SPECIAL ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE ABOUT THE LATS - Everything You Need To Know About Them - Toronto Personal Trainer | Mississauga Personal Trainer

The Latissimus Dorsi

The lats are a focal point in most people’s workout regimen primarily because of the aesthetic benefits that come from having developed lat muscles. For women, a developed lat helps with creating the illusion of having a smaller waist. For men, it contributes to their masculine appeal. But aesthetics aside, the lats serve multiple critical functions to maintain a healthy musculoskeletal system, as the lats are the only muscle that bridges the spine to the shoulder.

Because of this, the lat is the most powerful extensor of the arm, making it the primary muscle responsible for pulling loads closer to the body. The closer the load is to the body when deadlifting for example, the less stress that is placed on the erectors, thus decreasing the risk of injury, and by keeping the center of gravity above the base of support, the ability to generate maximum force is heightened due to increased stability, permitting the use of greater loads.

Strong lats also contribute to pressing power because they enhance the ability to control the eccentric, which increases stability and creates a greater platform to press off from during the concentric.

The Lat-Glute Relationship

The idea that the lats and glutes work together may seem ridiculous, but if you get a chance to look at an anatomy chart, you'll notice that the fiber orientation of the lat on the left side of the body is almost identical to the fiber orientation of the glute on the right right side of the body. Obviously the same goes for the right lat and left glute.

Each lat communicates with the opposite glute muscle through the connective tissue of the back called the thoracolumbar fascia, and this lat-glute relationship integrates the shoulder and opposing hip, which is essential for efficient movements during walking, running and also pulling (ex. climbing), and serves as an important mechanism for stabilizing the spine.

On the flip side, the obliques share the same fiber orientation as the opposing adductor muscles on the inner thigh as well, as they are the muscles on the front of the body that work together to provide spinal stability.

If there is an imbalance between the strength of the lat and opposing glute, or oblique and opposing adductor, the body will resist attempts to make one of the muscles disproportionately stronger, because doing so would put the spine at further risk of injury. This is yet another reason to prioritize correcting structural imbalances, and why you should not neglect to train any muscle.

It may seem odd that improving your step-up, split squat, or lunge (all great exercises for strengthening the adductors, obliques, and glutes, when done correctly) will improve your pull-up (which will then improve your overhead pressing numbers, which in turn will improve all of your pressing numbers) but this in fact, can be the case. When the glutes are contracted, the nervous system perceives that the spine is stable, allowing the lats (or any muscle for that matter), to work more efficiently. This is also why preceding exercise with glute activation increases performance.

Pull-ups vs. Pulldowns

Exercises that start with the shoulder in a fully flexed position (arm overhead) and end with it in a fully extended (but not hyperextended) position as possible (arm tight to the body) provide the greatest range of motion for the lat than any other movement, thus being of highest value when the goal is to develop this muscle. This leaves pull-up, and pulldown, variations as the primary exercises best suited for the job. Because pull-ups and pulldowns consist of the exact same movement in the shoulder and elbow joint, it could be assumed that both are of equal value, but the motor pattern of these movements is far from the same, and these two identical looking exercises can have an extremely different effect.

The most obvious difference is that lat pulldowns are done in a seated position, which facilitates the usage of greater loads by locking the legs into position, which promotes using momentum to cheat through the movement. This can be beneficial if the goal is simply to place the lat under tension, but the strength gained from lat pulldowns will not have as much carryover to other movements as it could, because it does not allow the lats and glutes to work together in the way they are designed to do due to the seated position, which places the glutes in a position of disadvantage. In fact, the glutes do nothing in terms of providing stability when the legs are locked under the pads.

With pull-ups the forearms remain beneath the bar you’re hanging from, which prevents other muscles, that would normally contribute during a cheat pulldown, from getting involved, and because of the free hanging position, the core has create spinal stability to prevent swaying (so much so that some literature suggests that the rectus abdominus is more active during a pull-up than when doing a sit-up). When the legs hang beneath the body the glutes can contract more forcefully to provide the body with optimal stability, indicating to the brain that the body is secure which allows it to focus on increasing motor unit activation of the agonists.

German physiologists have a motor unit recruitment scale which suggests that recruitment will vary from one exercise to the next, based on the skill needed to perform the lift, with the higher coordination lifts being the ones that recruit the most amounts of muscle fibers, and the lower coordination lifts recruiting the least. This would suggest that the pull-up is superior to the lat pulldown from a motor unit recruitment perspective due to the skill involved in pulling your body up, as opposed to pulling a bar down that is attached to a cable, but this doesn’t take into consideration that some individuals may not get the same benefits as others, which is why there is no definitive answer as to which is better. However, there are ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ to both worth considering.

