lat's won't grow???

Hey guys,

So I have been having trouble with my back workouts, parrticularily for my lats. It seems everytime I try and do lat pull downs my biceps fail before my lats even start to burn. I am having a hell of a time trying to isolate my lats and make them grow. I've tried straps on the pull down bar and changing up hand position but I can't get that mind-muscle connection and focus on my lats doing the work.

Any tips? Maybe it's as simple as arching my back a certain way? I've tried everything I can think of for years now and while the rest of my body is growing my lat spread is pathetic.

OR am I being too obsessive about it? My workout on a chest day will include 275lbs at four reps on the bench... but with lat pull down I struggle to do 190-200 with proper form... yet I use 225 for BB rows. Is this proportianate?

What does your bench have to do with anything here ?

The weight of your other movements doesn't mean anything unless your doing the lift with proper form. Do you know how to flex your lats ? Its not as easy as it sounds. When you pull the bar down you should be flexing/contracting lats at the bottom.

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Originally Posted by DSM4Life

What does your bench have to do with anything here ?

The weight of your other movements doesn't mean anything unless your doing the lift with proper form. Do you know how to flex your lats ? Its not as easy as it sounds. When you pull the bar down you should be flexing/contracting lats at the bottom.

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Agree... I had the dame problem until recently ... Try to squeeze ur body from ur shoulders DowN .. Also might be poor rear delt strength

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Originally Posted by elpropiotorvic

Agree... I had the dame problem until recently ... Try to squeeze ur body from ur shoulders DowN .. Also might be poor rear delt strength

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Hmm, I like that analogy... I'm sure once I get over this mind block and do it once properly I'll never have a problem again.

If anyone else has had this problem please leave a reply, when I hit my back next I want to be able to do it with a new collective perspective and try to change my thinking during the move, as opposed to the move itself.

Like they said before, you will know when you are doing it correctly because you will feel it. Just make sure to flex hard when you are doing it.

ive seen some pretty good lat improvement with rack chins. find a rack, put the bar about chest height, grip as wide as you can within the rack, feet up on a bench, and start pullin with the lats baby!!! start with body weight, as many as you can do (use wrist straps; the idea is to have the lats fail not the grip) rest 30 seconds, another set to failure, rest 30, a set to failure, then partials till you aint movin. as time goes by add some weight to your lap or in a backpack. try that for width at the end of the workout.
lemme know if ya have questions.

Moto

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Originally Posted by MotoLifter

ive seen some pretty good lat improvement with rack chins. find a rack, put the bar about chest height, grip as wide as you can within the rack, feet up on a bench, and start pullin with the lats baby!!! start with body weight, as many as you can do (use wrist straps; the idea is to have the lats fail not the grip) rest 30 seconds, another set to failure, rest 30, a set to failure, then partials till you aint movin. as time goes by add some weight to your lap or in a backpack. try that for width at the end of the workout.
lemme know if ya have questions.

Moto

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Just to add to this, wide grip chins work the lats like ****, try doing 3 sets to failure at the beggining of your workout. When you can do more than 12reps in one set, start strapping more n more weight round you each week.

When you do your lat pulldowns on the bar, lean back a little and arch your lower back, pull using your ELBOWS bringing the bar all the way down to your lower chest, ensure you squeeze your shoulder blades together and hold for a couple of seconds, and always get a good stretch at the top of the movement.

Dont worry about weight! form is more important...

Focus on the concentration of the muscle. Squeeze your shoulder blades and pause, then continue the negative contraction. Do not just use momentum to lift the weight, the pause and squeeze is imperitive.

My addition to this great advice so far is that I concentrate on the elbows the entire movement. How they travel towards the waist is the key to good form to me and it allows you to get further away from the bicep involvement in the motion, although you can never get completely away.

I always start with 3 sets widegrip pull ups, poking my chest to the bar as I squeeze the lats. Then I go to 3 sets of close grip chins. All the way down and all the way up, pulling the elbows down and bowing the chest up to the bar.

Hope this helps a little too.

This is all great advice... I implemented pretty much everything listed and I'm already seeing an improvement. Thanks guys!

did my first STS workout of high volume back yesterday. Used a lot of advice from above especially the "pulling down the elbow"... ouch are my lats ever sore! i haven't had sore lats since I started training!

Not sure what to call this particular exercise but it works for me....

Stand in front of the lat maching or tricep pressdown machine...be at arms length...palms facing down...keep arms straight and row down starting at shoulder height all the way to your waist...this mostly hits your obliques but also makes you burn at your distal lats.

Also try putting a lesser weight on lat pull down and placing your hands as far apart as possible and try to isolate your lats (also make this your first exercise)

Another is kinda like flys...sit or stand at apposing tricep pressdown machines and instead of flying down towards your pecker....go behind your back meeting at your but.

regards

nuts