The ONLY Moves You Need For Wider Lats | Adjustments that will make you Some Massive Back Wings

The Only Moves You Need For Wider Lats

• Overview
• The Best Exercises for Lats Width
• Pull Downs and Pull Ups
• Best Variations 

Overview

The latissimus dorsi muscle (Lats) are by far the primary portion of the back which creates that pronounced V taper look every guy is looking for; and even women need that shape to make the illusion of a smaller waist.

Not to be confused with the tares major, which is a muscle that runs from the bottom part of the scapula to the humerus, the lat muscle sits just below it and covers the whole mid back region. These two muscles work in harmony and together they form that V shape.

However, focusing all the workouts towards activating the tares major more does not give you the result you want to see. This is because the tares major is a lot smaller, whereas the lats cover a wider range of the back hanging there like wings.

The Best Exercise for Lats width

If you read the previous blog, you would anticipate the main exercise here, which is the pull. Yet, to maximize the activation of the lats and cause the most fiber damage possible that triggers more size during the repair phase, other great variations are manipulated in the pull exercises.

First of all, let us have a look at the correct and most effective way of doing pull exercises, then we will proceed to the variations.

Pull downs and Pull Ups

Having in mind that we want to focus more on the lats and not the tares major muscle, which gets all the attention the whole time, we need to have our hands gripping the bar shoulder width or slightly narrower (V handle is a perfect choice for a close grip). Why! The wider the grip is, the far away elbows are from the sides at the bottom of the movement; this shifts the attention to the tares major.

Now, tucking your elbows to the sides, a better deep stretch even at the bottom insertion of the lats is experienced and a harder squeeze takes place. However, with every rep keep a mind-muscle connection, driving with your elbows not your biceps. Trust me it is easy to use your biceps if you are not totally involved in the exercise, or if you start to get fatigued and you want to make the exercise feel easier. But, hey! You don’t want to make it easy, the harder it feels, the best activation you get.

Another tip that will help with maximizing the involvement of the lats is to keep your scapula retracted the whole time, bringing your chest up. As you pull, lean just as little as the bar can pass by; do not lean so much and turn the pull down into a high row.

Let us move to some variations that will take your lat workout to the next level.

Best Variations

1. Alternating Lat Pull Down: This is just as the regular cable pull down, but with a tweak added to it to maximize the recruitment of every muscle fiber in there. With the same set up discussed above, bring the bar down until it reaches your face, and then drive only one side down (with your elbow). Mind! Keep the other side at the same level; don’t release it and let it go up as you pull one side down. Once the squeeze is fulfilled, go back up until both sides of the bar are at the same level; and from there, move both hands up to the starting position. This is one rep. Now, follow the same pattern of movement but with the other arm, and keep alternating to hit failure.

2. One Arm Cable Pull Down: This can be done seated, but guys, you need to try it standing. Place a pulley up with a D handle; grab it with one hand standing in an athletic position (Slight bent in the knees). You should now lean your torso forward a little bit so as to get it aligned with your extended arm (This is the position where you should feel a good stretch). After you are all set up, start pulling with your elbows to your sides, giving yourself that added squeeze at the very end by twisting your torso back and to the opposite direction of your pulling arm. Work each side until you reach failure, and then switch to the other side.