Pro’s and con’s

The major benefit that a lat pulldown provides over pull-ups is that the weight can be adjusted to allow for better reps to be performed (especially as fatigue accumulates). Obviously with a pull-up you cannot reduce the weight of your body, and if you cannot lift the equivalent of your body in the first place, or can’t perform many reps if you can, not much progress, if any, can be expected. The ability to adjust the weight also opens the door to extend the time under tension and further stimulate growth.

The major downside is that it’s easier to cheat when performing a lat pulldown, but that is something that is specific to the individual performing the movement, as it’s just as easy not to cheat, as it is to cheat, so as long as you decide to perform the movement properly, then you’re in the clear aside from the fact that the strength gained is not as transferable.

If you perform lat pulldowns exclusively, then it is possible for the lats to become disproportionately stronger than the glutes, but this can be corrected by performing additional glute work, although this doesn’t guarantee that the nervous system will be able to integrate the strength gained into functional movement.

The pull-up, more than any other movement, is very much a self esteem builder, especially given the fact that most people can’t do a pull-up, so there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment when they finally do, which further motivates them to keep training hard.

But more than the pride that comes with being able to do a pull-up, the exercise itself produces results for people regardless of the goal, as the exercise itself is more taxing on a rep for rep basis than the lat pulldown because of the stability needing to come from within, as opposed to being provided externally.

From a functional standpoint, the motor pattern of a pull-up resembles that of climbing, which makes it the better choice for those looking to take part is such activities. The hips are in an extended position, which will enable the glutes to provide the spine with the stability needed to allow the nervous system to spend more energy on having the lat contract, which in turn will lead to improved performance by allowing you to either lift more weight, or get another rep or two that you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.

On top of that, it’s almost impossible to cheat when doing a pull-up (not to be confused with bad form – the difference being cheating is intentional, while bad form is the result of either not knowing better, or not being strong enough to perform the movement properly).

As far as athletes who compete in relative strength sports are concerned, the better they are at manhandling their bodyweight, the less work that will be needed for each movement they do.

The only issue with pull-ups is that most people simply do not have the strength to do enough of them to elicit any sort of positive training response, or if they do, they can’t do many before fatigue sets in, therefore limiting them. Those who can do them can get better at them, by doing more of them. Those who can’t, don’t have that option.

For those that can’t do a pull-up, but want to get better at doing them, there’s always the option of using the assisted pull-up, where you allow your body to rest on a platform that counterbalances your bodyweight, but like the lat pulldown, the motor pattern is different because the body is resting on a platform for stability, and therefore the strength gained is not as transferable.

It’s also much harder to gauge progression because as you lose weight, the movement becomes easier, even with no strength being gained. On the flip side, if you gain weight, the movement will be harder (unless of course the weight you gained was muscle contributing to pull-up strength, in which the movement will feel the same). Also, the arm length of the individual will affect the range of motion – the platform will stop shy of allowing those with shorter arms to get all the way up and get a full contraction, while it may stop shy of allowing those with longer arms to get all the way down and get a full stretch.

Tips Increase Pull-Up Strength

Since the strength gained from doing pull-ups is more transferable to lat pulldowns, and not the other way around, the goal should always be to get strong at pull-ups. At least that way you have the option to do them or not, instead of having to resort to lat pulldowns simply by default.

To get better at anything, the neuromuscular system needs frequent exposure to a given stimulus – in this case increasing the amount of pull-ups that are performed, and the frequency in which they are done. Some effective methods to do this are:

Eccentrics

The most effective way to expose your neuromuscular system to the tension needed to get better at the movement you want to improve in is to use eccentric overload. Since you are roughly 30% stronger eccentrically, you can take advantage of this technique to speed up the process by forcing more high threshold motor unit to be recruited and fatigued, which will soon lead to developing the strength necessary to pull yourself up.

To perform an eccentric pull-up, all you need to do is find a way to get your chin above the bar, either by standing on a bench or having a partner lift you up, and then focus on lowering yourself under control, for a predetermined amount of time.

The parameters for using eccentric overload to improve pull-up performance are to predetermine how many total full range reps you want to perform, and predetermine how long each eccentric repetition should take. Once you can perform your rep goal eccentrically, you progress the difficulty of the eccentrics by extending the duration of the eccentric by isometric pausing at 3 different ranges of motion. If you can’t perform an eccentric rep for as long as the predetermined time, the rep does not count, and the exercise is done for the day. An example looking like this:

Goal: 20 full range pull-ups

Phase 1 eccentric rep goal: 20 eccentrics, performed for 10 seconds each, within 3 sets

Phase 2 eccentric rep goal: 15 eccentrics, performed for 30 seconds each, stopping at 3 different joint angles to get an isometric pause for 10 seconds each, within 4 sets

*Be sure to use full range lat pulldowns concurrently with eccentric pull-ups so that the involved musculature has a chance to work as a unit concentrically as well.

