This may seem like a easy question but I am going ask it anyway!! How can I get nice huge lats? I need LATS! I do body rows, pull-ups, lat pulls, single DB rows, seated rows just to name a few. What is there left?
I have one situation and that is a chronic dislocating shoulder. I have done all kind of rehab and joint mob work but still no LATS! The frustration is setting in. Oh and did I meant I long like a swimmer.
How much weight have you added to your lifts over the last six months?
What has your progression been size wise over that same time period?
In all my lifts have had pretty good growth.
Squat is about 20lbs over the last six. Dead’s are about the same. My bench is sstill suffering from my shoulder. And my back an…not so good.
I have put on 20lbs over the last six months. Eat my ass off. Full for damn 24 hrs just about every day.
Are you doing every one of those exercices? If so, you’re just doing too much.
There’s no point in doing 6 exercices for your back if it’s already damaged after the first 10 or so sets. You’re only gonna build inflammation and annihilate your back so much that you won’t be improving on your lifts week after week. So many people get caught in that training habit it’s incredible.
I started getting real back growth both in width and thickness when I started training only 3 times a week, bent-over rows, pull-ups and deadlifts beeing my only back exercices. You can’t even imagine how “sometimes less is more” can be true until you try it.
good luck
My typical back will be something like this:
3x12 body row warm-up
10x10 @ 135 bent over row
or
4x8 t bar row
pull-ups or lat pulldown 4 or 5sets of 12
DB row single arm
reverse flys 3x12
each set the weight usually goes up!
[quote]Kataklysm wrote:
Are you doing every one of those exercices? If so, you’re just doing too much.
There’s no point in doing 6 exercices for your back if it’s already damaged after the first 10 or so sets. You’re only gonna build inflammation and annihilate your back so much that you won’t be improving on your lifts week after week. So many people get caught in that training habit it’s incredible.
I started getting real back growth both in width and thickness when I started training only 3 times a week, bent-over rows, pull-ups and deadlifts beeing my only back exercices. You can’t even imagine how “sometimes less is more” can be true until you try it.
good luck
[/quote]
I have to agree with this. I’ve stuck to bent over barbell rows, close grip chin ups and deadlifts only. I used to be caught up with volume and more is better. I started just focusing on the above and have seen more progress in my back than any other muscle group.
Exactly… I love lifting and would do it every day of the week, but severely reducing my work load was the best decision I ever took to break through a plateau.
Bhorn, that’s about 25 working sets for your back only… You want to stimulate muscle not obliterate them.
Keep the warm-up, make bent-over row 5x5 and really go balls to the wall with strict form, then do wide-grip pull-ups, depending on your ability, you can try 5x10 with the last set to failure, or if you’re really strong you can do 5x6-8 weighted.
If you’re not working your deadlifts on the same day, you can also finish with something like 4x7 on the lateral pulldown, alternating between close and wide grip each week.
It’s gonna sound way too easy at first, but try it man I’m sure anyone here will tell you that focusing and working hard on 10 sets is better than half-assing it for 25 sets.
Stick with deads, chins and db rows, get those lifts up and watch your lats grow. Get your volume down also as everybody is saying, all those sets are too fucking much.
Stick with deads, chins and db rows, get those lifts up and watch your lats grow. Get your volume down also as everybody is saying, all those sets are too fucking much.
Rows and Chins are, without a doubt, great for back development. But in order to get the biggest back possible you need to be tugging some really heavy weights.
Without heavy pulling movements such as Deadlifts, Rack Deadlifts, Cleans, Shrugs, and T-Bar Rows you will never achieve the greatest amount of back development possible.
I can’t explain to you why this is true in any fancy terms. The truth is, you just need to expose your back and your entire body to very heavy weights. 300 pound Pulldowns and Cable Rows will not be enough.
Don’t expect Fat Man Bodyweight Rows to give you a big back.
I promise, if you can do Weighted Chins with 135 pounds for 8 reps, 225 pound dumbbell rows for 15 reps, and 500 pound deadlifts for 10 reps, then you will see a big improvement in your back size and your overall look. Until you hit these numbers, then the reason you don’t have huge lats isn’t really a mystery.
There is no way hell that I would finish that if it was my full back workout. I generally will do bent over row 10x10, pull-ups4/12, and one rows 4x20.
I don’t do all of the those exercises. It will vary I generally have three back routines that I do. That would be a shit of volume. Hell the 10x10 is enough to make you leave. I do the german comp training at least once a week for growth. It works wonders for legs. Wanted to see if it did the same thing for my back.
So ya’ll think I should stick to a warm-up set and pick three exercises. So basically I have a lot of volume? What about playing with tempo?
[quote]bhorn13 wrote:
There is no way hell that I would finish that if it was my full back workout. I generally will do bent over row 10x10, pull-ups4/12, and one rows 4x20.
I don’t do all of the those exercises. It will vary I generally have three back routines that I do. That would be a shit of volume. Hell the 10x10 is enough to make you leave. I do the german comp training at least once a week for growth. It works wonders for legs. Wanted to see if it did the same thing for my back.
So ya’ll think I should stick to a warm-up set and pick three exercises. So basically I have a lot of volume? What about playing with tempo? [/quote]
You can’t do 1 working set of Deads, 1 working set of Chins, and 1 working set of Dumbbell Rows in the same workout? That’s 3 exercises. That is not a lot of volume.
What if you did 225X5 on Deads, 65X15 on Dumbbell Rows, and a set of Chin-ups to failure, then some back extensions at the end. Maybe some curls and rear delts too. That would only be 4 or 5 exercises. Not a lot of volume.
You CAN train the back with a lot of volume. The Back is capable of a lot.
My point isn’t that you need to hit all these numbers in one workout. My point is that by the time you can hit these numbers, even if you only do one of these exercises at a time
(I.E. You don’t have to do 135lb Chins and 225lb rows on the same day - you just have to be able to do them) then you can start wondering why your back isn’t big. But you probably won’t be thinking that. You’ll probably have a pretty thick, wide back.
But until you hit these numbers, there’s really no mystery as to why your Back Isn’t big and wide.
My bad let me be more specific. I was refering to Kataklysm’s comment about me doing the following:
3x12 body row warm-up
10x10 @ 135 bent over row
or
4x8 t bar row
pull-ups or lat pulldown 4 or 5sets of 12
DB row single arm
reverse flys 3x12
…
I do deadlifts. I do rows. I do pull-ups. I beat the shit of my back. My lats just don’t seem to get bigger like the rest of me. Upper back is nice and sculpted. but no lats.
You program sounds solid, the unbridge verison.
Man dont worry to much about how much your doing but about quality, get your volume down, stick with big heavy lifts, especially deadlifts, and keep gaining strength, as the dude with the arnold avatar said, as soon as you can do real heavy weights for reps your lats will be fine…
[quote]bhorn13 wrote:
My bad let me be more specific. I was refering to Kataklysm’s comment about me doing the following:
3x12 body row warm-up
10x10 @ 135 bent over row
or
4x8 t bar row
pull-ups or lat pulldown 4 or 5sets of 12
DB row single arm
reverse flys 3x12
…
I do deadlifts. I do rows. I do pull-ups. I beat the shit of my back. My lats just don’t seem to get bigger like the rest of me. Upper back is nice and sculpted. but no lats.
You program sounds solid, the unbridge verison. [/quote]
Ok my bad I thought you were actually doing all of those exercices in one session. Didn’t look further because alot of people actually do it lol.
If your training is check, maybe you need to look into your nutrition/supplementation.
Good luck