, basic compound exercises done properly. 1. Pull ups-the grandad of all back exercises. I use a pronated( palms out) shoulder grip style, pull myself till my upper chest touches the bar, then lower myself without dropping like a stone. They are hard to do, and get harder as we get bigger. Often, the limiting factor will be a low repitation capacity. Its very frustating to only knock out 3-4 reps before the range of movements drops. I usually call it quits when my chin can clear the bar. Instead of stopping the set for good, I make it easier-closer grip, palms it grip to knock out a fewmore reps, then when I fail that, I just hang from the bard and retractmy shoulder blades, making them touch in the middle. Thats one ser. Rest a max of two whole minutes,than back to work for another 3 sets. If pull ups can be done, sadly you can substitute with the pulldown machine. Its already pathetic, just make sure the bar touches your sternum. Its an easy, watered down version of the chin up, make it as hard as possible with controlled movements and bringing the bar to the upper chest. Same rep/set scheme as per chin ups. 2. The second exercise will be dumbell shrugs. Just grap a couple of big heavy dumbells, let your arms dangle by your sides, like when we hold suitcases and shrug your shoulders. The range of motion is limited, so make the exercise count by holding the weight at the top for of the movement for a sec.When the weight starts to slip, dont quit, rest the dumbells on something, then keep oing. Target about 10 repitions. Rest only a minute, then, dont feel bad about grabbing lighter dumbells, and keep going-4 sets in total. 3. The last exercise is upright rows-hold an EZ bar-easier on the wrist, do your rotator cuffs a favour by using a mederate weight, and 'row the weight' pull the bar vertically from waist to chin for 10 reps. This hurts my shoulder a lot. A lot. Retracting the shoulder blades, and doing the reps in a slow controlled motion helps. Aim for 4 sets of 10. There, thats it. Do some bicepwork, or ab work or whatever that makes you feel good. Like everything else in weight training, if you are good at doing it, its not going to work so well. Your muscles are no longer traumatised and stresssed. Muscles adapt trauma and stress. Use progressivly heavier weights, slower reps, better form, or shorter rest times so that you look like you are dying of pain to everybody else in the gym. After six weeks or so, you will probably need an entire different workout for that shock factor. These workout should take 45 mins max. I use really heavy weight ( for me )explode on the contracting part of the movement, and go slow on the relaxing part. Then I make rep more interesting by letting the weight passively stretch the. muscle at the bottom of the movement. Thus, each sets builds a lot lactic acid and I take longer to recover between sets. Progress faster, and you would get a modified painful cardio workout. Supplements-water, lots of it is a must. Anti oxidants of any sort are good. Pure coffee is a good pre-workout-after-work pick up. If you are a vegetarian, a spoonful of whey protein isolate might help. Otherwise, a can of tuna or something like that will suffice. Optimal time to repeat-once every three days or so.