**If you simply cannot even do one eccentric pull-up, your focus should likely be on either losing bodyfat, which is just extra weight that really just makes doing pull-ups harder, or seriously increasing your overall strength.

Repeated Efforts

The repeated efforts method is an effective way to increase the total volume for those strong enough to perform a few pull-ups. This method is based upon performing multiple sets, but stopping short of failure and leaving enough in the tank to repeat your efforts.

For example, if you can perform 6 pull-ups, and did that many on your first set, it is not likely that you would have the work capacity to repeat that, especially if it was a max effort. In this case you would use half of that number, and bang out as many sets of 3 as you can. Next time around, aim to perform more sets of 3, or increase the rep total to 4 and perform the same amount of sets. Continuing in this fashion should result in a new one set max in just a few weeks.

Volume Goal

The goal here is to simply perform as many pull-ups as possible by performing as many reps as possible each time, until reaching your target.

For example, if the goal was to perform 50 total pull-up, you would simply start by doing as many as you can, and performing as many sets as needed to get the rep goal. Next time around, the goal would be to get to the same rep total in less total sets.

A Word On Rows, And Straight-Arm Pulldowns

The lat is an arm extensor, which means the greatest stretch this muscle will receive will come from the arm being placed overhead, and even though a straight-arm pulldown does promote a full stretch and contraction, the fact that the arms remain straight limits the amount of weight can be used, especially compared to a pull-up or lat pulldown. By allowing the elbow bend, and therefore receive contribution from the elbow flexors, a far greater amount of weight can be used.

As far as rows are concerned, the lats are not fully stretched (although the shoulder is capable of going through a greater range of shoulder extension/hyperextension), thus making them more of a ‘back’ builder, than a lat builder.

Here are a few different routines designed to take you from not being able to do one chin-up (not pull-up), to being able to do 20!

Can’t do 1 routine (goal is to perform 4-6 after 4 weeks, twice a week routine)

A) Incline chin-up, AKA bodyweight rows (hanging from barbell on hooks in power rack), 3 x AMRAP, 60-90 sec rest

B) Eccentric chin-up (using the progression for the eccentric chin-ups above – start by performing eccentrics for predetermined duration, and progress them by switching to 3 position isometric pause chin-ups), 90 sec rest

C) Reverse-grip pulldowns, 5 x 7/6/5/4/3 (basically increase the weight each set, but expect to see a decline in reps), 90 sec rest

Can do at least 1 routine (goal is to perform 10-12 after 4 weeks, twice a week routine)

A) Chin-ups, 20 total reps (using the volume goal method above – try to perform 20 in less time, each time)

B) Eccentric chin-up (predetermined time = 6 seconds), 5 x 10-12, 90 sec rest

Can do at least 10 routine (goal is to perform 20 after 4 weeks, once a week routine)

A) Eccentric chin-up (predetermined time = 3 seconds), 5 x 20-22, 90 sec rest

B) Pull-ups, 5 x 5, 90 sec rest

C) Reverse-grip pulldown, 2 x 40, 90 sec rest

D) Chin-ups, 3 x AMRAP, 90 sec rest

16 Workout Overhead Specialization

Since the body will prevent itself from becoming disproportionately stronger, a logical idea would be to pair overhead pulling with overhead pushing movements. Doing so will enhance performance of each movement as well.

First 4 workouts

A1) One arm braced overhead neutral grip db press

A2) Neutral-grip chin-up

5 x 6-8 for both exercises, 90 sec between sets

Second 4 workouts

A1) Seated 80 degree barbell press 5/3/2/2/3/5

A2) Wide-grip pull-ups 6 x 3-5

2 min between sets

Third 4 workouts

A1) Push press with 8 second eccentric, 3 x 5 then 3 x 3 w/2.5% more weight

A2) Chin-up 3 x 8 then 3 x 5

2 min between sets

Final 4 workouts

A1) Standing barbell press 8 x 1 (increase weight by 5 lbs if you complete all 8 singles) then perform 3 x 3-5 with 15% less

A2) Narrow-grip pull-up 8 x 1 then 3 x 3-5

2 min between sets

16 Week Pull-Up Specialization

Phase 1 – volume emphasis, (weeks 1-4)

Workout structure:

A) Compound exercises

B) Isolation exercises

C) Structural exercise

D) Secondary muscle group isolation

A1) Neutral-Grip Chin-Up Eccentrics/Negatives (lower for 20 seconds)

4 sets, 1 rep, 1 min rest

A2) Dumbell Press (Flat, Incline, or Decline)

4 sets, 4-6 reps, 1 min rest

B1) Straight-Arm Pulldown or Dumbell Pullover