Intro
It’s not always easy to get to a gym, especially in the winter. Don’t let your training suffer. While some exercises require expensive gym equipment, others can be done at home with just your body weight as resistance.
Bigger lats do not mean wider back. If you’re doing lat pulldowns and rows with no changes to your bodyweight back exercising, you’re just not going to get the results you want.
What you do in the gym is only building a foundation for great lats, it’s your bodyweight exercises that make or break your back’s muscle fluffiness, and I’m going to show you exactly how to use them to create strong, big, and massive lats, no matter how much weight you can lift in the gym.
First, we need to understand the importance of working all the muscles in the body in a uniform and balanced way, depending on the deficient or “stubborn” groups we have, biologically and genetically speaking.
That is, to be careful to work the back as much as we work the most famous chest or arms.
Why do I need to pay attention to my back muscle training?
Training for the lat muscles is especially important in maintaining a healthy and proper body position, avoiding problems such as a “rooster” position with the chest protruding and possibly the shoulders too far back, which can lead to damage to the spine or a position too hunchbacked, often encountered today due to incorrect position at the office, etc.
We are talking about stabilizing muscles, which help to support the body, such as the lumbar muscles, and not only, the muscles that help you in several other exercises.
A well-worked back, correlated with a harmonious and uniformly trained body, can also give us an impressive appearance, with a suitable, remarkable, correct, and healthy outfit, which also helps the psyche by increasing self-confidence.
Weights, equipment, or bodyweight in back muscle training exercises?
This is a question that some people may ask when discussing exercises that can be performed using body weights such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats, etc. The answer is adaptable to each person.
When we talk about weights, we are talking about dumbbells, bars, and weight discs. To use them, in most exercises, including the back exercises, an appropriate level of coordination is needed.
For lats exercises, we need the right posture and optimal starting position and coordination in performing the movement in the right direction, and mobility for the body.
That’s why it can be more difficult for a beginner, but with patience and perseverance, it can be done, obviously using the right weight.
The machines are a good option for beginners and not only to perform the desired lats exercises. In general, the devices are designed in such a way that the body is placed in the optimal position from the start, leaving little room for error when using the right weight, but also eliminating a possible involvement of other muscles in performing the movements.
Lats exercises using your body weight such as pull-ups, no matter what grip or style we use, are among the most demanding. It takes both an optimal level of coordination to work the back muscles concretely and efficiently, without introducing other muscles into the equation, but it also takes a proper level of strength to be able to perform such exercises.
At the level of efficiency, all can be effective when done correctly, taking care of the outfit, execution, mobility, and optimal weight.
To strengthen your lat muscles, you should not use weights or various equipment in the gym. There are lat exercises that increase your strength and endurance, which you can practice at home. Here are the top 7 killer back bodyweight exercises for big lats at home.
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1. Wide Grip Pull-Ups – 8-10 reps
2. Towel Back Extensions – 10 reps
3. Bodyweight Chair Rows – 10 reps
4. Towel Doorway Rows – 8-10 reps
5. Lying Around the Worlds – 8-10 reps
6. Sliding Bodyweight Pull Down – 8 reps /3 sets
7. Wall Pull-Downs – 10 reps /3 sets
3 sets x 10 reps, 15 seconds rest between each exercise, 1-minute between sets.
1. Wide Grip Pull-Ups
Wide Grip Pull-Ups are a great way to improve your upper body strength and build muscle. They work your biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, lat, and core muscles.
Wide Grip Pull-ups are also a great way to burn fat because they use more muscle groups than regular pull-ups.
Wide Grip Pull-Ups are easier on the joints than regular pull-ups because you’re using a wider grip which reduces the amount of weight your shoulder joint has to support.
A wide grip pull-up activates a larger portion of the lats, emphasizing a better contraction of the large back, so they are good if you want to get a wider back.
How to do it:
• Grab the bar (with your palms forward, i.e., the pronated grip) and with the distance between your palms slightly wider than the width of your shoulders (the distance between the palms is not standard, you will fix it along the way depending on how you feel it works better muscle);
• Slowly pull up until you pass your chin over the bar. (We do not pull our arms, but we emphasize that the muscles of the back help us to rise straight, upwards, towards the bar). The slower you perform the exercise and the better you focus on the muscles that need to work, the more effective it will be.
• Pull down just as slowly until your hands and back are outstretched.
• Be careful when breathing, when lifting you should inhale and when lowering you should exhale.
Using this exercise increases both strength and muscle mass. We perform at the beginning of the training, 4 sets of 8-10 reps each.
2. Towel Back Extensions
Photo Source: Unimore Trading
These are great exercises for strengthening your lats and hamstrings. This is also a great way to increase flexibility in these areas, which can be helpful if you spend a lot of time sitting or standing.
Many people who sit at a desk all day tend to suffer from tightness in the hamstrings and lower back muscles; this exercise is an easy way to counteract that issue.
