Call me old school, but what is it with kids these days? They come into my gym and all they want to do is get “cut” and have a “six pack.” I tell them, “The beer distributor is down the street if you want a six pack. Pick one up for me while you’re there! This here is a gym, boy, and in my book a gym is where you get bigger and stronger!”
Back in my younger days of lifting I wanted to be BIG; the bigger the better. Thick chest, tree-trunk thighs, WIDE shoulders, and a massive back were absolute musts. Nothing would stop me until I had attained hugeness. From the start I admired lifters like Doug Young, Bill Kazmaier, Pisarenko, and Rachmanov as well as bodybuilders like Arnold, Lou Ferrigno, and Pete Grymkowski. These guys could walk the walk and everybody gave them a wide berth. You really had no choice because they were all at least a yard wide.
I was pretty lucky when I first started lifting weights because my early influences came from Bob Hoffman’s Strength and Health magazine, a publication that emphasized Olympic lifting. The reason I got that magazine was because it was the only muscle magazine that was sold at the drug store near my house. My brother and I used to get it every month and I always admired the physiques of the Olympic lifters of that era. There were no articles on how to lower your bodyfat or anything about posing. Strength and Health showed you just good old fashioned basic workouts with heavy weights. Maybe if that store would have carried Muscle and Fitness I would be writing about tanning and oiling right now… who knows?
From those humble beginnings I started to grow bigger, stronger, and most of all wider. I became known in my neighborhood as the “muscle guy.” Because of the limited amount of equipment I had, I was forced me to do only very basic movements. We had a 400lb York Olympic set, a set of squat racks, a rickety bench, and a bar mounted to the basement rafters that I would use to do pullups. Fortunately, those basic movements happened to be the best lifts that a kid could do. I did tons of cleans, squats, rows, and pull-ups, which are pretty much the basics of my “get wide” program that I’ll outline in this article.
Stick to the basics and get wide like Steve.Before I outline the program we have to talk about one thing. Some guys are lucky to be born with naturally wide shoulder girdles, and some aren’t. Back in the 40’s and the 50’s, Steve Reeves used to do deadlifts with his hands grasping the edges of the 45lb plates, thinking the weight and the extreme wide grip would pull his shoulders apart and therefore giving him a wider shoulder width. Whether or not that worked, I really can’t say. I guess if breathing squats and pullovers can expand the rib cage then maybe the super-wide-grip deads worked for Reeves. I wouldn’t suggest trying it though. One thing I can say is that even if you were born with narrow shoulders you can make a huge difference by slapping on some muscle on your lats and shoulders.
Here is the plan I have come up with to really work specifically to make a person as wide as a barn door. If you give this workout time and extreme effort it will work for you. This program will take the place of your regular back and shoulder workouts.
GET WIDE PROGRAM
Snatch Grip High Pulls- Pull the weight from the floor to the thighs with a grip that you would use to do a snatch. Give a little dip with your back straight and then explosively pull the bar up using the traps and some arm bend at the top. I would like to see the bar go to at least lower chest height. Keep the elbows high and always wear straps so that you can use more weight. After warm-ups I would like you to get five good sets of three reps.
Bent Over Rows- I’m talking about real bent over rows with your back flat and close to parallel to the floor. I hate these newfangled bullshit rows that I keep seeing in the gym where people stand almost straight up and drag the bar up their legs with a two-inch stroke. You should warmed up enough to go right into four good sets of ten reps. Use straps for better grip on the bar.
Pullups- Yes, just like in gym class. You don’t have to take a super wide grip; a shoulder-width grip will do fine. Do them with your palms facing away from you. Bang out four sets of as many as you can. If you’re getting more than fifteen reps, start using added weight. The main key on these is to go all the way down and get that stretch in your lats.
Close Grip Pulldowns With V-Bar or Palms Towards You- This will stretch out the lats and work them at their widest part. Again, four sets of ten reps, wearing straps.
Press Behind Neck- This will directly hit the main part of the deltoid. After warm-ups, hit four heavy sets and do five to eight reps.
Dumbbell Side Raises- These isolate the side head of the deltoids and cap off the shoulders, but you already knew that. If you bust your ass on these you will look like you have bowling balls under your shirt. Four sets of ten reps will do. You don’t have to be super strict with these. It’s ok to start out with good form but don’t worry if you start swinging the weights at the end of the set.
Remember, the one key element in any workout is you. Any program (within reason) will get you bigger and stronger if you work hard enough. If you train your ass off in the gym over a long period of time it will always pay off. Having fun buying all new shirts!
