Thread: Lat's @ home?

hell yes ! If you have a bb and enough weights you can do some t-bar rows and db or bb rows also that would be enough.

when you said your arms or shoulders would give out first..was that during doing pull ups ? after how many ?

Pull downs. 10-15.

bag the pull downs and switch to pull ups. there is no comparison between the 2 exercises.

I work out at home and for Back I do Deads, Chins and BB Rows... Oh yeah... and I have one more thing to say...

bag the pull downs and switch to pull ups. there is no comparison between the 2 exercises.

Well I know its been said before but:
bag the pull downs and switch to pull ups. there is no comparison between the 2 exercises.

Palms in or out?

Palms facing, away or towards you, wide grip or close will all hit different areas of your back. Vary your grips and palm facings for total back development. The hardest are wide grip, palms facing away from you. Easiest are close grip palms facing together. Try them and just keep at it...you may only be able to do a few at first, but that will change quickly if you keep at it.

Definitely pull ups !! You can also use it to kill your bi's with close grip palms facing you pull ups.

TJohn

Originally posted by TJohn
Definitely pull ups !! You can also use it to kill your bi's with close grip palms facing you pull ups.

TJohn

This will put your bi's at there strongest point so they shouldn't give out so soon.

Ok. Ok... I'm convinced. Im going to build me a pullup station this weekend.

Last question.

What muscle groups should I train with the pullups? Back and Bi's?

Back and Bi's work well if your pushed for time. You use your bi's for most back work so once your done with back, all you need are a couple sets for bi's and your done.

How much would it cost to install an outdoor pullup bar into brick... would it cost less for me to rent a drill and buy i guess metal pipes from home depot to install mysef or get some proffesional to do it? i dont have one of those stations(with the dip station, pullup station, ab/back station and the pushup thing) at home and they cost a lot of money so i was just tryin to figure out how much it would cost to get a pullup bar...

In response to your original post Tboy about working your lats at home I would advise pullups. When I first started working out I was disgusted by my lack of any lat spread. I trained long and hard with pull downs, bent rows, and pullups. I saw my upper back begin to thicken but very little growth in my lats. But when I switched to only WIDE GRIP BEHIND THE NECK PULLUPS things began to change very quickly. This exercise has to be done very strictly and you have to focus on allowing your lats & back to do the work as opposed to burning your arms. Just as with bent rows you have to imagine your arms merely as hooks and make every effort to work them lats. Believe me I know they are tough and you might only be able to do a few strict WIDE GRIP BEHIND THE NECK PULLUPS at a time but keep at em. Try to aim for 50 TOTAL pullups in a SESSION. Heck it might take you 12+ times but work toward 50 or so. You will begin to notice improvements in your lat spread and total upper back thickness. They worked wonders for me. Goodluck.

Ezekiel

What if you cant do a pullup?

If can only do just the one pull up then do the negative movement of the pullup because we all know that you can lower much more than we can lift.
So you should start with as many normal pullups as you can do then climb up there or use a stool and lower your self for a count of 8-10 secs in as many negative reps and sets as you can until you reach failure or when you are satisfied with the sorness of your lats.

Interesting thought Pumpit, I never thought about focusing on the negative movement on a pullup for gains. Would be interested in hearing anyone elses experiences with it (gains or lack thereof).

In reference to NickB ...

> What if you cant do a pullup?

When I started working out in my high school days I was 5'11" and about 170 lbs even after working out for a year and I still could barely only do one pullup (close grip underhander or overhanded) with much cheating even. My hips were just about as wide as my shoulders and I thought I was destined to failure when it came to any back growth.

I truly beleive that the body is an amazing piece of machinery and that it WILL ADAPT and OVERCOME just about any adversity. I was determined not to give up and find a way to widen my back and be able to do at least ten pullups no matter what I would have to endure (yes I know for some of you this is an easy feat but for those of us who couldn't do any in high school, 10 pullups is an enormous achievement).

The secret for me lay within a pullup itself. Yet I could only do at best one full complete pullup with cheating I find even small movements of the the lats and upper back were very beneficial.

I started by taking an overhand wide grip on a pullup bar (actually my first pullup bar was a 2x4 on the back side of a gazebo type structure) and go into a full hang making sure my feet were NOT touching the ground (legs usually bent at the knees). Next was to make contractions with my lats and back ONLY. My body would move upwards only slightly. Just enough to make sure the main muscle groups that were working were only in my back and lats. There was a tremendous burn and I could actually feel my lats (not arms) working. My goal was 50 reps total. Regardless of how many sets it took (yeah it took A LONG TIME IN THE BEGINNING) I stuck it out.

After acheiving 50 Lat-Shrugs (don't know if there is a more formal term for them but that is what I called them) I would go immediately and do some bb (barbell) bent rows. If you have never done bb bent rows start maybe with the bb bar only. Form is especially important in an exercise such as this where your lower back is put in a position that is very easy to injure if your roll your lower back out. Take a look at this link for proper form ...

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/...ntOverRow.html

When I do my Bb bent rows I find it easier not roll my lower back if I keep my head looking upward as opposed to down as in the web demonstration.

Eventually after a couple weeks you should begin to notice that you will begin to be able to go a bit higher into your pullup contraction. Eventually you will be able to go all the way up and the temptation might be great to do the pullup to the front and touch your chest to the bar but I recommend you focus on touching the back of your neck to the bar, a WIDE GRIP BEHIND NECK PULLUP. A frontal pullup seems to involve the biceps and forearms a bit too much. Keep working on that total 50 number whether they are all Lat-Shrugs or Full Wide Grip Behind The Neck Pullups or a mixture of the two movements. Combined with bb bent rows I was able to acheive a much wider back (far wider than my waist now) and blow past the 10 pullup barrier.

Hopefully the above can be of some help to you NickB. Just remember hard work and determination are the only way you can acheive your ultimate goals. Are willing to go the extra mile? If so there is no limit to what you can acheive. Goodluck and much growth to you.



Note: Yes I was in high school and my body was still developing and maybe I still had some room yet to grow in my shoulders but even to this day at age 25 my shoulder width is far wider than both my younger brothers (23 and 21) whose shoulders are same width as their hips or smaller. I definately feel that wide grip behind the back pullups can create a wider flare and some degree of widening bewteen the shoulder blades.