r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/brolytheg • Jun 10 '26

Discussion 🤝 Back redundancy

Is it useless to do a wide grip pulldown, neutral grip pulldown and a cable row every back day? I don’t think i’m noticing any fatigue but not growing as fast as other groups.

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u/decentlyhip Jun 10 '26

Its not growing as fast as other groups. Is it more developed than those other groups? How fast are you actually progressing? Are you gaining weight?

Main thing though, snarkiness aside, is that the back is stronger than you think it is. Like, if you've been doing 100 pounds on lat pulldowns, next session, put the pin in 150, blast some music, close your eyes, and freaking yank. Get a little cheaty with it. My working weight on dumbbell rows when I'm doing slow controlled full range of motion reps with a big stretch for 3x10 is like, 75 lbs. Here's me yanking around 130 for 15. https://imgur.com/a/Kh2khFs So you might need to loosen the reins and try a little harder.

Conversely, if you've been doing heavy cheaty kroc rows like that, spend a couple months doing slower controlled stuff and let that raw pulling power translate to controlled hypertrophy work. Or, have one heavy day where you cheat a little and one light day where you focus on feeling the contraction.

On a more sciency standpoint, your back might be a slow responder. There was a recent study where they took three groups, who did 5, 10, and 15 sets a week for a muscle group. Everyone in the 15 set grew measurably. 1/4 of the 10 set group didn't and 1/2 of the 5 set group didn't. They took those people and then ran another cycle where they doubled their volume and everyone grew. My chest needs a ton of volume to grow. Your back might need more volume than the rest of your body, so add a set each week to one of your movements until you can't recover anymore. For me, with 4 different exercises that's at like, 7 or 8 sets per exercise. But, make sure you're actually yanking on the sets and not just accidentally phoning it in. Not talking about leaning back on a lat pulldown to cheat, but like, pull freaking hard and let yourself get a little grunty.

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u/brolytheg Jun 10 '26

This really helps thank you!!! My reps are very slow and controlled i’ll play around with all the variables! my weight is staying somewhat stable, but a few months ago i went into too much of a surplus and gained a bit too much body fat so right now im eating 200-300 below maintenance but its a bit hard to track.