Tom Venuto's BodybuildingSecrets.com - Back Supersets for Muscle Quality & Detail

Back Supersets for Muscle Quality & Detail

Tom Venuto, CSCS, CPT

Wednesday, August 31st, 2005. I was definitely feeling a little on the depleted side today. I suspect that the recent drop in calories had something to do with it, but sometimes you just have “one of those days”, for whatever reason. On days like these, I always trust my intuition and listen to my body. If my body says back off on the weight and lay off the heavy rows (or squats, etc), and just isolate, squeeze and really feel the muscle on any particular day, then that’s what I do.

BACK

A1 wide Grip Pull Ups: 3 sets X bodyweight X 17 reps, 12 reps, 8+2 forced reps
B1 Seated Cable row to chin, straight bar 12” pronated grip: Set 1: 130 lbs X 12 reps; Set 2: 140 lbs X 12 reps; Set 3: 150 lbs X 12 reps
B2 Seated cable Row to stomach, straight bar 12” pronated grip: Set 1: 130 lbs X 12 reps; Set 2: 140 lbs X 9 reps; Set 3: 150 lbs X 8 reps
C1 Straight Arm Rope Pulldown: 3 sets 130 lbs X 12 reps
C2 high Pulley Rope Rows: 3 sets X 130 lbs X 12 reps
D1 One Arm High Pulley row (cable crossover high pulley): 2 sets X 150 lbs (stack) X 12 reps
D2 One Arm Low Pulley Row (“lawnmower pull” on cable crossover low pulley): 2 sets X 150 lbs X 12 reps

Workout Commentary

I’ve been doing a lot of heavy rowing lately, and that was the previous plan for today, but I decide on the spur of the moment to change most of the workout and just really work on squeezing, getting a good pump and working on detail today.

I started back on chin ups, which I haven’t done in a few weeks. I used body weight only for 17, 12, and 8+ 2 reps on each of three sets respectively. I could tell I was a little fatigued today by the way the reps dropped so much from set to set. No extra weight around the waist today, just body weight.

The one combination I kept from last week was the seated close grip straight bar rows to the chin supersetted immediately (zero rest, not even 5 seconds), to the same grip rows to the stomach.

The next superset combination was straight arm pulldowns, which is usually done with a bar, but instead I used the rope. After each set of rope straight arm pulldowns I supersetted with zero rest into rope rows (from the same high pulley)

The final combo was the one arm high pulley rows supersetted into the one arm low pulley row. I did these standing, but stabilizing my body in a lunge position.

It was a lot of volume today, but the rest intervals were very brief and almost everything was supersetted, so I zipped right through it. I came back in the pm and did calves (not listed above) and cardio.

Posted 31 August, 2005 in Workouts