It’s great that you’re working out and building up muscle. However, balance is essential, and you have to seek it. Most people take off with cardio, pick up dumbbells, and work on their arms, chests, and legs.

The main aim is to grow muscle groups that they can see in the mirror, which leads to neglecting other important and primary muscles. ADVERTISEMENT

Rather than maintain focus on your upper arms, abs, and chest, balance things out by working on your posterior side – your back. Developing those broad shoulders and chiseled abs is sweet, but you also need a strong back with developed lats.

So, what are the lats muscles, and why is lat training essential; what are the best lat exercises you can use to improve your strength and shape? Let’s get right into it.

If you’re going to be putting in the effort to build up your lats, you should know more about them. Latissimus dorsi muscles, shortened to lats muscles, are the triangle-shaped muscles that start from your shoulder and end near your waist.

Lats is arguably one of the biggest muscles in your back, primarily because they cover the width of more than two-thirds of your back. They’re essential in helping you pull and adduct things.

They also aid with breathing, swimming, and other general pulling movements. Even rowing a boat in the traditional method will put your lats muscles to work.

So, what exercises can you use to increase your lats muscles and provide you with a firm, solid back? Let’s read on.

Gym equipment like dumbbells and barbells are vital for growing your more popular muscles, but you can also use them to work on your latissimus dorsi. ADVERTISEMENT

Let’s take a look at several exercises you can use this valuable equipment for:FEATURED STORIES Best Brain Supplements to Increase Focus Discord Marketing - Can you Market on Discord? Top Fast-Food Burgers - Ranked and Reviewed What is the Greater Fool Theory?

Benches are great, but not just for the famed bench press. Single-arm rows require a preferably adjustable bench and directly affect your back muscles while working on your upper arm and shoulders.

Don’t forget to keep your back in a straight line throughout the exercise to improve your core strength.

Remember to switch sides on the bench after your reps to work on the other half of your lats. Use lighter dumbbells to test your range of motion.

Dumbbells and a bench are suitable matches for muscles, and lats aren’t excluded. This classic exercise works on your chest muscles and back, giving you a full torso workout.

You need to keep the original position for about a second before starting the next rep, which engages your core.

Dumbbells and benches are great, but barbells are just as brilliant for lats muscles. The Landmine barbell row keeps you repeating those pulling motions that require your latissimus dorsi. It also improves your shoulder blades and chest muscles and engages your core.

This popular exercise focuses on your lats and shoulders, and it also improves upper body exercises while working on the hamstrings and glutes.

Posture is crucial when performing a bent-over row because an improper stance could put a lot of pressure on your lower back.

These steps make a complete rep. Ensure you maintain a proper stance throughout the exercise.

This exercise requires a barbell, and it does wonders for your lats. Named after American weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay, the Pendlay Row is one of the best lat exercises, used mainly by athletes. This exercise also improves the upper and lower back muscles.

This is a complete rep. You can start with smaller weights on the barbell to test your range of motion.

While dumbbells, benches, and barbells are awesome equipment for lat workouts and improving your back muscles, machines are beneficial too.

Let’s look at some of the best exercises for lat development you can use machines for:

Let’s go in-depth on the steps you can take to perform each exercise properly:

With pull-ups, you hang on a bar and pull your body upwards. The pulldown technique, however, lets you pull the weight towards you. The motions are somewhat similar, but pulldowns are great for your lats.

A rep has been completed when your arms are in their original position.

This pulling exercise works wonders on your lats and upper body strength. Although you may hit other muscles, your latissimus dorsi also gets a vigorous workout share.

A rep is completed when your arms are back in their original outstretched place.

This exercise is another excellent way to work on your lats and other back muscles. Apart from the lats, it also improves your rhomboids, trapezius, and posterior chain.

If you’re gunning for a great route to a powerful back, the T Bar Row will get you where you need to go.

If you’re looking for simple bodyweight exercises to work on your lats muscles, these will help you. Bodyweight exercises essentially use your weight to provide resistance and work your muscles.

