The ONLY 2 Lat Exercises You Need

when it comes to lat exercises there are

no shortage of options however which lat

exercises do you focus on if you're

struggling to build a bigger wider back

to give you the two lat exercises that

you need to focus on if you want to

start seeing your best results now

Others May want you to believe that

there are only two exercises that you

need not all other lat exercises just

don't provide any additional benefit

that's not what I'm saying but if you

don't have these two boxes checked in

combination with each other you're going

to struggle to build your best lats

possible with this bare minimum approach

you can be as short of the fact that

you're going to have an effective

combination of light exercises to use

and more so be able to focus on fewer

things so you can get to where you want

because if you follow me for any length

of time you know we got a lot of back

that might be the problem because when I

say lats you think back but what you

should think of is just one thing the

latissimus dorsi and it's that muscle

right there there's all always the case

if you let the anatomy tell you what to

do it's going to actually guide you to

the exact two exercises that you should

focus on now as I said before it's not

the only two exercises that you should

ever do but if you only can do two these

should be the ones and the first thing

you have to do is follow the fibers and

also follow the science because we know

that applying a stretch to a muscle

gives us a chance to create hypertrophy

if there's load applied as well well the

attachments are going to be up here on

the arm and down here at the hip so if

you could just figure out an exercise

that does that and does it really well

you'll be on the right track

and my first line exercise of choice is

going to be the kneeling single arm pull

down now maybe you're doing pull Downs

already and you think you got that box

checked but I'm talking specifically

about the kneeling single arm pull down

and here's why remember in order to

apply that stretch that can mediate New

Growth we have to do this in a way

that's going to create maximum stretch

and allow for the last to go through

their full range of motion so by

kneeling I'm able to get my arm not just

up overhead but also it's taking the

attachment point specifically of the

upper arm and the hip as far away from

each other as I possibly can now when

you're trying to build the upper outer

portion of the lats the vertical pulling

exercises are going to be your best bet

but by doing this exercise this way

you're going to be able to get the best

effect of it and what I'm doing is first

grabbing this handle with a pronated

grip and the reason why I'm doing that

is I want to try to decrease the bicep

contribution to the exercise because I

could easily turn it this way and turn

it into some variation of a curl which

is just going to take away some of the

effect on your lats if I can pronate my

handle at the top I can decrease some of

that contribution at that point I want

to make sure that I'm almost fixing my

elbow in place right so it's going along

for the ride and at that point you're

also trying to shift your focus to the

Elbow because it's almost like a pointer

like an arrow and that Arrow should

point right down at that hip so if I can

bring it down and get it as far as I can

keeping it tight to my side I'm going to

hit the lap but if I could just lean a

little bit more and point it right into

my hip I'm going to get the biggest

contraction I could possibly get on the

last again taking them through their

full range of motion big giant stretch

arm out in front of us down locking that

angle and drive it right down into your

hip the point here guys is the first

exercise has to be one that takes

advantage of the stretch this one does

exactly that and it does it very

specifically but then we got to go back

to the board to look at the anatomy

again to get exercise number two because

this is where I think people kind of

mess things up because they think that

only the vertical pulling exercises are

best at building bigger lats but that's

just not true because if you look at how

big the labs actually are and you focus

on this portion and the attachments all

over the spine up and down the thoracic

Lumbar and even into your sacrum you

realize that somehow you have to get

these fibers to do their job and that is

to pull the arm towards the center or

midline of your back well the best way

to do this is going to be with a row but

again a very specific type of row

because if you were to do this with a

wide arm position like this what's going

to happen the fibers that are best

positioned to pull this arm this way are

going to be the muscles that are up in

this area and we're talking about

different muscles in the lats like the

rhomboids or the middle traps that's not

how we do it we got to get this elbow

back down tight and then pull back

behind our body like you see me doing

here this is a properly performed row if

you want to overload the latch and again

that's key because the lat muscles are

overloaded with heavier weight just like

any other muscle and a great stimulus by

hypertrophy and growth is going to be

the use of heavier weights I don't know

of many exercises that do a better job

on building the lats than a row now the

one limitation is that you don't have

the same full range of motion you did on

the kneeling one arm pull down but again

these are meant to complement each other

perfectly what you are getting is that

all-important secondary function of the

lats and you're doing a really good job

of applying weight to it now let's say

your back isn't so great and every time

you do a row it doesn't feel so good

well it doesn't mean that you can't do

all rows you could do a chest supported

row because this is going to take that

factor out of the equation and still

allow you to get the benefits of this

exercise and a chest supported position

all the focus should be on your ability

to simply pull with these lats and get

your elbows back behind you without

having to worry about stabilizing with

your lower back now I'm not saying

that's the best way to Forever perform

your rows obviously you like to

transition yourself to a point where you

can do it on your feet but it gives you

exercise without having to sacrifice one

of the only two exercises that you need

to do and so now with the word lats

hopefully no longer triggering the

entire back for you you've got a one-two

combination to effectively not just

build the width of your back but also

the thickness if you're looking for the

I'll put that one for you here if you're

looking for a complete program guys