Latissimus dorsi (lats): exercises and how to train
The lats are the largest muscles of the back, running from the lower thoracic spine, the lumbar fascia, the top of the pelvis and the lower ribs to the front of the upper arm. They pull the arms down and back toward the body and rotate the upper arm inward. Lats give your back its width and drive pull-ups and rows.
How to train it
Cover both vertical and horizontal pulls: Pull-ups, Lat pulldown, One-arm dumbbell row and Straight-arm pulldown. Think about driving the elbows toward your hips rather than pulling with your hands, and let the lats stretch fully at the top. For most people 10–16 hard sets of pulling a week does the job for the back.
Exercises where it is the main mover
Exercises where it assists
Weekly sets in ready-made programs
A set where the muscle is primary counts in full, a set where it assists counts as half — the same way the log’s stats count it.
Other back muscles
See how much work each of your muscles gets
GymAssist paints a 40-muscle map from your sets, shows lagging muscles and forecasts recovery.
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