Let’s go in-depth on the steps you can take to perform each exercise properly:

Usual pull-ups will have you carry your weight upwards with your hands on a pull-up bar above you. However, the wide-grip pull-ups are slightly different from the neutral grip. Here, rather than holding the bar closer to your body frame, you extend the width.

Widening your grip will give a lot of work to your back muscles, especially your lats. It will also add stress to your shoulders if you do too much, so be careful.

This is one completed rep.

When doing a pull-up, it takes a short amount of time to complete a rep. You’ve pulled yourself up within two seconds, back down again.

Negative pull-ups are similar, but there’s a key difference: You jump to the top position rather than pull yourself up. Then instead of dropping in a second, you slow your descent well enough to take about four seconds. The slow, controlled descent does a lot of work on your lats muscles.

A rep is complete when you touch the ground and jump back up.

You’ve done push-ups, whether in the gym, at home, or to show up against friends. They’re great and highly popular with workout enthusiasts and lat training athletes because they can work on many muscles.

This full-body exercise will work on your triceps, shoulder, chest, and back. However, the number of push-ups you can do isn’t essential during lat workouts. What matters is the quality of your push-ups.

Remember these few tips: performing slower push-ups, significantly when dropping to the ground in a controlled manner, will work on your back muscles. If your arms are closer together, you’ll work on your triceps. If your arms are farther apart, you’ll work on your chest area.

Like the Pendlay Row, a few row variations would get your back muscles working out beautifully. Listed below are some of the best rowing exercises for your lats.

The key to this particular exercise is the pulling action that puts your lats hard at work. Created by bodybuilder John Meadows, these are the steps you need to take to try this rowing exercise:

If a shoulder joint hurts, you shouldn’t try renegade rows because this exercise can be strenuous. You’ll need to be facedown like the push-up technique, but all the similarities end because you’ll also need dumbbells.

You have completed a rep when you have done this on both arms.

It depends on what your goals are with building your lats. You’ll often find an exercise that soothes your style while taking it easy on your shoulders.

Generally, the most crucial lat exercise that directly affects the lats is the lat pulldown. The lat pulldown requires you to pull weights toward yourself rather than pull yourself up, which works wonders for the lats.

If you want to grow a bigger back, the wide grip pull-ups will play a key role in stretching your back muscles. The Bent over rows is also a great exercise to expand your back.

If you want to build muscles in your lats, rowing exercises are the best option for you. Whether it’s the T Bar Row, the Pendlay Row, or even the Meadows Row, they’re your best bet in packing lots of muscle in your back.

Your lats exercises are fundamental, mainly because your back muscles need to help you pull things. Don’t just focus on other prominent muscles: Work on your back.

Remember to keep your torso upright when necessary and bend over when required. Test out different methods; try doing a single-arm dumbbell row and other exercises that allow vertical pulling, horizontal pulling, and other upper body movements.

Horizontal pulling exercises (chin-ups, pull-ups, etc.) and horizontal pulling movements like the single-arm dumbbell row require a great form to hit targeted muscle groups. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart and knees bent (as specified) while performing these exercises.

Remember to chin up and use a wide overhand grip when doing pull-ups.

Yes, your upper back and lower back may have different muscles, but you cannot target individual regions on your back while exercising.

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Instead, work out and build up your entire back, upper and lower lats, rather than improving one area.

Indeed, many of these exercises do not need a machine. You could purchase dumbbells and a barbell at home, but you don’t need those.

Remember exercises like the negative pull-ups? You only need a solid frame to pull yourself up and a bench to jump from, easily found at home.

You can use some row exercises requiring dumbbells, like the Meadows Row, Dumbbell Row, Dumbbell Pullover, etc. These exercises work on both your upper arm and lats, and as long as you can engage your core and tighten those back muscles.

Lat exercises are the same for everyone, whether male or female. On average, women may need to carry fewer weights than men, but this doesn’t stop them from getting stronger lats.

Men and women have similar anatomies, especially on their backs, so that similar exercises will work.

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