Three V-Taper Back Workout Tips --How to Get Wide Lats
Although a bigger, wider back is the goal, sometimes, a bigger, taller weight stack is
not the answer.
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, AthleanX.com.
The key to the video, how to get a bigger, wider, V-tapered back.
Now, I mentioned in the intro, we have to resist the urge to always go for a bigger,
taller, weight stack meaning loading up the weight.
Because, as you see, there is different goals for different exercises.
Some exercises, our goal should be to simply move weight, where in other exercises we really
should be looking to contract the muscle that we are working.
There's a big reason why, especially with the back; because with the back, what we have
is a situation of out-of-sight/out-of-mind.
You can't see it.
You don't really have that much of a conscious effort that you put into it.
Yeah, you're pulling hard, and the tendency is to do a lot more of that moving away-type
exercise than there is to put that conscious contraction.
So, what I recommend, my best tip, if you are trying to build a wide, V-taper, is that
you better activate the lats.
You had better develop the lats through their full range-of-motion in order to do that.
So, how do we do it?
A couple of different ways.
First of all, we have to get a wide set up.
If you're doing pull-ups, that means a wide grip.
If you are doing some kind of a cable set-up here, then get these cables out wide.
As you can see, I don't necessarily like the bar as much.
I like the individual cable handles because it allows me to do that.
Why is that?
Because it gives us a little bit of a better angle of pull for the lats.
Alright.
The lats are going to run in this direction, just like that.
And, ironically, they are going to attach all the way, the only muscle group that actually
connect the upper body and the lower body here; where we are going to have it attach
to our arm, the back of our humerus here, and all the way into, really, the top of our
iliac crest, our hips because of the fascia that connects through the back in the lumbar
spine.
So, it is that big of a muscle and we want to make sure that we take it through its full
range.
So the first we want to do is get those handles out wide so that our arms are in like a "v"
position to actually help to get that V-taper.
Now, when they come down, we want to pull so that the elbows come in close to the body,
in tight.
Up and out all the way so that we get a stretch, and then in and down and tight.
Now, here are the two tips: We are going to turn our hands this way.
Ok.
Turn them out.
Turning them out is actually causing internal rotation up at the shoulder joint.
The lats are going to help us internally rotate.
So if you want to fully contract them, and we are talking about actually contracting
the lats here.
That's the key, guys for developing that shape.
We want to turn our hands out.
Now, same concept.
Down, up wide, pull down, and squeeze.
Up and out, down and squeeze.
All the way out.
Down.
Squeeze.
Ok.
So now what's the last tip?
The last tip is: if we want to really enforce what we are doing here, and we want to really
work on contraction, yeah, you might have to drop that weight down because we are not
talking about generating momentum here for lat pull-downs, We are talking about actually
contracting.
So, you are going to want to make sure you do that and drop the weight.
One technique you could use is what we call one and one-half reps.
That allows us to ensure that we have to slow it down and also drop the weight.
With one and one-half reps, as a matter of fact, we are going to go up just a little
bit.
With one and one-half reps, basically, we are going to come down, squeeze, up half way,
back down and squeeze again, and then up and full.
Ok.
Down, pull in, half way, back down, and then up again.
Now if you have not been doing these types of exercises and really contracting your back
deliberately, you will see a big difference when you start to train this way.
As a matter of fact, you are going to be humbled a bit by how much you might have to cut the
weight stack down to do this.
But, the benefits of this combined with heavy weight training -- those exercises where you
are just moving your weight around -- is enormous.
It's what allows us to get more V-taper in the back because we are actually conscious
of contracting the muscle.
So, guys, when you're training, as we do in AthleanX, you got to have a balance of both.
Functionally, sometimes, we just want to move weight; we want to have a purpose and be functional.
Other times, we want to have a real deliberate contraction so that what we are doing is purposeful,
and we are actually engaging the muscle fully through its full range-of-motion.
And, in the case of getting the V-taper and developing the lats fully, that's where you
want to be.
Guys, for more concepts like this, and a training program that takes it all and puts it all
together for you, head over to AthleanX.com and join team Athlean!
Grab the AthleanX training system.
Guys, we will be back here next.
More stuff!
As a matter of fact, we might hit the mid-back next week if you guys like this video.
I'll tell you some things that you can specifically do for the rhomboids that might help you just
as much.
In the meantime, I'll see you guys back here in 7 days.