If you can do five sets of 10 reps on pull ups, you will feel your lats. Guaranteed.
[quote]kroby wrote:
If you can do five sets of 10 reps on pull ups, you will feel your lats. Guaranteed.[/quote]
That’s Mighty Healthy if you’re doing them wide.
You need to get the lats going. They arent going right now. Here are a few suggestions.
1#- You have to maintain your forearm being in the same plane as the cable.
2#- You have to keep your shoulders down at all times. There is some debate on this but I know it is much easier to get the lats going by keeping the shoulders down. Conversely if you cannot keep you shoulders down it is a good sign your lats are not in the optimal pulling position.
3#- You have got to be able to maintain a steady speed as you pull the weight down. One of the biggest things I see with people at the beginning trying to get the lats going is that they accelerate the last 4th of the movement. This acceleration at the bottom is an attempt to finish the movement and IS NOT DONE BY THE LATS.
You have to be able to maintain a steady pace. I have found that initially many people lack the strength in their lats to pull the bar down all the way to their collarbone, which is where you should be aiming.
If you cannot maintain a steady pace and at least pull the weight to your chin the weight is too heavy, it will go up soon enough but you have got to get the lats going first!! As you get stronger you will be able to pull the bar down to your collarbone with a constant steady speed, do not rush this though!!!
4#- If you really want to hit the lats Thib has talked about this and I found it to work very well. Loosen your grip on the bar. If you grip the bar tightly there is a radiating effect that recruits muscles closer to your grip, namely the biceps. However I would not use this technique until you have done the other 3 techniques first for about 4 weeks at least.
The reason is, this method is so effective at isolating the lats, they will tire extremely quickly at first.
If I had to say a number one tip it would be to maintain a steady pace and not explode the weight down. Keep your form, puff your chest out, maintain the shoulders down and head in the direction of your collarbone, you may not be able to go three good sets hitting the collar bone initially, this is normal.
I have used these methods very effectively with many of my clients. Currently I have a 100lb girl who can do 15 chinups, 14 pullups, and row 45lbs 8 times. Everyone that follows these rules increases their pulling strength exponentially.
It is not just about doing 5 sets of 10 or some shit like that because you will do these sets the way you are strongest, and right now you will not be strongest using correct form, you must keep using this correct form though and you will very soon surpass your current strength.
Also to discuss the pullups. Everyone is correct they are the best for the lats, but if you jump into them too soon your body will develop a way of doing them, often times that makes best use of what you have available and often times this does not involve the lats as much as it would if you first strengthened them to a certain point via lat pulldown then moved to pullups.