Make Your Back Wider (2 Exercises You Need To Start Doing)

Do you want to get an attractive looking V taper? If so, then you need to make your lats bigger. I'm going to show you two exercises that will target your lats much better than the traditional back movements that most people do. Yeah, that's right. I'm talking about you. If you execute these two exercises with all the important details and tips I'm going to be covering, then many of you will finally feel what it's like to truly train and grow your lats. So, the lats are a big fan like muscle that wraps around your back. It can actually be divided into three different regions, which can just be thought of as the upper, the middle, and the lower lats. You'll notice that the lat fibers, they get more horizontal at the top and more vertical at the bottom. Now, although during any lats exercise in general all three regions of the lats will be involved, you can actually slightly favor certain regions over the other by better matching the exercise with the direction in which these fibers run. So, first off, to emphasize the upper and mid lats a little bit more, we're going to use a lat focus row, which is a move I first came across from Coach Kassim, creator of N1 training. Now, most of you are probably doing some form of a cable row in your routine that looks something like this, which is great for overall back development. But to make it more lats focused, there's a few key setup tweaks that we'll want to make to this. First, tuck your elbows into your sides and keep them there as you row rather than flaring them out. The further away your elbows are from your torso, the more your rear delts and your upper back will be involved and less lats as a result. Next, stop, the row once your elbows reach your torso rather than extending beyond this. This should happen naturally if you're focusing on maintaining tension in the lats, since the lats are going to be much less involved in the movement when we pull the elbows further back behind our torso, that added range of motion will come from the rear delts and upper back muscles instead of the lats. You also want to be mindful of your forearms at the end position. Ideally, they should line up with the direction of the cable, so. So avoid overly flexing or extending the elbow as you pull, as that'll start involving more of your arms instead of your lats. Lastly, as you pull, you want to limit how much you extend and arch your upper back, as that will again put the upper back in a more favorable position. Compared to the lats. Instead, what you can do only if comfortable is incorporate a slight hinge forward at your hips to better line up the lats with the line of pull and to increase their range of motion. As you do this, you'll want to keep your abs engaged and ensure that there's no rounding of your lower back. Depending on your hip mobility, you may only be able to achieve a slight torso lean forward, which is perfectly fine. Some of you may also find that placing your feet on the floor instead is more comfortable, which is also perfectly fine. Now, after you get the setup down, the next key is execution and your thought process as you row. First, rather than thinking about pulling back and pinching your shoulder blades together, initiate the movement by thinking about pulling your elbow down by using your lats. And then as you pull, continue thinking about bringing your elbow down and in. The shoulder blades are still going to retract during the movement, but you want to avoid starting the movement with that in order to get the lats engaged. If we go back to the lats anatomy and look at their line of pull, you can see how the fibers move down and in. So visualize a rope attaching to your upper arm and pulling down back and in towards your spine. That's essentially what your lat is doing and is very helpful to visualize as you pull. Lastly, as for handles, ideally you'd want to use a neutral grip wider handle to best bias the lats. But applying the form and execution tweaks that I went through will make a big difference regardless of what handle you have access to. And if you currently don't have access to a cable row, then you can apply most of these tips and cues to something like a dumbbell row in order to make it more lap focused or just replace the cable with a band. Do know however, that with these modifications in place, many of you will initially have to drop the weight just a little bit. This is a good thing and expected because it means that your lats, which are likely weak, are finally being forced to work. But as with any exercise, just focus on getting more familiar with it and gradually increase the load as you get more proficient and stronger with it. By the way, guys, this is exactly what I teach you how to do in my step by step programs where we cover each exercise in depth and and then show you how to maximize your growth with these exercises by mastering technique and progression. But I'll talk more about this at the end of the video. For now, let's move on to exercise number two. Next, we have the single arm pull down to now bias the lower lats a little bit more by incorporating a more vertical pulling angle. Here we'll want to use a half kneeling stance and grab a handle with a neutral grip such that your arm is positioned at roughly a 45 degree angle in front of your body and cable position such that it's in line with your forearm. Brace your abs, keep a neutral spine and then drive the elbow down towards your side and then as you pull, similar to the lat focus row discussed earlier, you want to keep your elbow close to your torso rather than flared out and think about driving the elbow down and slightly in towards your glutes at the bottom position. In the end position you can also slightly bend your torso sideways towards the pulling arm to get an even greater contraction. And again it can be helpful to visualize a rope pulling your upper arm down, back and then slightly in towards your glutes. You can see how with this exercise the angle of pull lines up very well with the lats overall, especially with the lower lats that wrap around the pelvis. As a result, many of you watching will likely feel a very strong contraction in this area that you've never quite experienced before. Now if you don't have access to cables right now, then an easy alternative is just to use a band with the exact same setup and execution as for programming these into your routine. If your lats are currently lagging, then feel free to swap some of your horizontal and vertical pulling movements with these exercises instead. But overall, just try out the exercises. Try out the variations that I went through. As many of you will for the first time feel what it's like to actually train your lats. Now to maximize your gains in all of your muscles, not just your lats, you need to pay close attention to the exercises that you're using and even closer attention to how about you go performing them. And that's what makes all the difference for a step by step program that shows you exactly how to train week after week with in depth tutorials in order to maximize your gains. Then simply head on over to built with science.com and take our analysis quiz to discover the best approach for you and your specific body. That's it for today guys. Don't forget to like the video to show your support. And big shout out to Coach Kassem for his help with the video. I'll link his channel in the description box for you guys to check out as well. Thanks so much guys and I'll see you next time. Sam.