Lat / Back Width

[XstarchildX]

Lat width is also my worst area. Thanks, dad for the awesome genetics .

Things that have worked for me: Increase your frequency. My coach had me hitting back 3x's a week and it exploded. I was sore and under-recovered at first, but my body adjusted rather quickly.

Do Meadow's Rows: These are absolutely killer on the lats. Make sure you use 25lb plates so you can get a nice stretch at the bottom!

 

[rcorchid]

Rack chins, meadows rows, and 1 arm barbell rows made a drastic difference for me

This is a great routine. Pulling the rows to the lower waist works on getting the bottom of the lats to come out.

 

[rcorchid]

Lat width is also my worst area. Thanks, dad for the awesome genetics .

Things that have worked for me: Increase your frequency. My coach had me hitting back 3x's a week and it exploded. I was sore and under-recovered at first, but my body adjusted rather quickly.

Do Meadow's Rows: These are absolutely killer on the lats. Make sure you use 25lb plates so you can get a nice stretch at the bottom!

I just started Meadow rows (sporadically) a couple months ago and that's a tough workout but the pump for me lasts for days.

 

[thethinker48]

Any and every variation of close grip pull down (weighed pull ups too).

Get that logbook up and calories up, and it'll grow.

You look like you have really good arms, be wary of engaging your lats more rather than pulling with your arms which people do; especially those with strong arms.

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[danieltx]

Experiment, experiment, experiment.

What really helped my back progress was throwing out all the traditional ideas about back training - barbell rows, DB rows, pullups, etc. - and figuring out what I really felt and what ROM was needed. Couldn't tell you the last time I touched a barbell or dumbbell for back work outside of a trap bar for neutral grip rack deadlifts.

I have long arms and shortening my ROM made a big difference - use the ROM of your MUSCLE, not ROM of pulling back further on a row just because your long arms can.

The Free Motion adjustable crossover machine someone else posted was huge for me. The freedom it gives with ROM helped me feel my lats better than I ever could with traditional pulldown stations.

I also do a lot of single arm work for back. I just can't get as good of a squeeze using both arms on most movements as I can using one arm at at time.

 

[joe 2013]

what worked for me was posing and practicing spreading my lats while holding the contraction and squeeze the hell out of my back
**broken link removed**

 

[danieltx]

what worked for me was posing and practicing spreading my lats while holding the contraction and squeeze the hell out of my back

Very true.

If the mind-muscle connection isn't strong it doesn't matter what you do for your back.

 

[mytreefiddy]

Experiment, experiment, experiment.

This...you're gonna get tons of different answers (as we can see).... for me, nothing blew up my back more than seated cable rows... but in the last 2 years ive been using MAG Bars....paid hella dividends...... 10 month difference in the 2 pics

 

[pumpkinhead]

Honestly for your body, I think your back looks good. Symmetry is on par with the rest of your body. I truly think your dealing with a genetics issue, some people with good genetics don't understand this. I have trained my calves in every fashion , form, weight, and stance possible...THEY WILL NEVER be huge. I have accepted that. I think for Jr. national or even national level shows, your back will not hold you back (pun intended).

**IMT...look at the poster above me, Mytreefiddy, you can see how low his lats tie into his lower back. This will give him a much larger taper...genetic wise, your simply tie in much higher.

 

[danieltx]

Honestly for your body, I think your back looks good. Symmetry is on par with the rest of your body. I truly think your dealing with a genetics issue, some people with good genetics don't understand this. I have trained my calves in every fashion , form, weight, and stance possible...THEY WILL NEVER be huge. I have accepted that. I think for Jr. national or even national level shows, your back will not hold you back (pun intended).

**IMT...look at the poster above me, Mytreefiddy, you can see how low his lats tie into his lower back. This will give him a much larger taper...genetic wise, your simply tie in much higher.

