What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
Here with Raymond again.
We're going to put the science back in strength to help you get a wider back.
Guys, when it comes to getting a wider back, first and foremost you have to understand
that the angle of pull has to be down and in.
You have to be getting your elbows closer to your body.
Your lats, and the under-appreciated muscle I'm going to show you guys in just a second
here, have to rely on abduction of the arm, getting it closer to your body.
So I'm going to show you 2 of my favorite exercises to help you do that.
But first, let's take a look at what we're actually talking about.
We all know the lats.
The lats are not on Raymond here.
He must have lost them somewhere along the way.
But the lats are big, fan-shaped muscles.
I'm going to show you my favorite way to target them and again make sure that we're pulling
down and into our body at the same time.
Secondly, this guy right here.
One of the most under-appreciated muscles that if you really want to get a wide back,
you've got to start focusing on it.
Again, we're not talking about exercises that pull our arms behind us.
That's going to be working more of the mid back thickness.
What we're looking for here is width, so we want that down and into our sides.
Well, when we look at the teres major here,
one of the main things it does is, besides filling in this gap up in through here, this
is it, right here, guys, it fills in the top part of our lat.
So, a lot of guys will feel like they don't have a big full lat because they don't have
this probably is their big problem.
If I were to go from behind, the exercise I'm going to show you is a Straight Arm Pull
Down.
When you do the Straight Arm Pull Down, you get the lats.
And then you get that abduction at the bottom.
You can see the little muscle pop out, again, right around here, ok.
So, down and back, and you see it come out.
Down, and you see it come out.
So, you don't have to go so far into hyperextension here.
You've just got to get yourself down into extension.
We do that with our Straight Arm Push Down.
So, let me show you again, my 2 favorite exercises for helping you to get width on that back
particularly.
Alright, first up, to target those lats, we know that the Pull Up, the Pull Down, those
exercises are great for improving that width.
What I'd like to do though, to reinforce the fact that the elbows have to come in to the
body, is just give a lot wider grip than usual.
So, we'll get as wide as we can on our bar so that now our angle of pull is going to
be down and in.
As opposed to here.
A lot of times guys will almost flex too much with their bicep and not enough again with
the focus being here on the lat.
So, nice and wide.
Again, out, pull down and in, until your elbows are down and in towards your sides as much
as you can reach them from where we're at.
Alright, as I promised, guys, that second exercise.
Again, very under-appreciated.
One of my favorite back exercises, and if you want to complete that width from top to
bottom,
you've got to start including them.
The Straight Arm Push Down.
So, it doesn't matter if you do this with a band if you're at home.
You hook it to your Pull Up Bar, or if you're here at the gym, a rope attachment's great.
Or even a straight bar is fine, too.
But, we get up in here.
Arms are straight.
You can lean back a little bit so you actually get a nice stretch of the lat right off the
get-go.
And then, you're going to actually just try to keep your arms and elbows straight as you
come down to your sides.
Right to your thighs.
Again, you don't want to have your elbows bend.
You turn this into a tricep exercise.
So, you keep your arms straight.
And you get that teres major, especially as you get down to the bottom.
So, there you have it, guys.
Two exercises to get that wider back.
And as we always do here, relying on Raymond and putting the science back in strength to
help you get there.
Guys, remember, there is no unimportant muscle, right.
So, if you want to get a complete physique from top to bottom,
you can't be overlooking, or picking and choosing your favorites.
You have to address everything and that's what we do here at ATHLEANX.
Matter of fact, we have a complete 90-Day Program.
If you haven't already, come on board Team ATHLEAN.
Guys, you can get the complete program at ATHLEANX.COM.
Overlook nothing.
Start to address everything in your training.
That doesn't mean long, drawn-out workouts.
It means doing the right things the right way to make your workouts efficient so you
can get the most out of them.
Guys, if you found this video helpful, make sure you leave a thumb's up and a comment
below.
What else would you like to see.
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Alright, guys, we'll be back here soon.