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Steve Pulcinella has been passionately strength training since he was 13 and competing in strength athletics ever since the age of 14. Fueled by his early influences of Strength and Health Magazine and the Wide World of Sports airing the Worlds Strongest Man, he strived to build the biggest and strongest body that he possibly could. He started out as a powerlifter and progressed into doing strongman. His biggest pro strongman title was the 1993 North American Champion and he was selected as a competitor in the 1994 Worlds Strongest Man Contest. He has also been a Highland Games Professional since 1994 and still competes as a top ranked master competitor. He also started Iron Sport Gym in 1995. It is a commercial gym in Philadelpia specializing in strength training, powerlifting, olympic lifting and strongman. www.ironsport.com
View Steve’s Training Log 
Not a big fan of behind the neck press myself, but I agree with the rest of the article
Steve, how much wider will a beard make me look?
Great point about the ridiculous obsession for a six pack. I always tell my younger clients “you cant be CUT when there is nothing to CUT UP”
Steve when isyour e-book coming out? I can never get enough of e-book programs. I can’t wait to message you here every day and ask stupid questions like …can I do cable cross overs instead of deadlifts or if I’m not strong enough to throw a life cycle at someone can I just use my sons big wheel.
your dreamy
Love the article, short, simple and to the point,and I too have the same pet peeve about the bent over rows with a damn near vertical back. I have a feeling Ronnie Coleman is partially to blame for the rampant improper use of this exercise.
I remember wanting to get so big and wide I looked extremely short in pictures.
Let me just throw this out there, I was totally relaxed in that photo.
Steve, thanks for this article! There are still guys who
still lift just to be strong and big keep hoping for more info like
this!!! Not into lowering bodyfat, posing, speed work,
ultra-conditioning, micro-analyzing diet/food, etc. Its been
lacking here for awhile!! Keep it coming Steve. I agree about the
bent rows…they’ve become “bent over upright rows” it
seems.
Steve is a great addition to Elite. Personally, I would
love Olympic lifting articles. For example, how far down should my
elbows point in a push jerk in comparison to an overhead press?
Follow up question, if the elbows should be fairly high, the why
are the elbows down when doing a push jerk from the back? Steve-
could you take the lead as the Olympic lifter “go to” guy?
Totally relaxed?! Just not right
Steve, I love the article. However, I tend to agree with
Larry about the behind the neck routine, hate em. Steve is 100%
real guys, miss training at his facility. On a more humorous note
the only difference between a power lifter and a
bodybuilder….DIET.
I question the fact that your last name is Pulcinella and
you have no back /shoulder/tricep hair?
Aren’t the BOR’s where they’re standing almost completely
upright and using heavier weights with a short ROM called Yates’
rows?
He was relaxed, but totally thinking about Vincent, Jim and
I coming down at the end of the month. Great article, Steve.
Simplicity works and always has.
Great article, I’ve mucked around with a fair bit of accessory work but my programs always come back to the basics: Squats, Deadlifts, Pendlay Rows, Bench Press, OHP, GM’s, Dips and Pullups. All of these can be performed with minimal equipment such as the stuff you started with. The costly part will come from all the weight plates you’ll need to buy once you put on some size and strength.
When i talk to gym noobs the first thing they always point out is how big my biceps are. It’s funny because i never train them but i guess it makes them think they need to do 5 different types of bicep curls to get big arms when really all you need are the basic lifts.
Are the snatch grip high pulls done with a wide grip. Can you put them in on deadlift day when doing 531?
Everything in here sounds good if you want to get big, and have a shoulder impingement. At least with the snatch grip high pulls and behind the neck presses.
I’d sub the behind the neck presses with standing military presses or seated with dumbbells. Sub the snatch grip high pulls for power cleans or power snatches.
Training to get big is awesome. However you should train for longevity and injury prevention too.
I have been doing snatch grip high-pulls for 15 years. Keep the elbows high and pull them up to under my chin. I naver had any problems doing them.
Hello Y’all, would someone clear this up, can a 40 year old do this? Or would I be over training?
A mention of age range for articles would be nice. Seems like a few sites/forums have Over 35 lifter sections.
Great Article, thanks.
Mike:)
Hey Mike of Ye Olde England, I’m 45 and I train like this still.
Thanks Steve, should have mentioned I’ve only been lifting for about 4 years. I feel like I did when I was 30, so I go with that. I mainly do the main compound lifts at 5×5. I never trained my biceps, with a similar view to six packs, like kids these days. I wanted to be big and wide, and never trained “my Guns”:), I can squat 100kg but only Curl 25kg and I struggle at that!
Cheers, Mike
@Matt: it sounds to me like he’s advocating snatch grip
high pulls, not upright rows. In other words, I think he’s talking
about doing a snatch without racking the bar overhead. The bar is
driven up explosively with the hips and traps — not pulled up
solely by the traps, shoulders, and arms and held at the top as you
would with an upright row. Like this:
I LIKE the fact that Steve posted about performing the
snatch grip high pulls and behind the neck presses. Most people
won’t talk about the benefits of exercises like those because of
some theoretical potential for injury. If you don’t want to get
injured, don’t lift heavy weights. Tons of people get inured
benching, but that doesn’t stop Elite from having new articles on
the bench press every week. This article was about how to increase
the size and width of your back/shoulders, and Steve posted the
best exercises to accomplish that. Behind the neck presses weren’t
too dangerous for guys like Ed Coan and Bill Kazmaier, and tons of
oly lifters do snatch grip high pulls. Use a little discretion with
these exercises and you’ll reap their benefits without any of their
potential downfalls. Great article, Steve. I love how it started
off talking about how people used to go to the gym to get bigger
and stronger, and now all guys want to do is get “cut” and have a
“six pack.”
