On the quest for a V-shaped torso? You’re probably once focusing on towers your chest and shoulders. Makes sense — they’re the muscles you see in the mirror every day. But don’t ignore the chiseled rear view that lat exercises can build.

Your latissimus dorsi (aka “the lats”) are the broadest when muscles (you have one on either side of your spine), and targeting them can help requite you a broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, fitness model physique.

Even if bodybuilder philosophy aren’t your priority, it’s still worth your time to incorporate lat exercises into your workouts.

“Strong lats are essential to having a strong core, which is hair-trigger to maintaining good posture, lowering your risk of back pain, enhancing sturdy performance, and increasing total-body strength, power, and stability,” explains Trevor Thieme, CSCS.

The pursuit moves are some of the weightier lat exercises you can perform. While they aren’t your only options for targeting your lats and sculpting a V-shaped upper body, none do it increasingly effectively.

1. Inverted Row

• Secure a bar in a Smith machine or power rack at waist height, and lie on the floor underneath it.
• Grab the bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder width, and hang with your stovepipe fully extended and your soul straight from throne to heels. Your shoulders should be directly unelevated your hands, and your feet should be hip-width apart. This is the starting position.
• Keeping your cadre engaged, pull your chest to the bar.
• Pause, and then slowly lower yourself when to the starting position.

2. Pull-Up

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder width, and hang at arm’s length (a position known as a sufferer hang).
• Keeping your cadre and glutes engaged and elbows tropical to your sides, pull your chest to the bar, so that at least your chin clears it.
• Pause, and then slowly lower yourself when to a sufferer hang.

3. Lat Pull-Down

• Sit at a lat pull-down station and grab the bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder width. Your stovepipe and torso should be straight. This is the starting position.
• Keeping your when unappetizing and cadre engaged, squeeze your shoulder blades together as you bring the bar to your chest.
• Pause, and then return to the starting position.

4. Dumbbell Pullover

• Grab a dumbbell, and lie with your when unappetizing on a bench.
• With your feet firmly on the ground and your cadre engaged, proffer your stovepipe toward the ceiling, cupping one end of the dumbbell in both hands whilom your chest.
• Keeping your stovepipe straight and low when pressed into the bench, slowly lower the dumbbell overdue your throne until your biceps are next to your ears.
• Pause, and then return to the starting position.

5. Dumbbell Bent-Over Row

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand by your sides.
• Engage your core, push your hips back, and swivel forward at your waist until your torso is scrutinizingly parallel with the floor. Let your stovepipe hang straight down, palms facing each other. This is the starting position.
• Keeping your when flat, knees slightly bent, cadre engaged, and elbows tucked, pull the weights to your sides as you squeeze your shoulder blades together.
• Pause, and then slowly return to the starting position.

Lat Exercise Tips

• You’ll need wangle to vital gym equipment for most of these exercises, but some can be well-timed to equipment you might have at home. For example, you can use a resistance wreath in place of dumbbells for the bent-over row and in place of a subscription machine for the lat pull-down (you’ll need a door zipper for the latter exercise).
• For loaded exercises (e.g., those requiring weight), unchangingly segregate a weight that challenges you to well-constructed all of your reps with good form.
• If you find the pull-up too challenging, Thieme recommends using a resistance band for assistance, or focusing on other lat exercises until you’ve built unbearable strength to well-constructed at least five reps with good form.
• To unzip optimal results and indulge your muscles time to recover between workouts, target your lats two to three times a week on nonconsecutive days.
• Before your working sets, do a few lat-focused warm-up sets with light weight to prime your muscles for action.

Lats Anatomy and Function

The latissimus dorsi are a pair of large, fan-shaped muscles that flank your when on either side of your spine. They have multiple points of origin — the thoracic and lumbar vertebra, the sacrum, the lower ribs, and the hip — and insert on the when of each humerus (upper arm).

The latissimus dorsi function to move your stovepipe in three variegated ways:

1. Draw them toward your body’s midline (adduction), such as when performing a pull-up or row.
2. Extend your stovepipe (think of them swinging wrong-side-up when you walk).
3. Rotate your stovepipe inward at the shoulder.

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