Giulia Ralph is a qualified Nutritionist, Strength & Conditioning Coach, Weightlifting Coach, and Personal Trainer. She has a Bachelor of Health Science in Nutrition and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Human Nutrition.
Lats (latissimus dorsi) are two large, triangular shaped back muscles on the sides of the spine. Known as the largest muscles in the upper body, the lats go from right under your shoulder in the armpit area, all the way down to right above the hips.
Bodybuilders have a deep appreciation for strong, well developed lats. In men, they help achieve the enviable V shape that comes from having broad shoulders and a tight/small waist. In women, working the lats can also help you achieve an hourglass figure and sexy back that looks great in backless tops/dresses.
Aside from an aesthetic appearance, lats also play a big role in pulling activities, helping with breathing by enhancing the movements of the trunk (1), helping keep your arms in when you are stationary, keeping shoulders in place and helping with side-to-side bending.
So how do you improve the appearance and boost functionality of the lats? Read on to learn more about the best lat exercises, how to get a wide back, the upper-back stretches that reduce soreness, and much more.
You have to workout, there is no other way around it.
According to Medical News Today, to increase muscle size and mass, you need to continuously and consistently challenge your muscles through progressive overload, by increasing the resistance, volume, and weights. Doing this leads to muscle hypertrophy (8) – an increase in muscle mass, and can also help increase strength – as your muscles fibers continuously breakdown and repair themselves via workouts and rest, respectively.
Aside from working out, specifically through resistance/weight training, you must also meet your protein requirements (6). Protein is the main building block or muscles and thus an adequate intake is recommended for anyone looking to increase/accelerate muscle growth.
A study published in 2016 suggested a minimum daily protein intake of 1.0, 1.3, and 1.6 g per kilogram of body weight for people engaged in minimal, moderate, and intense physical activity, respectively (3).
An important fact women new to bodybuilding must remember is that men tend to put on muscle much faster than women do (10). This is not only because women generally have more estrogen and less testosterone than men.
This, however, does not mean that your muscles will not grow or that you are necessarily weaker.
One 10-week study done on both men and women found that after doing the same upper body resistance training workouts for the entire study period, while the men had slightly high muscle mass, both men and women had similar upper body strength response to the training (2).
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Contrary to what other sources all over the internet may say, there is no one exercise that you’ll just need to do to massively grow your lats. There are several reasons for this but the three main ones are:
A plateau happens when your body adapts to a workout plan and stops showing intended results. In the fitness world, plateaus are often mentioned when talking about weight loss, but they can happen in muscle growth too.
When you do one movement for extended periods of time your body gets used to the movement and eventually, any progress will eventually come to a halt. You may try to fix this by adding more weights/resistance while doing the exercise or increasing your reps, and while this could get you out of the plateau, progress in muscle size and strength may continue to be limited.
We can admit that we are creatures of habit to a point. With that said, doing the same thing over and over every week for months on end is bound to get boring eventually.
Same thing happens with exercise, doing the same 1 or 2 exercises every week for multiple months will become boring. This raises your chance of quitting the workout and not achieving your goals.
In a study published in the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal, researchers found that the more volume of exercise done per training session, the greater the muscle gain of the participants (9).
While you can do multiple sets of the same lat exercise, it will get very boring, very quickly. However, having multiple workouts all targeting the lats makes the training session more varied and interesting, which eliminates boredom, the risk of plateauing and leads to larger muscles.
Ps. While this last point works great for bigger muscles, it isn’t necessarily the only method for muscle strength. A study published in 2022 in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that both maintaining and varying the exercises for the same muscle group promoted similar adaptations in the maximum dynamic strength (4).
Here are some of the best exercises that target the lats and will help them grow
Pull ups in general are a go to exercise for anyone looking to grow their lats and sculpt their back. However, among all existing variations the wide grip pull up seems to be a fan favorite.
How to do it:
Read more: Calisthenics Pull Ups: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
When it comes to the best lat exercises with dumbbells, the dumbbell row is king among such workouts. This exercise is especially great since it’s very easy to grasp, especially for beginners
How to do it:
The rowing motion is a great movement that works the arms, shoulders, core, back (including the lats), glutes and legs. The seated row is often done with a cable machine, however, if you do not have access to this machine, you can make do with resistance bands.
How to do band seated rows:
This is one of the easiest to do lat exercises at home with dumbbells. It is a fantastic core and back workout that can help improve your upper body strength, balance and stability.
How to do it:
Other lat exercises that work just as well as these include
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If you feel like your lat exercises at home (or in the gym) are not giving you your desired results, you might want to consider doing more isolation exercises.
As the name suggests, isolation exercises isolate the muscle, i.e they work one muscle group at a time. This is unlike compound exercises that work several muscles or muscle groups, i.e the lats plus one or two muscles around them.
According to VeryWellFit, compound exercises are often recommended for both athletes and casual gym goers. This is because they tend to burn more calories, offer a full body workout in less time and stimulate real-world movements which is great to build strength for everyday activities and movements.
However, for people whose goal is to increase the strength or size of a specific muscle group, isolation is the best way to go. Taking the time to specifically work on the lats – or any other muscle – increases the chances of it becoming bigger and stronger faster.
By doing any of the above listed best lat exercises, you will be hitting all 3 parts of your lats.
Here is the thing, while you can isolate the lat muscles while working out, you cannot isolate the upper, mid, or lower lats. According to VeryWellFit, the isolation of the upper, mid and lower lats with exercise is nothing but a myth.
The latissimus dorsi muscles on the sides of your back – from the mid to lower back – always work as a whole unit. This means that any movement you make involves all three parts of the lats and thus any exercise done targeting them works the muscle as a whole, not just one or two parts.
How to get rid of back rolls? Back rolls result due to having excess body fat. Excess body fat is usually the result of eating more calories than you need and the body ends up turning the extra unused calories into fat.
To get rid of back rolls you need to do 2 main things
To break this down further:
Fruits and vegetables are rich in fiber and antioxidants which are fantastic for your health.
Working out is the quickest way to boost your metabolism and burn calories, both which lead to weight loss and reduced back fat/rolls.
Please note that when we say exercise, we do not mean that you should only do exercises that target this area of the body. While back workout calisthenics – pr back targeted weight training exercises – will certainly help, we cannot spot reduce one body part – i.e back workouts will not lead to less back fat, same as core/ab workouts will not lead to a smaller waist.
To lose fat in your back, or any other part of the body, you must be prepared to lose fat all over the body. Make sure to do your cardio as well as an array for full body weighted workouts to help with full body fat loss and a trimmer, more fit figure.
Read more: Here’s How To Get Rid Of Back Rolls for Good
If you are looking to grow your lats, then these exercises must be in your weekly workouts. Remember that like with everything else, you have to remain patient and consistent to see any changes. Be sure to also increase your protein intake and take your rest days seriously.
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