What is the “gold standard” exercise for the back, and the lats specifically of course? We have the bench press for the chest, the squat for the quads and glutes, and the deadlift for the hamstrings and lower back. While there are many exercises that can work these muscles, these are called the “big three” for a reason. What is “gold standard” exercise for the latissmus dorsi, in your opinion?
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Supinated reverse cable lat swing downs with chains.
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My complete belief is that the bentover barbell row is the king of back exercises. I wouldn’t say it is the best targeting the lats, but total back mass, nothing else is close. I would say there are many who disagree with me, but if they knew the form that I used that enabled extremely heavy weight, they might side with me.
My main focus was thickness and not width. So consider that.
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What form cues do you follow?
Wide stance barely missing your toes. Learn how to do what I call “lock your hips.” With your back parallel to the floor, tightly arch your back, hips locked. You have established a rigid frame to pull against, where very little of the pull is absorbed within your body. Most all the pull is devoted completely to the bar. Pull with a slight rock.
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Optimal.
I was going to say kipping kettle ball alternating hand stand kroc rows, but I don’t want people to be intimitated.
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A good stretch targets my lats best and I like slow and deliberate dumbbell pullovers or cross body cable rows at an angle that emphasizes the lats.
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Why would they be intimidated, when you are leaving out the Bosu ball and vibrating mat?
I have found chin-ups and Kroc rows pretty good for the back, but only started doing the latter fairly recently.
I also like putting an incline bench close to the Smith machine, and using the bench to support the chest while doing rows of various width on the bar below. It is easy to do and you can go heavy, but I’m not going to claim it is better than all other things.
At that point you have learned how to defy gravity so it lessens the muscle stimulus which leads to diminishing returns.
On a serious note, I have never seen someone who can do 10 reps of any pull-up or chin-up variation with a plate between their legs who didn’t have amazing lats. That would be my choice.
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My choice is the pullup as well.
Agree. And in your opinion, what is the best exercise for width?
There are so many muscle groups in the back going in different directions, its hard to say whats actually best
Probably easier to just go with the one you need at any given point.
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I never found an exercise that I wasn’t too injured that could effectively target my lats for width. If my elbows could have tolerated the semi-wide weighted pull-up that started with the scapula allowed to open at the stretched position, I would have tried that. I never got the opportunity to try that, so it’s just an educated guess.
I will say that it was my opinion that my back lacked thickness more than lat width. I wanted my back to look like slabs of meat stacked on more slabs of meat. Wide lats on a shallow back is a very poor trade off. Scapula control can create the illusion of wide lats, which is simply a critical art of deception in posing.
Bottom line, both width and thickness are needed. Don’t settle for one over the other if you have the opportunity. If you compete, you better add scapula control to the necessary back attributes.
Chest supported T Bar
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Chest supported rows = more MUR in target muscles
Lats do not need stretch though
I did those often, but after my heavy bentover barbell rows. As my rows increased to 405lbs for 8 reps my back gained noticeable thickness. And that was prior to me adding chest supported rows, which I did for contraction holds.
I feel fortunate that I knew nothing about MUR.
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That’s impressive ! I stick to machines or chest supported stuff… back to weighted chins, too.
Big fan of pendlay rows.
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