Most people grew up watching Pumping Iron while looking up to Arnold and although he is an amazing bodybuilder, I think he was a bit overrated in my personal opinion. Arnold was more of the chest and biceps king in my opinion because those were some of the bodyparts that stood out the most in his physique. Since I have always had a huge obsession for backs, I loved Lee Haney’s physique because he had a very wide back, but it was also extremely thick too (a rare combination). On top of that, Lee had some of the best back genetics that I have ever seen in my life! Haney’s lat insertions were so low that they connected close to his hip which made his back resemble the shell of turtle in a sense.
1) MAKE IT A PRIORITY
Haney’s back was hands down one of his best attributes and that was because he made it a priority. If you watch all of his videos you notice that he went extremely hard on back and he rowed like there was no tomorrow. He hit his back from countless different angles and it had no choice but to grow!
For all of you people out there, understand that the more you want something and the harder you work for it, the more likely it will come. Most people have big biceps because they want it so badly that they put their heart and soul in every set of curls they do, the concentration, effort and determination has to be active when you want to bring up a certain bodypart.
Another important aspect is patience. If you want a huge back then it will take very long for it to reach its genetic potential because it is comprised of so many different muscles and there is so much potential for growth.
2) DO T-BAR ROWS WITH SMALLER PLATES FOR MORE RANGE OF MOTION, BARBEL ROWS WITH MORE ROM & DB BENT OVER ROWS SO THAT EACH ARM IS WORKING INDEPENDENTLY
Haney used to do all of his T-bar rowing with a bar in the corner of a room and with 25lb plates instead of the 45lb plates in order to get a better squeeze in the back and more range of motion, genius.
He also did DB bent over rows which are a great exercise for the back because your arms are working independently. The DB bent over row delivers a different kind of contraction that can’t be duplicated with other barbel methods.
3) DO BEHIND THE BACK SHRUGS WITH A SMITH MACHINE
While he did most of his behind the back shrugs with a free-weighted barbel, he used to do behind the back smith machine shrugs as well and he had some great traps as well. The traps are located in the back of the body and this is why many bodybuilders are big advocates of behind the back shrugs.
4) GET A STOMACH VACUUM BY DOING A LOT OF DECLINE PULLOVERS
Lee was big on doing pullovers to isolate the lats, but he would also do them on the decline bench from time to time. The decline pullovers are superior to the pullovers on the flat bench in the sense that you could get a better stretch in the lats and you could also use more weight as well, not to mention that you feel it a lot less in the shoulders.
The stomach vacuum is what made his back look even bigger than it was because it gave the illusion of a small waist (his waist was already small to begin with) and combine that with his wide back, no wonder he won Mr. Olympia 8 times.
5) STRETCH YOUR LATS BETWEEN YOUR SETS OF ROWS AND CHINS
Last but not least, if you watched Haney’s back workout videos, you notice that he stretches the lats a lot between sets of rows and vertical pulling motions. The reason why he does this is because tight lats are bad for your posture so it is good to stretch them out, stretching the lats out improves the mind muscle connection and it also brings more blood into the muscle which will eventually lead to better pumps in the gym.
Lee would also finish his back workouts with an intense lat spread for 1-2 minutes to get as much of the remaining blood flow to the back as possible to help with the mind muscle connection and his competition poses.
CONCLUSION:
Hopefully you learned a thing or two from Haney because in my opinion he is just as much of a legend as Arnold or Ronnie are and his legacy will forever be remembered.
