One common muscle to build, or workout when in the weight room are the lats. The lats, or the latissimus dorsi, is the largest muscle in your upper body, it covers the lower and middle portions of your back, originates at your spine and the top of your hipbone, and attaches to your upper arm.
What do your lats do?
Your lats are responsible for downward movements of your upper arm, as your elbows pull down and inward toward your waist, and also works when you extend your arms behind you.
Obviously your lats are important, and you need them to be able to move your arms in a full range of motion. Building your lats and exercising them is important. There are some great workouts you can do to build lats. For example, you can do lateral lifts with dumbbells, and any number of variations of this.
Another thing you can do to strengthen your middle back, rear shoulders, and biceps is to do lat pull-downs. These are done by attaching a long bar to a lat pull-down machine, grasping the bar with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width, and sitting down, you will want to adjust the seat so that your thighs are parallel to floor and so your kneepad is elevated so that your thighs aren’t touching it. Your knees should be bent and aligned over ankles, feet flat on floor. Once in position, you will want to contract your abs and lean back from hips so that the bar is positioned over your breastbone, your arms should be straight and your wrists in a neutral position. Then without using the kneepad, you will want to draw your shoulder blades down and together to stabilize your position, then contract your back muscles and drive your elbows down and in toward your waist as you lower the bar toward your breastbone, simultaneously lifting your chest toward the bar. Then pause, keeping your back straight, and slowly straighten your arms to starting position. This is a great lat exercise, and allows you to build your lats really well.
Also, if you perform this exercise without the kneepad to anchor you. You will be forced to use your core muscles to stabilize your position and stop you from using your knees for leverage, which means that you will get stronger, better lats.
Another great way to build your lats is to use a resistance-band, and do a resistance band pull. This pull is especially great to strengthen your middle back, rear shoulders. So, the best way to do this is to loop a resistance band around a support at hip height, then hold one end of band in each hand and stand about 4 feet away, feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Then contract abs and bend knees, then hinge forward from hips, extending your arms in front of you, keeping your shoulder blades down and together, elbows slightly bent and palms facing down, so torso forms a straight line from head to hips. Without changing elbow position, press arms back behind you until they’re parallel to floor and close to hips. You will want to return to starting position, keeping tension on the band without letting it pull you forward, then repeat. If you maintain tension on the band through both the resistance and the return phases of the movement, it will be more effective.
Another great way to build lats is with the one-arm row. This strengthens the middle back, rear shoulders, and the biceps. The way to do this exercise is to place your left knee and left hand on a flat bench, right leg close to bench, foot flat on floor, right knee slightly bent, abs contracted and spine in a neutral position, so your body forms a straight line from head to hips. Be sure to hold a dumbbell in the right hand, arm relaxed and extended toward floor and aligned with right shoulder, palm facing in. Don’t over grip the dumbbell; keep your grip as loose as possible. Contract your upper back muscles as you bend your right elbow up and bring the dumbbell in toward your lower rib cage, until your elbow lifts only slightly above the torso and your knuckles point downward. Keep your abs engaged, shoulders still and head in line with hips. Straighten your arm slowly and with control back to starting position, repeat for reps, then change to the opposite side of bench and repeat with other arm to complete 1 set.
Building your lats is a great idea, so use the above exercises, and enjoy the benefits.