Focus blocks
Back Training Programs
A focus block is three to six weeks where one zone leads every session and the rest hold their ground. Five ship in the app. This is how to choose and when to run it.
The short answer
BackMaxx back training programs are five focus blocks: V-Taper Sprint (4 weeks, Lat Width), Thickness Block (4 weeks, Upper Back), Traps & Rear Delts (3 weeks), Pull-Up Progression (6 weeks, needs a bar) and Posture Reset (3 weeks). Each fixes the lead zone for all three sessions of the week.
What is a focus block, and how does it differ from a normal week?
Your standard BackMaxx plan is generated from all six zone scores at once. It spreads volume across the zones in rough proportion to how far behind each one is, and it re-balances every time you re-scan. It is designed not to leave anything untrained.
A focus block does the opposite. It fixes one zone in the lead slot of every session for a set number of weeks and lets the others hold their ground on maintenance volume. Nothing is dropped — the second and third slots still cover the rest of the back — but the first movement of every session, when you are freshest, belongs to the zone you chose.
That trade is the whole point. You give up balanced progress for a few weeks to move one thing visibly, then go back to the standard plan.
The five blocks
Each program defines the lead zone for all three sessions of the week. Read the middle column as session 1, session 2, session 3.
| Program | Session leads | Weeks | Needs a bar | Its own line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V-Taper Sprint | Lat Width, Lat Width, Upper Back | 4 | No | Width first. |
| Thickness Block | Upper Back, Upper Back, Rear Delts | 4 | No | The 3D look from the side. |
| Traps & Rear Delts | Traps, Rear Delts, Upper Back | 3 | No | The detail that pops. |
| Pull-Up Progression | Lat Width, Upper Back, Lat Width | 6 | Yes | Toward your first strict rep — or your tenth. |
| Posture Reset | Rear Delts, Lower Back, Upper Back | 3 | No | The back you see from behind. |
Two of the five never repeat a lead zone across the week. Traps & Rear Delts and Posture Reset spread their three sessions over three different zones, which makes them the mildest blocks here — they change emphasis rather than hammering one region. V-Taper Sprint and Thickness Block double up on their target, and Pull-Up Progression opens two of three sessions on the bar.
How to pick between them
- Lat Width is your lowest zone. V-Taper Sprint. Four weeks, every session opening on a vertical pull and closing with a lat-length stretch.
- Upper Back is your lowest zone. Thickness Block. Rows lead, rear delts get picked up on the way, and the change shows in profile rather than from behind.
- Traps or Rear Delts is your lowest zone. Traps & Rear Delts. Three weeks on the two zones almost nobody trains directly.
- You cannot do a strict pull-up, or you want more of them. Pull-Up Progression. Six weeks of hangs, negatives and assisted reps, and the only block that will not run without a pull-up bar.
- Rear Delts and Lower Back both came back low. Posture Reset. Three weeks across rear delts, lower back and upper back.
When two zones are within a few points of each other, do not pick a block at all. That is what the standard generated plan is for, and it will handle both.
When to run one, and when not to
Run a block when a scan shows one zone clearly behind the rest, when you have equipment you were not using before, or when the standard plan has stopped holding your attention. Finish the whole thing — three weeks is already the shortest honest length for a change you can photograph.
Do not run two at once. Do not start one in your first week, before you have a baseline scan worth comparing against. And do not restack the same block a third time; if four weeks of V-Taper Sprint did not move Lat Width, the limiter is usually total volume or sleep, not the lead zone.
Re-scan on the last day of the block and compare it to the scan you started from. The lagging back muscles guide covers how to read a zone that has not moved.
What stays the same inside a block
Sets and reps come from each movement’s corpus defaults, not from a separate program template, so a shrug is still 3 sets in the same rep range it always was. Every movement keeps its cue and its illustration frames. Your home-or-gym filter still applies, so a block picks only from movements you can actually do where you train.
The rank you are chasing does not change either. Your Back Score and rank are computed the same way during a block as outside one, which is what makes the before-and-after comparison worth anything. The eight per-muscle scores keep updating underneath, so you can see whether a block moved the muscle you aimed at or the one next to it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a focus block and the standard plan?
The standard plan is generated from all six zone scores and spreads volume across them, re-balancing at every re-scan. A focus block fixes one zone in the first slot of every session for three to six weeks and puts the rest on maintenance.
How long is each BackMaxx program?
Traps & Rear Delts and Posture Reset run three weeks. V-Taper Sprint and Thickness Block run four. Pull-Up Progression runs six, because bar strength takes longer to arrive than pulling volume does.
Which back training program should I run first?
Whichever one leads with your lowest zone. Lat Width points to V-Taper Sprint, Upper Back to Thickness Block, Traps or Rear Delts to Traps & Rear Delts. If two zones are within a few points, stay on the standard plan instead.
Do any of the programs need equipment?
Only Pull-Up Progression, which requires a pull-up bar and will not run without one. The other four pick from whatever your home-or-gym filter allows, down to bodyweight movements alone.
Get your Back Score first
Everything here works better when you know which zone is actually behind. One photo tells you.
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