What must I change (grip width, body angle, where to pull(stomach/ribcage),etc) to tagart my lats most effectively and what must I do to target my upperback best?
For your lats do chins.
Other than that: narrower grip, pulling through your elbows.
For upper back: concentrate on pulling your scapulae together/ imagine “pinching a coin” between your scapulae.
And, Kroc rows/heavy not-strict dumbbell rows for both of them.
try them all and see what works for you man
I like reverse grip, slightly bending, pulling to waist
Just row, rest and repeat.
For “upper back” ( I’m thinking you mean rhomboids, traps and the general thickness aspect the back with this) use a shoulder width or a bit wider grip and try to row as near the chest as you can. Alternatively, use a close-grip and row more upright ( Yates style Rows ) to the waist while pull your shoulder blades together at the top. Using a bit of a lose form is okay, but going stupid with the motion and simply jerking the weight up and down will get you nowhere.
For lats, anything does it for me, using an ez-bar and doing a Yates Row give me a general back pump. You can either feel or don’t feel lats on heavy rows, this is individual. I recommend vertical pulling like Rack Chins and v-bar pulldows for the lats, and stuff like Pullovers if you get a good contraction on those and Machine Pullovers.
[quote]Sterneneisen wrote:
For your lats do chins.
Other than that: narrower grip, pulling through your elbows.
For upper back: concentrate on pulling your scapulae together/ imagine “pinching a coin” between your scapulae.
And, Kroc rows/heavy not-strict dumbbell rows for both of them.[/quote]
IMO strict DB rows to the waist is good for the lats, heavy Kroc Rows is a “thickness” lift much like the Yates Row.
Pull to your belly button to involve more lats.
Pull to your lower chest to involve more upper back.
I can think of 5 different people I know with drastically different barbell rowing techniques. I’ve noticed this is one move where structure can play an integral role in the way you perform it.
Personally, if I use a weigh high enough that I can’t do it without using total-body movement, I totally lose MMC and don’t feel that they’re even worth it.
My lats are hardly impressive but I feel them much better when I get a good stretch at the top (or bottom for rows).
I like pendlay rows the best. Rows take some time to figure out in terms of which positions let you feel your back work the most.
Chinese DB rows are the fucking shizz too.
Thanks to everyone for replying got some good info
Just get really strong at all row variations, and at any point when you don’t feel it in your back enough, drop weight down, increase sets/reps/strictness, and start adding weight slowly again…repeat.
[quote]hungry4more wrote:
Just get really strong at all row variations, and at any point when you don’t feel it in your back enough, drop weight down, increase sets/reps/strictness, and start adding weight slowly again…repeat.[/quote]
This is good advice.
If you have access to dumbells you can’t yet pull for a single I recommend endeavoring to rep those by adding 5lbs a week to whatever dumbell you row now and just keep adding 5lbs a week until you hit the heaviest dumbells available. I’ve gotten better results from loose form dumbell rows than any other upper back exercise, including barbell rows. It’s also much easier to hit a DC style workout with dumbells than barbells which for me personally has yielded kickass gains in thickness/size and strength and increased my testicular fortitude by at least 12%.