Flex Wheeler Back Workout

Considered by many to be the greatest bodybuilder to grace the stage, Flex Wheeler stood among the top as an IFBB Professional Bodybuilding champion. His Physique was a well built machine of muscle mass that was evenly distributed across his body.

While we could consider every muscle to be a standout, it was his back that received the most attention. The back is the muscle that is the separator in professional bodybuilding. Big lats, traps, and mid back can be the difference between a trophy or just a wave while walking off stage.

Flex Wheeler’s Training Principles

In our Flex Wheeler Training Principles article, we discussed the training principles that Flex’s workout routine different from other strength training programs. This list includes:

Lots of Repetitions
Lots of training Volume
Lots of Exercise Angles
Keeping a constant workout tempo
Pre Engaging the Muscle
Physically Touching the Muscle
Between Set Stretches

The training principles helped to build overall muscle mass across Flex’s physique. But there are specific principles that Flex applied to each muscle group being trained that helped him to maximize muscle tissue growth.

Flex Wheeler’s Back Workout

This article will discuss the principles Flex used to create such detail in his back. Many weight training programs look to build the back into looking like one massive muscle. Flex’s training program created a look of a map filled with muscles and veins throughout. Over his competitive career, his muscle growth brought out each individual muscle of the back with great detail.

The Exercises That Made Flex a Champion Professional Bodybuilder

Prioritizing Pull Ups

Many bodybuilders suggest deadlifts are the bread and butter of back development. This well recognized powerlifting exercise helps to develop all the muscles of the back during a single exercise. While it is a fantastic exercise, Flex feels differently about using this exercise for building a pro bodybuilder caliber physique which we discuss later in this article.

An underrated exercise that Flex puts at the top of the list is pull ups. Like deadlifts, pull ups work many muscles of the back but with more effort being placed on the lats. This helps create the wing look a bodybuilder works so hard to create.

Pull ups are a demanding exercise that tells you the truth about your strength. Flex used to perform 20 repetitions of this exercise while holding 45lbs between his legs. This helped to create his road map back while also giving the biceps some additional work.

A Variety of Cable Rows

Watch any Flex Wheeler back workout video online and you will see him perform or teach the pull-down and cable rows. These exercises allow for several widths and grip positions to hit the back from different angles. Using different angles and grip positions does not appear to lead to different muscle activation but the change from workout to workout can create a new stimulus that the muscles respond to.

Flex recommends executing these exercises unilaterally, as it allows you to touch the muscle while it is being worked. Creating the mind muscle connection is key to making sure all the muscles are being worked.

Landmine T-Bar Rows

Like Pull-ups, once you start the exercise there is an immediate intensity created. Even with a lightweight set, landmine rows require the muscle to be awake and ready to work. Therefore, they are a big part of Flex’s training program.

T-bar rows demand a mind muscle connection from the start. Rarely will we complete this exercise without knowing what muscles were being worked.

Hanging Deadlifts

A Bodybuilder can get a lot of benefit out of the deadlift, but sometimes the approach looks different. Since muscle isolation is a common practice, they require changes to the deadlift to reduce the lower body activation.

Flex would perform deadlifts in a smith machine and start at the top of the exercise. This allowed him to activate the back muscles before anything else. Again, keeping with the mind muscle connection and pre engaging the back when releasing the safety catches.

Dumbbell Rows

Along with the barbell Yates row, popularized by Olympia Champion Dorian Yates, the single arm dumbbell row was a favorite among 90s bodybuilders. Watch any of the old Battle for the Olympia DVD’s and you will see heavy one arm rows. They were performed either with a hand placed on the dumbbell rack or the knee.

Dumbbell rows were not at the top of flex’s workout, but he rotated them in and out of his gym routine.

The single arm row is an exercise that immediately pre engages the muscle. Once lifting the weight off of the ground, your lats immediately require activation, making it a fantastic exercise for the mind muscle connection.

Back Extensions

Another popular exercise rotated in and out of flex’s workout routine is the back extension. Charles Glass had many of his clients using this exercise with a lot of weight but then torturing them with drop-sets to annihilate the lower back.

Except for a few notable athletes, the workouts they perform do not include lower back as a secondary muscle. This is because they spend a lot of time doing isolation work that targets the lats and mid back. Therefore, heavy back extensions with a lot of volume was a consistent exercise for flex.