![]() To really hit the lats, pull the dumbbell using more of a "drag" pattern that starts slightly in front of the shoulder and finishes closer to the mid-torso. Using a neutral grip to pull a dumbbell from ground-level straight up to a horizontal body doesn't make these muscles work effectively. What's important to remember is that the fibers of many scapular retractors (like the rhomboids) travel in more of a horizontal pattern. The one-arm dumbbell row, performed with one knee and one hand supported on a bench, is often misused and mistaken for an upper back exercise to train the shoulder retractors. Mistake: Pulling the dumbbell straight up.įix: Pull in more of a sweeping "J" motion with the dumbbell starting slightly in front of the shoulder. If you want to hit the lats hard, shorten your range of motion by a couple of inches and arch your back. When it doesn't happen – as in the case of a pencil-straight pull-up – the biceps, traps, and teres muscles take over and the humeral head will also be encouraged to shift forward in the shoulder girdle at the top portion of the movement. Retracting and depressing the shoulders usually happens in pairing with spine extension (arching), and this position optimizes lat involvement. ![]() Lifters are often instructed to stay pencil-straight from head to feet on pull-ups, but doing it this way leads to poor biomechanics. Mistake: Keeping the body straight as a rod.įix: If you want to hit the lats properly during pull-ups, cut your range of motion by a couple of inches and arch your back. Check out these common mistakes and learn how to fix them. Do them on a decline bench with a cable attachment for better results.Įven smart lifters can misuse and abuse these four back exercises. Dumbbell pullovers minimally engage the lats.But as long as the back maintains a slight arch, a little English at the beginning of the lift is beneficial and necessary. Too much body English ruins the bent-over row.To use it to stimulate the lats, "drag" the dumbbell from in front of the shoulder to mid-torso. The one-arm row is often misused as an upper back exercise.Instead, you need to arch your back and cut your range of motion by a few inches to hypertrophy the lats. Trying to stay pencil-straight during pull-ups is wrong.So the most important thing will always be feeling the lats doing the work. Remember, the goal is not to perform an exercise from point A to point B it's to use the exercise to load the muscles you want. Here's the key thing: When doing the straight-arm pulldow, experiment to see which position creates the most tension in the lats. ![]() Lean forward a bit and you'll feel it more in the upper portion and teres major. A more upright torso will put more stress on the lower portion of the lats. Keep your grip style the same (hands down pronated), but vary the width–narrower or wider. ![]() Grip and Torso Angleĭo the straight-arm pulldown with a palms-down grip on the bar. These two muscles aren't strong enough to override the lats though, so the lats still take the brunt of the work. The straight-arm pulldown also involves the teres major and posterior deltoids – both good things since they complete the look of the lats and increase the width of your back. While the pullover is similar, the cable straight-arm pulldown is superior at targeting the lats because the tension is more constant throughout the range of motion.
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