Q: I have wide lats and fairly good upper-back detail, but my lower back seems puny by comparison. It's not thick. What can I do to correct that?

A: Complete back development requires three types of movement: vertical pulls, horizontal pulls and lower-back movements. Vertical pull (pulldowns and pullups) widen the lats, and horizonta pulls (rows) widen the lower lats and thicken the middle back and upper back (traps and rhomboids). But with your current shape, what you need most is the third type of movement, the lower-back movements, whirl anchor the whole works but which, unfortunately, an arguably the most-ignored exercises in bodybuilding.

Many times, pros explain in detail how to use vertical and horizontal pulls, but they neglect to mention the lower-back lifts. Why? Usually, it's because they don't do them themselves, a fact that's manifest when they step onstage: their lats might be wide, but they have no lower-back thickness, no Christmas tree striations an dno protuberant, tree-trunk erectors.

By lower-back exercises, I mean deadlifts and stiff-lep deadlifts, which call upon your lower back to lift or support enormous weight, as if you are a crane or a derrick. They contract or stress your spinal erectors to their max, creating those rare but invaluable crevices and ridges of  muscularity that have been known to win shows.

The most important point to remember in a lower-back lift is to always do it in free-weight and freestanding fashion, so that your body is unsupported at any point. This forces your lower back to accept its maxi-mum weightlifting responsibility. If you use a Smith machine or other machines, your back's stabilizing and support musculature will not need to become optimally involved, and development will thus be limited.

Do not try to isolate your lower back during these exercises. Maximum stress on all of the muscles that constitute that area is a synergistic product of lifting heavy and challenging weight, which can be accomplished only by the coordinated efforts of all muscles in the back of your body — your traps, rear delts, upper and lower lats, middle back, teres, erectors, obliques, glutes and hamstrings, to name a few. The geometric principle here is to have the weight (barbell) pull downward as hard as possible on the upper lever of your body, which is attached to the fulcrum of your waist, which in turn is anchored into your glutes and hamstrings. As the weight pulls on your upper back, it pulls on all of the other muscles, with development in all.

For deadlifts and stiff-leg deadlifts, lift the weight off the floor, not off a rack; this will provide a full range of motion. Keep your weights high, your reps low, your body tight and your pace smooth. With that, I've provided a sample workout for beginners and intermediates seeking to pack size onto the lower back.

Yate's Lower-Back Priority Workout

Exercise                                    Sets                        Reps

Deadlifts                                     4                             5-8
Machine Pullovers                         3                             8-12
Reverse-Grip Weighted Chins         3                             8
Seated Pulley Rows                      3                             8-12
Barbell Rows                                3                             6-10 

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