Another great point. For years people said about Johnnie Jackson, "If he could just bring up his legs." He's legit one of the strongest bodybuilders of all time. He trained his ass off every day. It's not like he didn't try. His legs just weren't there genetically.

 

[Explorerspl]

This...you're gonna get tons of different answers (as we can see).... for me, nothing blew up my back more than seated cable rows... but in the last 2 years ive been using MAG Bars....paid hella dividends...... 10 month difference in the 2 pics

You really just gained a ton of overall size which grew your back, your proportions are exactly the same. That and you improved your posing bringing the waist forward and pushing the back out

I've come to realize a weak part is always going to be weak unless you stop training everything else.

Only way to bring it up is to grow your whole body.

If there was a way to bring up a weak back Dallas mccarver would have done it,as would nasser and Kevin levrone. But year after year they made just slight improvements

 

[method2madness]

Do EVERYTHING for back with straps and ALWAYS use a thumbless grip for every back movement. This takes the tension away from the assisting muscles and allows the back to do more work with time under tension. Additionally keep your rhomboids together and never allow them to rotate forward during any back movement.

 

[rmtt]

Do EVERYTHING for back with straps and ALWAYS use a thumbless grip for every back movement. This takes the tension away from the assisting muscles and allows the back to do more work with time under tension. Additionally keep your rhomboids together and never allow them to rotate forward during any back movement.

I agree wholeheartedly. I always use a thumbless grip on any pulling movement, and use straps.

I Retract my scapula like I'm setting up for a bench attempt, and pull through my elbows.

I'm not ashamed to admit to straps. I trained for 6 years with a world champion arm wrestler....so I got enough grip and forearm work with him to last a lifetime!

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[Kaladryn]

My two cents: your back is good, inner back is just a little bit ahead of lats, this is almost exactly what I had when I was younger. Now my lats might be ahead of my inner back, the difference is, I don't lift that heavy anymore, I mean it's heavy to me, 8-10 reps, and good form makes it very hard, but it's relatively light compared what I used to lift. This has let me really focus on my mind-muscle connection with the lats and force them to do more of the work. The downside is less thickness.

There is another way of thinking on this also: You just have really good traps and that is how your body wants to develop, the key to getting your lats bigger will be to grow your overall back size.

 

[1234trew]

End every other workout with negatives only - pullups until failure lower as slowly as you can - as you master the movement add in some rest pause reps - once your locked in these can be performed with tremendous intensity SAFELY.

 

[No1]

what worked for me was posing and practicing spreading my lats while holding the contraction and squeeze the hell out of my back
**broken link removed**

that is a good starting point,but how to "activate" them lats if that was the term.. tried one of those Jansen's tips on another exercise and it worked straight away and progressing each time,moreover even after a time off the gym the muscles contracted as they should.. so much misinfomration out there

 

[No1]

This...you're gonna get tons of different answers (as we can see).... for me, nothing blew up my back more than seated cable rows... but in the last 2 years ive been using MAG Bars....paid hella dividends...... 10 month difference in the 2 pics

some truth in this I have noticed in workouts long time before. Could not figure out what was it but back was surely firing way better than I try it on a pulldown. none of these MAG bars,but they seem the same to me.

why could that be happening in that horizontal plane of motion? better biomechanics somewhat enforced by default?

 

[No1]

End every other workout with negatives only - pullups until failure lower as slowly as you can - as you master the movement add in some rest pause reps - once your locked in these can be performed with tremendous intensity SAFELY.

I have also though about this,but still the right posture and biomechanics must be learned before that or so I think, I am not a coach though

 

[Carrettaustin]

Try using more frequency but don’t kill it every time make sure your recovering. I use a lot of mountain dog training and that has helped a lot of stretching of the lats


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[WTXmuscle88]

Split my back days. Width one day, thickness a few days later.
Followed meadows and Hypertrophy coach Joe Bennett concepts and training styles religiously. Improved my back. No where near where it needs to be. Around 231 in this pic