There's something super-impressive about a well-built back. It gives you a powerful and even threatening appearance. A good back can be seen from all sides – front, side, and back – and will give you the desired V-shaped torso.
The traps and erector spinae are among the muscles that make up your back, but the lats are arguably the most important and impressive. They have the appearance of wings when fully formed.
Franco Columbo possessed one of the best backs in bodybuilding. The nickname "The Bat" was given to this Mr. Olympia winner because of his incredible lat breadth.
Lats Anatomy
While you don't need to be an anatomy expert to create huge lats, knowing the fundamental functions of a muscle will help you choose the ideal workouts. You'll also be able to avoid exercises that don't function due to anatomical or physiological causes.
Lats stands for latissimus dorsi, which means "side back muscles" in Latin. This is helpful since it pinpoints the exact location of your lats. The lats are a group of muscles that cross and regulate your shoulder joint. They have three basic functions:
Shoulder adduction– Adduction is the action of bringing a limb toward your body's midline. It's the shoulder or, more precisely, the upper arm in this scenario. The lats pull your upper arm into your side as they contract. Exercises like wide grip pulldowns and pull-ups cause this movement.
Shoulder extension– The lats are also in charge of moving your upper arms back and behind you, an action known as shoulder extension. In workouts like seated and bent-over rows, your lats help to expand your shoulders.
Shoulder medial rotation– Turning your upper arms inside toward your body's midline is what this indicates. This is a common movement that occurs during many lat, chest, and shoulder exercises, but it is not a lat-building movement in and of itself.
The 8 Best Lat Exercises
1. Deadlift
The deadlift is the best all-around back workout because it works every muscle in your posterior chain (back muscles), including the lats. It also lets you use some of the heaviest weights in any of your sessions, making it great for building muscle and strength.
Tip: Visualize crushing oranges in your armpits while performing the deadlift to maximize lat engagement. This keeps your lats engaged throughout the exercise and helps you position your upper body properly before pulling, allowing you to lift more weight.
2. Pull-up
According to research, the pull-up works practically every muscle in your back, but it's most effective at targeting the lats. Additionally, it works your biceps, abs, and even chest muscles to a lesser level.
3. Chin-up
The chin-up, like the pull-up, is one of the most effective lat exercises. The key difference between the two exercises is that the chin-up strengthens your biceps more than the pull-up, while the pull-up strengthens your lower traps more than the chin-up.
4. Barbell Row
You can lift more weight with the barbell row than you can with other back exercises because you use some leg drive to get the bar moving. This is one of the reasons why research reveals that the barbell row is an excellent way to strengthen your entire back, including your lats.
5. One-Arm Dumbbell Row
The one-arm dumbbell row has two key advantages: it works each side of your body independently and it uses a bench for support. This means you can lift more weight per side than while doing barbell rows, which is beneficial for muscular building in general.
6. Seated Cable Row
The cable row is just as effective as the barbell row for training your lats, according to research. What sets it apart from other free-weight lat exercises is that it uses a cable to maintain consistent stress on your muscles throughout each rep. This puts a different strain on your back muscles than other free-weight lat workouts.
7. Lat Pulldown
According to studies, the lat pulldown works every muscle in your back, but it's especially good for the lats (according to research, just as effective as the pull-up, in fact).
Tip: Contrary to popular belief, unnecessarily expanding your grasp on the lat pulldown will not accentuate your lats. The best approach to train your lats is to take a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip with your hands facing away from you and draw the bar to your chest rather than behind your neck, according to research.
8. Standing Lat Pushdown
The standing lat pushdown is a great cable lat workout because it trains your lats through shoulder extension (extending your arms from out in front of you to either side of your torso and beyond), which is proven to be the best way to activate your lats maximally. It also works your lats over a full range of motion and in a stretched position, which is better for muscle growth in general.
Related article: Full Back Workout with Dumbbells Only
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