lats, cant make the mind muscle connection.

[lambchops]

so everytime i workout my lats i feel it in my arms no matter what i do, lower the weight, up it.

the only exercise i feel in my lats is a rack pull with a wide grip. any kind of row or pullup i just feel in the arms.

im really tall and my arm spam is actually wider than my height.

any suggestions?

[guest]

took me years to get 'the feeling'. fool around with some lighter weight and concentrate on pulling from your elbows, not your hands, if that makes sense.

[Tank]

lateral pull overs work great to get the mind conection. Lie on your side across a bench where the hips are lower then your shoulders. Lift your arm up over your shoulder with a 5 degree bend and lower towards your ear over your head as far as you can. Concentrate on pulling the elbow intowards your side as you lift it up flaring the lats as much as possible. you will hit the serratus and the lats in a new found way.

When doing chins or pull downs focus on pulling the elbows to your side not behind you to isolate the lats and as mentioned by BANACEK pull with your elbow not your wrist/arms

Also every second day go to the mirror and flex your lats at a variety of angles and hold the contraction up to 2 minutes, wickid for cardio, definiton and mind muscle connection.

And from the great LARRY SCOTT on doing pull ups isolating the lats not the arms.

'When you told me I had to spread my lats as wide as possible right at the top of the exercise,' Rick said, 'that did it. It made the exercise easier to perform.'

'If you learn to rotate your scapulae through their entire movement, it will more than triple your results from pullups. The weight of your body is holding them in a neutral position. Most of the time when we do pullups, we're working biceps, with some incidental lat work. When we concentrate all our energy on the scapulae while doing pullups, we force the lats to do most of the work,'

[cedric]

I try to think of my arms. as a pulley system that aren't really supposed to do the work, only to help

[IronRobi]

Pinch a pencil between your shoulder blades. Start off with somebody literally holding a pencil there and focus on pinching that with your back. As you move on, take the pencil out but use the same focus.

[KLM]

I do everything from imagining a winning lottery ticket between my shoulder blades to visualizing using my hands as hooks only, to forcing myself to drive with my elbows. All of that has worked well.

[IronRobi]

I do everything from imagining a winning lottery ticket between my shoulder blades to visualizing using my hands as hooks only, to forcing myself to drive with my elbows. All of that has worked well.

Another good tip to go along with visualizing your hands as hooks. When doing pull downs, rows, etc.... put your thumps on top of the bar with the rest of your fingers instead of wrapping it around. It will feel awkward at first because you want to grab the bar, but this will literally turn your hands into hooks and help take the arms out of it.

[KLM]

Another good tip to go along with visualizing your hands as hooks. When doing pull downs, rows, etc.... put your thumps on top of the bar with the rest of your fingers instead of wrapping it around. It will feel awkward at first because you want to grab the bar, but this will literally turn your hands into hooks and help take the arms out of it.

That's exactly what I do :)

[The Terminator]

Another good tip to go along with visualizing your hands as hooks. When doing pull downs, rows, etc.... put your thumps on top of the bar with the rest of your fingers instead of wrapping it around. It will feel awkward at first because you want to grab the bar, but this will literally turn your hands into hooks and help take the arms out of it.

I was going to say this, but you beat me to it. :)

Works for everything where arms are not supposed to do the work. Deadlifts, Rows - works brilliantly.

Matt

[slick rick]

If you haven't already, try doing rows with dumbells, i tend to feel it more.

[lambchops]

If you haven't already, try doing rows with dumbells, i tend to feel it more.

i have tried dbs, i find its even worse lol.

anyway lots of info here thanks guys, gonna try some new shit next back day.

[St]

took me years to get 'the feeling'. fool around with some lighter weight and concentrate on pulling from your elbows, not your hands, if that makes sense.

Bump on that.

[IronRobi]

I was going to say this, but you beat me to it. :)

Works for everything where arms are not supposed to do the work. Deadlifts, Rows - works brilliantly.

Matt

Ouff, never tried it for deadlifts. At 5 plates a side I wonder how my fingers would feel holding onto that without a thumb around it. I may lower the weight and give it a try :a+

[bigdaddydrew123]

do practice set every day of some sort either light pulldowns or rows,not heavy just enuff to pump a little blood in there,before long youll be feelin your back way better,no mirror just visualise also practice posing your back or contracting during the day

[Ritch]

Don`t give up on the one arm rows. Try them leaned against the weight stack, or on a bench. Each gives a different angle on the torso. Do pull with your elbow in, sometimes I tell people it`s like you`re starting a lawn mower, dosen`t work to well with the ladies... Like always though... But anyway your elbow should be rubbing against your "side" the whole time and pull to the hip area, this has worked 9/10 with people I show to. On the bench you may prefer to raise the "crotch" area a notch or two to rest the non working hand on. Just don`t think of the fat chick who was using it a few minutes ago.

When doing vertical movements like pulldowns, try pulling from the pinky!!! This may sound weird but give it a try. Practicing your front lat spread can help too. It`s easy to feel the bicep becaue we have a greater mind muscle connection as we use it much more often. The lats, not really, so at night before bed or something hit a few poses. Try to hold it like mentioned. Then say "Boom take a look at this hunk of mass!" Don`t give up it took me 2 years to even start feeling my back!

[Musclehead]

Well it's really all about the scapula, the winged bones on your back. Try holding your arms at your side and try to push them outward by speading your scapula. This will help develop the mind muscle connection. Once you get that, try to get that same feeling when you do db rows (holding your arm close to your body of course) with LIGHT weight and gradually work your way up.

Hope that helps

[L3]

recently i started doing my lat pulldowns to front with the medium lenght bar, not the super long lenght bar, and kept my head facing straight instead of up.. i gotta say its made a lot of difference

[Kronis]

Great tips, gonna go do a back workout.

edit: holy crap that was a good workout. Weights were lighter than usual but I felt everything much more. Thanks to the whole thread; post below me is a good summary.

[vigilant3]

so everytime i workout my lats i feel it in my arms no matter what i do, lower the weight, up it.

the only exercise i feel in my lats is a rack pull with a wide grip. any kind of row or pullup i just feel in the arms.

im really tall and my arm spam is actually wider than my height.

any suggestions?


STEP 1: Grab the bar with a relaxed grip.
STEP 2: Retract (pull back) your scapula.
STEP 3: Pull down without bending your elbows. This will essentially cause your scapula to depress about 2 inches.
STEP 4: Hold that position and start your pulling while keeping your lats flexed and pushed forwards. Flared out, like during a pose.

If you don't feel it after that, you're going too heavy.

[bottleneckblooz]

A great way to take the biceps out of bent over rows is to use an underhand grip.

[lambchops]

my previous back workout was better i felt my lats more, but still not that sweet spot.