Question:I would like to know what your opinion is of Charles Poliquin’s book on strength training and also what the best basic lat exercises are. My lats are a weak point and need some additional training. I’m not sure whether lat pulls or pull-ups are more effective and have difficulty lat pulling more than 100lbs. Also, what do you think about bent-over rows?
Answer: Canadian Charles Poliquin is considered by many as the best strength coach in the world. Charles has been a strength coach for over 22 different Olympic sports and is presently the strength and conditioning coach for more than 400 Olympic and professional athletes. While his specialty is strength training and sports conditioning, his expertise is equally sought after by bodybuilders, powerlifters and world class athletes.
Poliquin’s book, “The Poliquin Principles: Successful Methods for Strength and Mass Development” was written with bodybuilders and serious weight trainers in mind. (Beginners may find it a bit confusing and may not be familiar with some of the advanced exercises described.) If you are an intermediate or advanced trainee and your workouts are getting stale and boring, you will find this book refreshing, as it is not a re-hash of the same old programs you read in the muscle magazines every month. Poliquin’s techniques are unique and innovative and he explains the scientific rationale behind all his methods. The book contains sections on reps, sets, tempo, rest intervals, frequency, duration, volume, and workout design. There are also sample routines for each body part. On the downside, the photos are out of date and add little to the excellent content of the book. Also, some people might consider the $39.95 price tag is a bit steep for a 150 page paperback but all in all the book is an excellent investment.
Chin ups are one of the best all around upper body exercises in existence. They work the lats, teres major, rear deltoids, rhomboids, the lower trapezius as well as your elbow flexors (biceps, brachialis, etc). According to Poliquin, the chin up should be a core exercise for complete back development. Poliquin says that if you substitute pulldowns for Chins you won’t get the same results. In an article he wrote for Testosterone Magazine titled “The seven best exercises for lats” – four out of seven exercises Charles selected were variations of the chin up (read the article if you want to know all seven – you may be surprised at which ones he chose!)
If you have a difficult time doing chin ups, don’t throw in the towel and settle for just pulldowns alone. Use a spotter and have them spot you from the ankles. You can kick off their hands to help you chin yourself up. If you don’t have a spotter, put a stool underneath you and kick yourself up and then lower yourself slowly. You will find that it is easier to lower yourself than to pull yourself up because your negative/lowering (eccentric) strength is greater than your positive/pulling (concentric) strength. Try to add a rep at every back workout, be persistent, and eventually you will be able to chin yourself for reps unassisted!
Ladies shouldn’t shy away from chin-ups either. There are very few women who can chin themselves even once. Relative to total bodyweight, women are almost as strong as men in the lower body, but they are considerably weaker in the upper body, making chin ups difficult. However, that doesn’t mean women can’t develop the strength to do chin ups through consistent training. One of Charles Poliquin’s female assistants-Josée Tremblay from Montreal-can do sets of Chin ups with a five second positive and a five second negative. Using a carefully planned progression over a period of 11 weeks, Poliquin was also able to get the canadian National ski team’s average number of chin ups from zero to 12 reps in 11 weeks!
Charles is also a strong advocate of bent over rows, but he cautions that most people perform the exercise incorrectly. The most common mistakes in the bent over row include rounding the back instead of maintaining a slight arch and cheating the weight up using the legs and not the lats. Bent over rows with a supinated (palms up) grip were the favorite exercise of former six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates and he had one of the most amazing backs of any bodybuilder in history.
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