Pro Tip for Back Development – Branden Ray

This exercise comes from IFBB Pro Branden Ray. He has developed some insanely dense back musculature, with a crazy V-taper! I added this exercise to my back regimen this week and the mind muscle connection was intense! As Branden describes below, it doesn’t require a lot of weight and you will get more out of this variation than with a conventional deadlift. Check out how he describes the exercise!

The whole purpose of doing rack pulls for back instead of full range deadlifts from the floor is to keep the lower body out of the movement. However, I can instantly tell when a rack pull is more legs than back, the hips come forward during the pull, the body becomes fully erect standing straight up, and then that extra little lean back at then end thing which mostly just squeezes the booty more so than the back. The loud plates rattle, the bar bends, the video gets double tapped, the chest gets pounded 🦍, everything going on but the back.

With my version of deadlifts targeting the back, my hips stay back because I’m leaning back on the rack. I’m stabilized so I don’t need any help from my lower body to overcompensate during the left.

I allow the bar roll forward under control which full stretches my back, especially my lats. I always believe that the deeper the stretch, the deeper the contraction.

Now, because my lower body and lower back are stabilized, I can focus on the stretch and contraction of the back without my erectors in flight or fight mode, meaning, trying to protect my discs from slipping and spine from snapping.

As I pull, I drive my elbows back and chest up, something that I learned from @thecharlesglass years ago to contract every muscle of the back. Pulling at the angle of my legs opposed to just vertically allows me to hit more muscles of the back. I only use 135lbs so don’t expect to go heavy because of the isolation. It’s all about the results, the end game. CHESS NOT CHECKERS