Great article!! Now Elite has to come up with a new shirt.
If anyone remembers The Gong Show hosted by Chuck Barass. He had a
t-shirt that had “Guess Who’s Back?” obviously written on the back
of the t-shirt. Elite can put any logo on the front, I would just
like 25 cents per sale as a commission. Thank you in advance
Dave.
Steve, when you say this program takes place of your normal
back and shoulder workouts, do you mean do this twice a week when
you would do your back and shoulder work?
I’m with the other guys questioning the BTN press. It puts
the shoulders in a dangerous position, and in the end is even more
anterior dominant than the traditional OHP due to the extreme
external rotation, so what’s the point? You’ve got a higher risk of
injury and inferior deltoid activation.
good to see someone else does snatch grip high pulls and
behind the neck presses.
If you dont want to do the Behind neck press, then dont do it.
Everyone has different biomechanics, some guys can do them and some cant.
The first time I tried them, my shoulders both made popping noises and I could feel the rotators grinding. It wasnt actually painful, I was using light weight, and it was awesome on the triceps, but I knew that it wasnt a lift that would be safe for me to continuously do
On the other hand, one of my training buddies does them and he has no issues. But he is built very stout with thick joints and barrel chested, while I am tall and naturally lanky with a shallow rib cage and wide shoulders.
Just do what you know works for you.
BTN presses are good if not abused. I do them seated with light weight and strict form…lift slow and concentrate on not craning that neck forward as straining in this position can cause serious neck and/or shoulder injury. Use common sense, know your limits and you’ll be fine.
But again I ask, what’s the point? They don’t offer
anything that OHP doesn’t offer, infact offering less, and by your
own admission require you to be extremely careful not to fuck
yourself up.
@ Adamn Frost Im not a biomechanics expert, but the general
consensus with BTNP is that that place greater stress on the
posterior and medial deltoids as well as the entire trapezius. From
a bodybuilding perspective, they are well liked for the reason
above, as they are seen as a great shoulder mass and upper back
builder. From a performance/athletic standpoint though, I dont
think they are particularly useful. Its not a natural motion to
press from behind the neck, and there are safer exercises that can
be done. Hise shrugs supersetted with standing military press are
what I would recommend in place of Behind neck presses
That’s the “general concensus”, but EMG studies have
actually shown them to be more anterior dominant than traditional
OHP, which makes sence really. You’re externally rotating the
shoulder backwards to the point where the anterior delt is the only
head of the deltoids remotely in a position where it can push the
weight up, with the others essentially limited to pulling the
shoulder back in the current position. And as for the “entire”
trapezius, I doubt that claim too. Not only is it kind of silly to
be doing any sort of press for your traps, with them being insanely
strong and there being no chance for your delts to push a weight
that could compare to what you could lift in more typical trap
exercises, but just like in the traditional OHP, it’s really only
going to be the top of the traps that is activated, as the others
are merely involved in pulling the scapula back, and you’re not
rotating the direction the force is directed in, which is always
down (a fallacy it seems most people advocating the BTN press seem
to fall for).
Amen Steve….amen
GET BIG, STRONG, MASSIVE
It’s kind of unusual that everyone is commenting some of these standard ‘basic’ exercises being dangerous when we are all posting on a website that is primarily based around 1000lb squats and 900lb deadlifts. I mean if that isn’t dangerous I dont know what is. Sometimes you have to take a few risks to get the results we are all looking for.
I don’t like the feel of btn presses, but I’ve started doing them because I like being able to start with the weight resting on my back. I only do them push press style however, and light for explosiveness and safety. Heavy, I stick with dbells, but then I tend to prioritise incline bench over flat. Push pressing seems to make my traps super sore, but that’s probably because I always avoid direct work for them and am new to btn positioning. Steve, I reckon most folks on here are not looking to lift 1000′s lbs, they just figure train “similar” to guys that can and “sort of” get half the size/numbers. In other words, miss out risky moves. I’m sticking with push presses as long as I feel it’s not causing problems and is benefitting other lifts. I might feel more comfortable with btn’s as the push presses improve, but at the moment push pressing is my limit.
this is on fire like Charlie Sheen
Great work !!
I’ve seen lots of people do btn presses but never anyone (apart from online) criticize them or claim that they got an injury from them. If you’re worried about rotator cuff problems then just keep them light at first and make sure you do them slowly (building the muscles, not the movement)
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What a coincidence! Today is my ME bench day,and for my lat work I am going with high pulls this week.That is because I saw your High pull vid in the Elitefts exercise page.
I dig that you roll totally old school as well!!