The Kai Greene Back Workout | The Ultimate Guide!

Are you curious about Kai Greene’s back workout? Do you want to know his secrets for building a massive upper back and a huge deadlift? Then you’ve come to the right place.

In this comprehensive guide, I will teach you exactly how Kai Greene trains his back for size and strength.

Kai Greene Stats

• Height: 5 feet 8 inches
• Weight: 300 pounds
• Body Fat: About 8%
• Nickname: “The Predator”

Kai Greene has one of the best backs the bodybuilding world has ever seen. His lats, traps and spinal erectors are so big that he doesn’t even look human! So how does he actually train his upper back?

Kai Greene trains his upper back one day per week on its own separate training day. He likes to perform anywhere from 6-12 exercises using moderate rep ranges and short rest periods.

Kai performs pull ups, pulldowns, rows, pullovers, deadlifts and shrugs in his back workouts. In other words, he performs almost every back exercise you can think of. Check it out:

Kai Greene Back Workout #1

• Exercise #1: Pull ups (wide / overhand grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #2: Hammer strength shrugs, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #3: Lat pulldown (medium / supinated grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #4: T-bar row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #5: machine pulldown (wide / neutral grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #6: Seated cable row (dual handle), 4 sets of 8-15 reps

Here is the training video:

This is one of Kai Greene’s lower volume back workouts. He performs 6 total exercises for his upper back, including pull ups, pulldowns, and different rowing variations.

Kai Greene performs all of his sets in the 8-15 rep range and he uses relatively short rest periods throughout the workout. Here is Kai Greene breaking down his goals for this workout:

“Everything builds on top of each other. We opened up with a series of exercise, movements that allow you to break down a lot of the complexity of what’s going on, addressing your musculature from the rear from the floor up.”

Normally Kai Greene trains his upper back with an incredible 10-12 exercises per workout. This is probably too much volume for most trainees, but Kai Greene isn’t exactly your average bodybuilder! Check it out:

Kai Greene Back Workout #2

• Exercise #1: Lat pulldown (wide / overhand grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #2: Lat pulldown (V-handle), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #3: Bent over reverse DB fly, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #4: Barbell bent over row (snatch grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #5: Behind the back upright row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #6: Reverse pec dec, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #7: Straight arm cable pullover, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #8: Conventional deadlift, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #9: T-bar row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #10: Behind the neck lat pulldown (wide / overhand grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #11: Standing one-arm DB row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps

Here is the training video:

Talk about a high-volume back workout! Kai Greene performs 11 different exercises for his upper back, including pulldowns, rows, pullovers, and deadlifts. He is basically performing every upper back exercise you can think of in one workout!

How does Kai Greene survive this incredible high-volume workout? He says even if you have training partners, it is a personal journey, and only the strong-willed will push through to the end.

“All my life I can recall after certain points, having training partners, going with friends, still finding yourself alone, not quite understanding what that is.

A lot of people say oh yea, we’re going to work out together, we’re going to do it. And then not too long after they start, the real reality starts in, that they have to do this alone. It is a personal journey.”

Here is another one of Kai Greene’s high-volume upper back workouts. Check it out:

Kai Greene Back Workout #3

• Exercise #1: Lat pulldown (medium / supinated grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #2: Lat pulldown (narrow / neutral grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #3: Lat pulldown (wide / pronated grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #4: Seated cable row (wide / pronated grip), 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #5: Machine shrugs, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #6: Machine pullover, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #7: T-bar row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #8: Barbell row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #9: 1-arm DB row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #10: Seated cable row, 4 sets of 8-15 reps
• Exercise #11: Deadlift, 4 sets of 8-15 reps

Here is the training video:

11 exercises for his upper back!? Kai Greene clearly isn’t human.

Kai Greene starts this workout with several different types of lat pulldowns. He rotates between different grips to target different parts of his lats. For example the narrow / neutral grip has been shown to recruit more of the inferior fibers of the lats, while the wide / overhand grip recruits more of the superior fibers of the lats.

Next Kai Greene performs shrugs, pullovers, several different types of rows and a few sets of deadlifts.

Here are Kai Greene’s thoughts on the difference between an athlete on their journey to success, and the fans that are watching on the sidelines:

“When you’re the inspired athlete coming up, your experience is going to teach you some of the complex values behind the scenes that answers the questions that are never asked of you.

People say how did you get there, what’s the secret? No one cares unless they are trying to do it themselves. The fan says they want to know but they really don’t. That’s why they’re the fans on the sideline.”

Those are some powerful words from a very powerful man.

Verdict | The Kai Greene Back Workout!

Kai Greene trains his upper back once per week on its own separate training day. He likes to perform high-volume upper back workouts with as many as 10-12 exercises per body part!

Kai Greene says that these high-volume workouts are what allowed him to build one of the biggest upper backs in bodybuilding history.

If you are an advanced bodybuilder and respond well to high-volume workouts then you may want to give Kai Greene’s back workout a shot. It could be just what you need to take your training to the next level.

“What am I doing with my life? Am I just going to some humdrum job that I don’t really want to be at, doing some minuscule task, getting paid to be a mindless drone? Or am I out there living life, on my terms, the way I want to live it, doing the things I want to do?”

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of luck on your strength training journey!