This exercise is also great because it can be used as part of a mobility program that focuses on increasing your range of motion throughout your body.
Equipment needed: 1 bath towel
How to do it:
• Sit face down on the floor (or on a yoga mat if you have one), with your legs extended and raised from the floor, with extended arms, hold a bath towel tightly and we will simulate a lat pull-down, so will pull down towards the chest the bath towel, squeezing the lats, nice and tight, and we will repeat the movement for 8-10x.
3. Bodyweight Chair Rows
Photo Source: Burn the Inner Circle
This exercise is for those who don’t have a pull-up bar or can’t do pull-ups or chin-ups.
Bodyweight Chair Rows are a great exercise for building strength in your upper body. You can do them anywhere, and they don’t require any special equipment. They’re also a great way to warm up before you start your workout.
Bodyweight Chair Rows work the muscles of your upper back and arms, which helps strengthen them so they can lift more weight in other exercises. They also improve posture by improving the strength of your shoulder girdle and core muscles.
Equipment needed: 2 sturdy chairs and one broomstick
How to do it:
• Place the chairs a little wider than the width of the shoulders and place the broomstick on the chairs.
• Lie on your back with your body between the chairs, grab your broomstick with your hands about shoulder-width apart, keep your body as straight as possible just like doing a plank, and pull yourself up to the broomstick, and back down, that’s 1 rep.
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4. Towel Doorway Rows
Photo Source: Skimble
The Towel Doorway Rows exercise is a great way to strengthen your upper body, which will help you prevent injury and improve your posture. It’s also a good way to stretch out your shoulders and neck muscles, which are often tight from sitting at a desk all day.
Doing this exercise regularly can help you avoid back pain, improve your posture, and make getting dressed in the morning easier (no more struggling with pulling on pants that are too tight!).
It’s also an excellent exercise for strengthening your core muscles and increasing overall stability in the torso area.
The Towel Doorway Rows exercise is easy to do anywhere, at home or work, and it only takes a few minutes out of your day!
This exercise is mimicking Australian pull-ups
Equipment needed: 1 bath towel
How to do:
• Carefully wrap each part of the bath towel underneath each doorknob, feet well tucked into the ground, body straight throughout the movement, and what we will do is simulate the Australian pull-ups or a bodyweight row
• So, grab firmly with your hands each part of your bath towel, lean back, then pull up your chest towards the door, squeeze your lats as you come up towards the door, then lean back again and repeat.
5. Lying Around the Worlds
Photo Source: POPSUGAR
Lying Around the World is a great exercise for building up your lats. This exercise can help improve your posture, boost your metabolism, and even improve your mood!
The lats exercise can be done as part of a warm-up or cool-down before or after a workout, or on its own as an exercise in its own right. You can do this exercise at home or in the gym.
How to do it:
• Sit face down on the floor (or on a yoga mat if you have one), with legs and hands extended and raised from the ground this is the starting position for the Superman exercise.
• Now, you will bring your arms down to your hips in this position. You will squeeze your lats for 2s, then you will bring them up to the starting position, that’s 1 rep.
6. Sliding Bodyweight Pull Down – 8 reps /3 sets
Photo Source: Redefining Strength
The Sliding Bodyweight Pull Down exercise is a great way to work your latissimus dorsi, or “lats,” which are the large muscles that run down the sides of your back.
The lats help you perform many common activities, including bending over, lifting objects with your arms at your side, and pulling down on something with your hands.
How to do it:
• Get on the floor on a sliding surface, hands extended with a grip a little wider than shoulder-width, palms on the floor, and place a sliding object under your knees (maybe even a towel).
• From the starting position start squeezing and pulling your body forward by pulling through your hands and raising your torso slightly until your hands are below the level of your lower chest, making sure to keep your arms straight.
• From this position, push through your hands while leaning your torso down, allowing yourself to return to the starting position.
7. Wall Pull-Downs – 10 reps /3 sets
Photo Source: Built with Science
The lat pull-down exercise is a great way to target this muscle group because it allows you to isolate it while still allowing other muscles (such as your biceps) to help out. It also allows you to target both the upper and lower portions of each muscle group, helping you build muscle mass in both areas.
How to do it:
• Stand with your back to a wall
• Raise your arms above your head and stick your forearms and back to the wall
• Pull your arms towards your torso, tense all your back muscles and exhale, your ribs should form a 90-degree angle
• Maintains permanent contact of the forearms and back with the wall, performing pulldowns with the back as straight as possible.
At the end of the training, you can perform some stretching exercises that can stretch your muscles and make you feel very good.
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Last Thoughts:
We have established that a harmonious and healthy body also means a body with lat muscles working effectively, using the right exercises in the right way.
Do you often feel pain or tension in your back? Do you usually train this part of your body? Try the weightless exercises above to strengthen your back and reduce tension.
Always keep your health in mind as a starting point, and perform your movements correctly. Give the body what it needs, at the right time, in the right measure.
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