Thread: Back Volume

I do a pretty significant amount of sets for what I count as “back”—29 sets per week—and I’m feeling that I might need to cut down because I’m not doing too hot with pull ups and straight arm pulldowns, and rows might be approaching a standstill. So 28 is a lot, but I’m including all of lats, mid and lower traps, snd upper traps. Should that all be lumped into a single category?

Also, it should be noted that I hit back 4 days/week, taking care of pull-ups at home and doing pulldown variations on leg days at the gym. With 6 sets of straight arm pulldowns per week at 3 sets per leg day, I’m thinking about scrapping half of those. I’m running ULPPL so it goes Upper (pull ups), Lower (SAPD), rest, pull (pull ups), push, legs (SAPD snd close grip PD). If I got rid of SAPD on lower day, I’m never working back two days in a row, and volume goes down. But then I’m still at 26 sets for back, unless we consider lats/vert pulls their own category, in which case I’m at 12. Thoughts?

@coach problem is I can only get to the gum 2 days/week for legs, so I do basically all of my upper body stuff at home, and of course pulldowns are only possible at the gym (pullovers not possible due to two shoulder impingements). So there’s not a lot of room for recovery there.

I guess I could do more sets of pulldowns on leg day 2 so I can maintain volume while getting rid of them on leg day 1, but even then, I’m still working back 3 days/week and only have a single 72 hour stretch between sets within a week and two 48 hour stretches.

I could do more sets of pull-ups at home (like, a lot) and just nix pulldowns altogether, but I’d rather not. Close grip (unilateral) pulldowns are improving smoothly, even. And I’m struggling but damn I love me some straight arms.

Tl;dr more than one 72 hour rest windows impossible with my exercise choices due to equipment limitations....

@jax for traps I do barbell shrugs and incline DB Kelso shrugs.

Low back didn’t even cross my mind tbh, I’ve injured it so many times over the years the fact that I can still deadlift at all is a miracle. I’ve indefinitely disposed of barbell rows (subbed Pendlays) and low bar squats (subbed fronts and high bar). I just recovered from a bad flare up and don’t intend to **** with adding sets there... like... ever.

As for how long it took me to build up to back sets, if I’m not including the aforementioned trap stuff, I started with (well anyway when I started Viking’s, before stripping the program down to its skeleton and remodeling and personalizing it) and have maintained this volume for a couple of years. I’ve always tiptoed around adding back volume because it always seemed like a lot already and I didn’t want to fall into overkill. Trap sets came along like a year ago and I didn’t notice any intrusion on my general back work.