🏋️‍♂️ 4 workouts for a bigger, stronger back

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Here’s what’s going on in this edition:

• Debunking the spot fat reduction myth

• The modern legend of Agata Sitko

• Workouts to beef up your back

Exercise Science

A Reductionist’s Myth

One of the most persistent myths in the exercise world is the fairy tale of spot fat reduction — the ability to incinerate fat from a specific part of your body by exercising the muscles in that region. The myth continually propagates because it seems like it makes sense that you feel a burning sensation in an area pumped up by resistance training and, uh, fat burns, right?

It becomes less sensical when you understand the body burns fat for fuel, sometimes, and has no particular reason to utilize the fat stores from any one area. This spot-reduction mindset is a habit you need to drop like every other addiction. Start learning the real pathways to weight loss and get on the right track.

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Powerlifting

From Eastern Europe Into Your Heart

In this deep dive, BarBend contributor Jo Whiteley spotlights 76kg powerlifting phenom Agata Sitka, chronicling the journey from her first steps into the international spotlight to the present day.

Still young in the sport, Sitka has been nothing short of a force of nature in the world of powerlifting. With 23 world records in the 84kg class and several others in the 76kg division, she has had a wild ride in the ever-expanding world of women’s powerlifting. Watch her journey and see what heights she can make it to.

Workout Tips

Build-a-Back Workshop

You can be forgiven for, on occasion, tapping into the supervillain portion of your brain and wanting to create a device to block the sun out from the world, plunging your annoying co-workers and heathen boss into perpetual darkness and cold.

If you aren’t on Forbes’ list of the wealthiest people in the world, a super-structure encompassing the Earth is probably out of your price range. Consider, instead, using these 11 exercises (and the full workouts we provide) to build a back so big you can create substantial amounts of shade whenever you decide to hit a lat spread.

The big, dense muscles of the back need big, powerful movements to fully entice them to grow; if you’re not deadlifting and using the bent-over-row, you’re not going to build up those beefy slabs of muscle. After that, you can get cute with a variety of cable-pull exercises used to hit those muscles at specific angles. Get the full rundown with the only back training guide you’ll ever need below.

Everything Else

The CrossFit Open Heats Up

• We’ve got a full-on preview of the much-anticipated head-to-head matchup between Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Arielle Loewen for CrossFit Open Workout 24.3. Check it out.

• The dumbbell bench doesn’t have the fame or social cache of its barbell-using cousin, but it has long been used by people in the know as a prime builder of the chest. Learn how to nail the form and take your pecs to a whole new level.

• The WRPF finished another meet recently in Fort Lee, New Jersey. With divisions for tested and un-tested athletes, the top lifters pushed themselves to the extreme. Read all about it.