Ox 51
Musclechemistry Guru
SMALLS’ BIG BACK
How new pro Fred Smalls blew up his back.
January 6, 2011
FLEXONLINE.COM
We were the first to see the promise of Fred Smalls. When he was a distant ninth amongst heavies in the 2007 NPC Nationals, yet to appear on other radar screens, we named him one of our “4 To Watch” and guaranteed he would turn pro. Three years later, he proved us correct by winning the 2010 Nationals heavyweight class and nabbing a pro card. (Robert Burneika, another “4 To Watch” when he was also an also-ran, won the overall.) Back has long been a strength for Smalls, so we got the lowdown on his lat training philosophy and a typical back workout.
SMALLS’ ON BACK TRAINING
“I do a lot of basics for back. I was a powerlifter, so I like hitting the barbell basics: deads, barbell rows, T-bars. But I think the chins have given me my width. I do pullups with a variety of grips: close and parallel, close and overhand, underhand medium and overhand wide. This works my lats from different angles, but I feel like they all hit the outer lats to some degree.”
<TABLE class=exercise><THEAD><TR><TD colSpan=4>SMALLS’ BACK ROUTINE
</TD></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR><TH>EXERCISE </TH><TH>SETS </TH><TH>REPS </TH></TR><TR class=even><TD>Deadlifts </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>10-6 </TD></TR><TR class=odd><TD>Barbell rows </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>12-8 </TD></TR><TR class=odd><TD>T-bar rows </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>12-8 </TD></TR><TR class=even><TD>Chins </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>failure </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
How new pro Fred Smalls blew up his back.
January 6, 2011
FLEXONLINE.COM
We were the first to see the promise of Fred Smalls. When he was a distant ninth amongst heavies in the 2007 NPC Nationals, yet to appear on other radar screens, we named him one of our “4 To Watch” and guaranteed he would turn pro. Three years later, he proved us correct by winning the 2010 Nationals heavyweight class and nabbing a pro card. (Robert Burneika, another “4 To Watch” when he was also an also-ran, won the overall.) Back has long been a strength for Smalls, so we got the lowdown on his lat training philosophy and a typical back workout.
SMALLS’ ON BACK TRAINING
“I do a lot of basics for back. I was a powerlifter, so I like hitting the barbell basics: deads, barbell rows, T-bars. But I think the chins have given me my width. I do pullups with a variety of grips: close and parallel, close and overhand, underhand medium and overhand wide. This works my lats from different angles, but I feel like they all hit the outer lats to some degree.”
<TABLE class=exercise><THEAD><TR><TD colSpan=4>SMALLS’ BACK ROUTINE
</TD></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR><TH>EXERCISE </TH><TH>SETS </TH><TH>REPS </TH></TR><TR class=even><TD>Deadlifts </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>10-6 </TD></TR><TR class=odd><TD>Barbell rows </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>12-8 </TD></TR><TR class=odd><TD>T-bar rows </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>12-8 </TD></TR><TR class=even><TD>Chins </TD><TD>4 </TD><TD>failure </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
