Lat Development

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hey!

1st post so appreciate any feedback!!

ive been training for about 4 years now. i have a question on training lats. ive been doing pull ups (wide grip), Bbell rows, 1arm Dbell rows and pulldowns to train my upper back and lats.

to be honest i rarely get sore lats after a work out and my lats are underdevloped. i think my shoulders are baring alot of the brunt when doing the exercises especially the pull ups. are there anyways of isolating the lats so as to work them on their own more??? help???

2

How many reps are you doing in a given set? If you are able to to do a lot of reps you may need to up the resistance.

I also find that going very wide hammers my forearms more than the lats. Try not going as wide and pull yourself as high as you can.

3

yates rows try to pull your elbows through your ribs

4

interesting you would think that after 4 years you would have some clue how to work your lats…
take my advice friend and do plenty of shrugs and similar excercises.

good luck

5

Take a look at this:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1076164

It’s Christian Thibaudeau’s HSS-100 for Back article. In the first day’s “Width” workout, most of the exercises do NOT use a wide grip. He even allows you to substitute the “Technically Correct Lat Pulldown” move for the wide-grip pullup; the TCLP doesn’t use a wide grip.

6

[quote]seancaseo wrote:
interesting you would think that after 4 years you would have some clue how to work your lats…
take my advice friend and do plenty of shrugs and similar excercises.

good luck[/quote]

I hope you’re being sarcastic. Shrugs work the traps and not much else.

7

[quote]TShaw wrote:
Take a look at this:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1076164

It’s Christian Thibaudeau’s HSS-100 for Back article. In the first day’s “Width” workout, most of the exercises do NOT use a wide grip. He even allows you to substitute the “Technically Correct Lat Pulldown” move for the wide-grip pullup; the TCLP doesn’t use a wide grip.[/quote]

cheers!! a great article and a great program…well hopefully ill be singing its praises in the not too distant future. im going to add some weight and see how my pull ups go over the next few weeks and months.

8

[quote]Testy1 wrote:
How many reps are you doing in a given set? If you are able to to do a lot of reps you may need to up the resistance.

I also find that going very wide hammers my forearms more than the lats. Try not going as wide and pull yourself as high as you can.[/quote]

cheers mate. im gonna add weight and pay more attention to my form. i tend to get 9/6/6/5 (no added weight).

9

One thing I’m guilty of doing is not focusing on my lats when I do pulls of any sort.

So I have to focus on beginning the movement with my lats, telling myself to do it. Otherwise I catch myself pulling primarily with my biceps.

Perhaps it’s something you might be doing as well? Just a thought

B.

10

The other day I did 10x3 of heavy snatch grip deadlifts off of an 8 inch step. The following day my upper lats were very sore…I wasn’t expecting this at all. There might be something to this.

11

[quote]Robert P. wrote:
seancaseo wrote:
interesting you would think that after 4 years you would have some clue how to work your lats…
take my advice friend and do plenty of shrugs and similar excercises.

good luck

I hope you’re being sarcastic. Shrugs work the traps and not much else.

[/quote]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - odd advice…

I have underdeveloped lats, and overactive traps. From what I’ve been told, deactivating my traps (not working them more with shrugs, for example) is a first step to training my lats to fire properly and subsequently grow. I’ve been stretching my traps as much as possible between back sets to deactivate them.

Take a look at your traps - are they overdeveloped? Maybe deactivating them with plenty of stretching would be a good place to start.

12

Gironda would make his students hold the contracted for 4-8 secs. Try it.