Blow Up Your Back

by on October 22, 2025

This incredible back day comes from our new program Scorpion!! If you want a taste of what is in store for you…..this the perfect example. I am so pumped for you all to experience the new back training techniques I have been using personally and with clients. ENJOY!!

Thoughts for the AM: on Saturday and Sunday I really pushed my food up bc I could tell I needed it. Plus I wanted a to preload my back day.

Cardio: off cardio bc my AM was so damn full of client updates and I slept in bc sleep is far more important than cardio. I only have 4x/week, so plenty of time to make this session up during the week.

Lift: Back/Abs @ Y 14 Total Work Sets

Straight Arm Pulldowns -> Kneeling 1-Arm Cable Pulldown -> Assisted Pullups – Now this back day starts off fast and furious. It’s a tri-set where I’m just trying to cram as much blood into my lats as humanly possible. For the straight arm pulldowns, I just did sets of 15 working down the stack with a rope attachment.

Then I swapped the rope out for a single d-handle, took 2 giant steps back and did 10 pulldowns on each arm (see video below on the form I want here).

Lastly, I walked over to the assisted pull up machine and cranked out sets of 12 here with a shoulder width, neutral grip. My goal here is to keep my chest lifted high and sit my triceps down on top of my ribcage. This drills my lats.

After 3 sets I was ready for the final one (this is what counts here). I had 130#s on the stack for rope pulldowns and hit 9.5 reps, really feeling my lats stretch and contract. Then on the kneeling pulldowns my focus was driving my elbow into my pocket HARD. I got 10 reps on each arm here with 80#s. Then over to the pullups where I got a miserable set of 7 and partials with 50#s of assistance…..I immediately pulled the pin out and took this to 90# of help and just pumped reps until I couldn’t move 1 inch. Dear god this woke me up and had such a nasty pump going.

Note: if you don’t have an assisted pull up machine close by, simply replace with band assisted pull ups or even a lat pulldown.

I will count this as 3 Working Sets bc the first 3 rounds weren’t to failure

Step Forward Dumbbell Rows – Now we go right to a free weight favorite of mine. I really hope you enjoyed this last week as I know the more you do this, the better you will connect to it. For this day I did 2 feeder sets of 6 on each arm before I got to my work set. I started with 140 and nailed 10 of them, but I knew it was drop set time……so get that mind right. Right into the 100 for 8.5 reps and followed that with 70 for 9 reps. This had be breathing like crazy and I took right at 2 minutes before doing the other arm. Do not rush between arms, let your heart rate get close to resting as this drop set will take it out of you.

1 Work Set

Dante Rows – last time we did these it was a rest pause set (which is a go to for me). But today I wanted a simple volume approach here. I put 85#s on the weight stack with the Vulkan Attachment and shot for 10-12 on all 3 sets. Coming off those db rows, this just felt amazing. Remember…..HUGE stretch, open up those lats and then drive your elbows into your pockets. Make every single rep count here.

3 Work Sets

Incline Dumbbell Rows Superset with Meadows Rows – You ready to be kicked in the teeth? This is the grouping. I want to drill that upper back now after all this lat specific work. Set an incline bench at 45 degrees, get high up on it and then row with a semi-pronated grip. Think, “control the negative, let the back out, keep a neutral neck and then drive your elbows as far behind your ribs as possible.” I was shooting for 10ish reps here.

Then I took my time, walked over to the landmine and hit 10 reps on the Meadows Rows. Now my form here is ULTRA explosive and a dead stop on every single rep. So let the weight fully settle on the ground, then drive it up as hard and as fast as you can. This feels so freaking good.

The pump I got here was out of this world. All I needed was 2 rounds of this superset.

2 Rounds for 4 Total Work Sets

1-Arm Machine Rows – so back to lat focus to finish off your upper back. I fully shift my body over here to ensure the alignment I am after (keeping my elbow as tight to my ribs as possible). I am using a Cybex Eagle piece that hammers my low lat, but you can use any hammer strength piece or any chest supported row that you feel deep in your lats.

I did a set of 15, rested 60 seconds, a set of 12 and rest another 60 seconds. This is where it got fun. Put a weight on there that is a hard set of 10. After I fished the second arm, I lowered the weight by 30% and pulled with both arms as many as possible (9 more reps). Set the weight down, counted to 10 and then held a contraction in my back for as long as I could hold it. No clue how long, but I started shaking violently if you need a frame of reference.

3 Work Sets

Hyperextensions -> Hanging Leg Raises -> Dead Hangs – We started with a tri-set, so let’s finish with one. None of this is “hard.” This is all about taking care of our body. So 10 reps of slow and controlled hypers, then walked right over to the pull up bar for 15 hanging leg raises to train my lower abs and after those 15, I hung for an additional 20 seconds to really stretch out my lats. I did 2 rounds of this non-stop to complete the day.

Zero Work sets here

Music While Lifting: Architects Blackhole

Cris is the Lead Coach for Team MountainDog.

John Meadows nicknamed him “Cris the Insane” over 11 years ago when they started working together. Over 30 programs later and he is still cranking. His understandings of John's philosophies from exercise selection or order, rep ranges, volume, intensity and days of training per week are ingrained in him from the 1,800+ workouts he had done under John's watchful eye.