Building Big Lats — Wider, Thicker, and Longer

Want To Build Big Lats? Here's How

Big lats are a necessity on a well-rounded, symmetrical physique. Building the latissimus dorsi muscles, rhomboids, trapezius, and other supporting muscles of the back. There are only a few movements that you need to perform to build the muscles of the back.

The king of all lat work is the bent-over barbell row. Using an overhand grip, hands shoulder-width apart, bend slightly at the knees and bend at the waist with your torso slightly above parallel. Pull the bar to your lower ribcage, trying to use your hands and arms as “hooks” only, to maximize the effect on the lats. If you pull the bar higher up on the torso, like to the chest, you'll involve the upper lats, rhomboids, and trapezius more. Pull to the waist, and you're building primarily the lower lats as they taper into the waistline.

Follow the bent-over rows with lat pull-downs. Again, you can influence which area of the latissimus that you effect simply by pulling the par to that area. For example, if you're trying to develop the lower lats, pull the bar down to your belly button. These are great for building thickness in the upper- to mid-back.

The trick to doing this exercise most effectively, is to lean back a bit so that your body is about 30-40 degrees from vertical. In effect, you're doing a variation on the bent-over row you just performed, but you're putting your lower back in a more advantageous position. Plus, you can use a lot more weight, especially if you use the part of the exercise machine that secures your knees, disallowing the weight to pull up your body.

You can also vary your hand position to effect a different part of the back. A wider grip will work on width, whereas a narrower grip will work on thickness.

A variation of the bent-over row is the dumbbell row. Doing these one arm at a time, you can really focus on feeling the muscles work, rather than focusing on getting the weight up. Let your shoulders drop as you extend your arm, and really pull back on the shoulder blades as you raise your arm.

An auxillary exercise you do, most often when trying to build the chest, is the bent-arm pullover. You may not realize this, but the muscles worked with this movement are the lats!

Couple the bent-arm pullover with the bent-over rows in a pre-exhaust superset. The pullovers fatigue the lats, and the rows blast them into oblivion! Repeat this superset 3-5 times, and you've gone a long way to building big lats.

Best Ways of Rowing

by Terry
(Ennice, NC)

Question: I have been sitting on the floor and rowing with my heavy bands. Would I benefit from doing the rowing on a bench that I could straddle sitting down?

I have the Terrell Owens exercise bands (excellent).

Answer: I think you can do both! I'd caution you to keep a little bend in the knees while doing your rows (I assume you're pulling from a door way with the bands roughly parallel to the floor); keeping the legs stiff is an invitation to lower back strains.

You can vary the angle quite a bit by using the same anchor point but by adjusting your stance:

Seated on the floor, you're getting the lats and middle back.

Sitting on a bench, you can pull to the chin and get a good delt, upper back, and trap workout.

Standing, you can almost exclusively target your traps and hit the side and rear delts a little, too.

Image credit: Licensed for re-use – https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/US_Navy_070329-N-8923M-029_Lt._Shaun_Estep_of_Strike_Fighter_Squadron_(VFA)_37,_the_Raging_Bulls,_prepares_for_the_physical_readiness_test_(PRT)_on_a_rowing_machine.jpg

Bertil Fox

Bertil Fox was a phenom in the bodybuilding world in the mid- to late 70s and early 80s. Hailed as the next coming of Sergio Oliva, Fox never lived up to the hype.

But he didn't do the hyping.

He just brought the muscle mass! Arms, traps, delts, and chest – all top-notch. His legs and back left a little to be desired, but I think it was Bertil Fox who ushered in sheer mass as we know it today.

He was simply HUGE, especially in his heyday. He might even stand a chance today.

Unfortunately, Fox's life after bodybuilding took a horrible turn for the worse. Convicted of double homicide, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars in a St. Kitts prison cell.

Lots of rumors have circulated about the crimes he committed, but I'll just leave it at this: Bertil Fox was a phenomenal bodybuilder, having brought muscle mass back into the forefront of pro bodybuilding.

If he did commit the murders – and a judge and jury found that he did – then I'm saddened for the fact that two people died at his hands and that his life has been ruined forever.

Bodybuilding Workouts That Work

The first pillar of an effective muscle building plan is the workouts. Using progressive resistance training, along with tried-and-true bodybuilding principles, you can create effective exercise routines that build muscle, burn fat, and increase your muscle endurance.

Progressive resistance weight training is the heart of an effective exercise plan. You'll want to place an emphasis on compound exercises like squats, bench presses, lat pull-downs, and military presses. Compound exercises work the major muscle groups like the shoulders, quads, glutes, chest, and lats, as well as supporting muscles like the biceps, triceps, hamstrings, and lower back.

They burn the most calories and stimulate the highest number of muscle fibers (and, remember, muscle fibers either fire 100% or not at all, so the more you stimulate, the more you grow). In fact, studies show that an exercise program with free-weight squats stimulate muscle growth not just in the legs and lower back, but also in all the other muscle groups as well.

An exercise plan that has as its cornerstone exercises that involve multiple major muscle groups is key to muscle development. Supplement these compound exercises with isolation exercises like barbell curls, calf presses, dumbbell flyes, and tricep push-downs.

At first, you'll want to do a full-body workout, 3 days a week. On Day 1 and Day 3 (Monday and Friday, for example), you'll do the following exercises, in order:

• Squat
• Bench press
• Lat pull-down
• Shoulder press

Perform one warm-up set per exercise, and start off with 1-2 sets per exercise. Each week or two, depending on how you progress, add a set.

On Day 2 (Wednesday, for example), do this sequence:

• Lat pull-down
• Bench press
• Shoulder press
• Squat

As time goes on and you get stronger and develop more muscle endurance, we'll add more exercises to your routine. Note that these 4 exercises will form the foundation for all of the routines you'll see here.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply the best bodybuilder of all time! He completely DOMINATED his peers, winning the Mr. Olympia title an unprecedented (then) six consecutive times! He retired and came back in 1980 to win it again (albeit in a controversial way).

Schwarzenegger then went on to become one of the most successful Hollywood action heroes, elevating the visibility of the sport of bodybuilding, benefiting all the champions that have followed him.

Of course, never satisfied, Arnold then entered politics, and the rest, as they say, is history. Not sure where he can go from here, but I'm sure he's already got it all planned out!

Arnold not only was the best of his time, but he has done more for the sport of bodybuilding than any other champion. For that, he holds the esteemed #1 position on my list.

You can find out more about Arnold here.