Writing is one of my favorite things in the world. I love to impart knowledge to people who are truly looking to sort through the maze of misinformation out there on health and fitness and learn how to achieve optimal health and enjoy a much higher quality of life. Trust me people.....you will enjoy everything in your life better when you are healthy!—give yourself the gift of good health!

In this article I'm going to tell you exactly what I do for my back. I do four exercises on my back day.

1. Machine Shoulder Shrugs - I get a tight grip on the handles and keep my arms straight and imagine they are bars. Standing straight up and holding the grips with my arms straight down at my sides, I shrug with my traps to lift the bars up as far as I can. I don't try to pull it up with my arms. All of my focus is my traps doing the work. Then slowly lower bars and relax your trap and repeat.

2. Machine Close Grip Row - The machine makes you assume the proper position. Sitting down and bracing your chest against the pad, reach forward and grab the handles. Keeping your back straight use your back muscles to pull the bars toward your midsection. Once again don't use your arms to "pull" the handles. Bring to your body then slowly let bars return to starting position and repeat.

3. Lower Back Machine - Sit in machine with knees bent and feet on platform, back resting against pad. Smoothly and slowly push back the back pad with your rigid back to the full range of motion of the machine. Slowly let the back pad return to original position and repeat.

4. Cable Machine Wide Grip Pulldown - Sit on the bench and reach up and grab bars with a wide grip. Use your back to pull the bar down in front of you to your chin level. Once again think of your arms as bars. Slowly let bar raise up until your arms are extended fully again and repeat.

I use an advanced pyramid routine—3 sets pyramiding upward in weight for each exercise, with the corresponding number of repetitions decreasing. I also switch the order of the four exercises each week to keep my muscles shocked into growing.

Example:

1st set - 3 plates a side for 12 reps

2nd set - 4 plates a side for 10 reps

3rd set - 5 plates a side for 8 reps

To maintain progress and strength in any weight-training program, each muscle group should be worked out at least once a week. It is important to work out all of your muscles each week, not just certain ones. When you start a weight training program, there will be a trial-and-error period where you will learn what poundage to use for each exercise. No matter what your goals, your resistance should be such that the last repetition of each set is all you can do. As a general rule of thumb, you should exhaust the muscle after performing ten to twelve repetitions of one exercise. If you do not, then you should increase the weight. Learn the correct weight for you.

The gym is not a contest to see who can throw around the most weight and impress people. It is about using the right amount of weight per exercise to make your body grow and to build lean muscle and burn fat. Learn the science of weight training and really make your time in the gym as productive as it can possibly be!