Focusing on Lats/back

[Dalrek]

Recently I've been noticing some weakness and imbalance with my Latissimus Dorsi muscles, particularly with my right one since my right shoulder immediately takes over during pull-ups. I've even attempted to focus on my lats with dumbbell bent over rows and my shoulder still seems to take control.

This is kind of holding me back from wanting to build amazing back muscles (similar to Bruce Lee, probably a bit far fetched cause he had amazing muscle structure, but I figure an extremely difficult goal is better than no goal).

Are there any methods that can help to focus on a muscle during an exercise? And are there ways to deal with muscle imbalance other than utilizing dumbbell exercises?

[Dave.cyco]

Work on single arm variants of pulling exercises, such as one arm chins, one arm horizontal rows. I suggest reading Cathal's one arm chinning log (http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8734)

[USMC machine]

Arch your back in a way so that you chest is facing the bar above. point you head up, your chin should be able to touch the bar at the pinnacle of your pullup. Tighten your body to prevent yourself from swinging.

[Dalrek]

I thought chin ups were more targeted towards the biceps because of the underhand grip? Either way that definetly sounds like an effective way to the problem.


Also, can the arching technique damage the spine by any chance?


thanks

[TB12]

When you do your chinups, or any other pulling exercise, focus on pulling you elbow down on your chins or back on your rows. This will force the muscles in the back to contract instead of the bicep or shoulder muscles. Start out by simplifying some exercises to just the motion of contracting the shoulder blades back and down. Isometric exercises can be done pulling on a rope or something like that. You mentioned Bruce Lee's Back muscles, well he was a big promoter of the benefits of isometric training

[Dalrek]

I can see why Bruce Lee liked isometric training, I looked it up and it says isometrics increase maximal muscle power by 32% (this was from wikipedia of course so i'm not quite positive on the numbers heh)


Thanks again guys, this is really helpful stuff.

[demarcoa]

When you do your chinups, or any other pulling exercise, focus on pulling you elbow down on your chins or back on your rows. This will force the muscles in the back to contract instead of the bicep or shoulder muscles. Start out by simplifying some exercises to just the motion of contracting the shoulder blades back and down. Isometric exercises can be done pulling on a rope or something like that. You mentioned Bruce Lee's Back muscles, well he was a big promoter of the benefits of isometric training

A large portion of those incredibly large lats came from barbell pullovers and various strange pullups. Also his punching work helped as the lats are recuited in powerful punches.

[Dean68w]

Overhand pull ups incorporate your lats more. Make sure your even and symetrical while going up;

1.Mount the bar
2.Rotate your shoulders back.
3.While going up, focus on your shoulder blades pull to the center of you back and downward.
4.Keep your shoulders back on the way down and even in the down position.
5. Repeat 3 and 4 the desired reps.

This should help you maintain a good bilateral pull up.

[demarcoa]

Overhand pull ups incorporate your lats more. Make sure your even and symetrical while going up;

1.Mount the bar
2.Rotate your shoulders back.
3.While going up, focus on your shoulder blades pull to the center of you back and downward.
4.Keep your shoulders back on the way down and even in the down position.
5. Repeat 3 and 4 the desired reps.

This should help you maintain a good bilateral pull up.

How wide should your arms be?

[Dean68w]

Your arms should be just slightly wider than shoulder width. Sorry for not mentioning that.

[demarcoa]

Your arms should be just slightly wider than shoulder width. Sorry for not mentioning that.

It's all good. Also, should elbows flex out to the sides or in front? Hope that this makes sense. I'm asking cause with my doorway chinup bar is not wide enough to do the chins with elbows flexing to either side.:(

I actually go to a nearby tennis court to do the wide grip ones.

[Dean68w]

It's all good. Also, should elbows flex out to the sides or in front? Hope that this makes sense. I'm asking cause with my doorway chinup bar is not wide enough to do the chins with elbows flexing to either side.:(

I actually go to a nearby tennis court to do the wide grip ones.

Don't flex out. One the way up, pull your shoulder blades back and down, and focus on pulling your elbows into your lats.

[demarcoa]

Don't flex out. One the way up, pull your shoulder blades back and down, and focus on pulling your elbows into your lats.

Close grip?

got it!

Thanks I'm going to try it now:)

[demarcoa]

Worked well but wouldn't it target lats more if arms were spread wide and flexed to sides as I mentioned earlier?

[Dalrek]

Wow! I just tried that and I could really feel my back muscles being hit, thank you very much everyone :D


Oh, one more thing about the isometrics, how long should I hold the position in terms of goals related to strength and muscle gain? Should it be somewhere around ten seconds?

Thanks again!

[Dean68w]

Whatever works for you. Everyone's different and has preferences. I have shoulder problems that prevent me from going too wide. The technique I mentioned is to aid against arm fatigue while doing pull ups. Really all you need to remember is that chin ups incorporate the biceps more, and pull ups incorporate the lats more.

[TB12]

On the isometrics hold for about ten seconds when you first begin, but as you get used to it hold at peak contraction for seven seconds. You will learn where your peak contraction level is as you get used to it.

[Dean68w]

When doing pull/chin ups you need to explode up and control yourself down. Bar holds are good for stationary endurance(like planches). I were going to do holds, I would save them for last.

[demarcoa]

Whatever works for you. Everyone's different and has preferences. I have shoulder problems that prevent me from going too wide. The technique I mentioned is to aid against arm fatigue while doing pull ups. Really all you need to remember is that chin ups incorporate the biceps more, and pull ups incorporate the lats more.

Just to make sure we're on the same page-chins=palms away, pullups =palms towards you right?

[Dean68w]

Just to make sure we're on the same page-chins=palms away, pullups =palms towards you right?

Chins= palms facing you(Underhand Grip) : Pulls= palms away(Overhand Grip)

[demarcoa]

Yeah it sounded like you meant that (i.e. palms away works biceps more) but I've always heard that it's chins=palms facing away.
Whatever. It it what it is.