lat stretching

[NY MUSCLE]

looking for some new ideas to really stretch the lat muscles, been doing cable pullovers mostly

[Montague]

If looking to simply stretch the lats, just grip a chinning bar and hang for a few seconds with your arms as relaxed as you can make them. You can also perform a triceps stretch against the wall by raising your arm, bending at the elbow as if you were going to perform a unilateral db extension. Place your elbow against the wall and lean in. If done properly, this stretch can be felt in the tri's, delts, and lats.

If you're after a stretch during an exercise, I do this all the time with pull-downs and pull-ups.
Firstly (if you don't already), try using straps. I use straps on every working set of rows because they allow me to relax my grip a bit, which transfers more tension to the targeted back muscles. "Relaxing" the hand and arm muscles also permits something of a stretch on your lats when the bar is at the highest position - similar to if you were to just hang from the bar, but this stretch is achieved between each rep.

I hope I explained this clearly.
It's what I like doing, and I at least partly attribute it to my back, which has always been about my best-developed body part.

[Donny]

Good post from Montague.. just tried the tri stretch you mentioned and it works very good.. with straps i have just started to use them in one arm Dumbbell rows. i have small hands for a man and i find now gripping the Bell very hard on my last reps.

[Montague]

Good post from Montague.. just tried the tri stretch you mentioned and it works very good.. with straps i have just started to use them in one arm Dumbbell rows. i have small hands for a man and i find now gripping the Bell very hard on my last reps.

Thanks.
A lot of trainers recommend NOT using straps until your last/heaviest sets, but I say make no blanket statements about training.
If your goal is functional strength/performance, then I'd agree with the first recommendation.
But, if you train purely for aesthetics/hypertrophy, then I believe in "feeling" the specific muscle(s) work more than anything - straps allow this.

[chaos]

I despise straps and make no apologies about it. BUT if your goal is bbing then using them may benefit you, if your goal is strength, IMO, ditch the straps. Only time I ever use straps is when we have our gym comps and usually that is because we are timed so we do heavy reps real fast and grip is not something you want to think about when your pulling shitload of weights real fast!! Lol.

[Montague]

I despise straps and make no apologies about it. BUT if your goal is bbing then using them may benefit you, if your goal is strength, IMO, ditch the straps. Only time I ever use straps is when we have our gym comps and usually that is because we are timed so we do heavy reps real fast and grip is not something you want to think about when your pulling shitload of weights real fast!! Lol.

Savage.










 

[WOOO]

to stretch you lats, grasp a barbell that is trapped in a rack underhanded with your torso bent at 90 degrees and pull straight back... hold for 60 seconds per side... 1-2 reps each

[SamsonD]

I just grab a bar or piece of equipment and pull back like arnold shows in the encyclopedia.  You can stretch em out really good like that.  And the hanging lat stretch.