For most aspiring lifters, it’s all about building a huge chest and arms. Week after week they slave away on endless sets of bench presses and barbell curls in search of the rippling muscle gains they want so badly. Not surprisingly, those gains never appear in any significant form.

It’s obvious why most lifters neglect the back muscles. 1) The back is not a “showy” muscle and you can’t see it in the mirror. 2) Back training is far more stressful and taxing to the body than chest or arm training. 3) Most lifters are simply unaware of how important the development of these muscles really is.

If you really want to look huge, you better start working out your back with the best program. There’s nothing like a well developed back to get that look and that’s because 70% of your upper body muscle mass resides in the back area.

Please, get up off that bench press and put down that EZ-curl bar for just a moment and let me share a simple, step-by-step workout that you can use to build the muscular back you so desperately need.

1) Deadlifts. The deadlift will work you from finger to neck to toe and is irreplaceable in developing strong, thick back muscles. The deadlift will stimulate growth throughout the entire back complex and should be the cornerstone of your routine.

2) A vertical pulling movement. These exercises mainly target the lat muscles and will help you to attain that wide, v-tapered look from behind. You can try with lat pulldowns, v-bar pulldowns and chin-ups.

3) Horizontal pulling movement. For maximum results, stick to a basic freeweight rowing movement. I usually recommend bent over barbell rows, but bent over dumbbell rows are an acceptable choice as well.

4) A shrugging movement. It may not be the most important part of the routine, but it also plays an important role to succed. A basic barbell or dumbbell shrug will be enough for this part.

Perform 2 sets of 5 to 7 reps of deadlifts, overhand chin-ups and bent over barbell rows and 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps of barbell shrugs. That’s all.

Make sure to keep a written record of every workout that you perform, and focus each week on increasing either the weight that you lift or the number of reps that you perform within the given rep range. For specific training information on each of these body parts make sure to visit my webpage below and find out how you can finally get the rock-solid muscle gains you deserve without spending endless hours in the gym.