TO FORGE A balanced physique, training your back muscles will be absolutely essential. One of the most consequential of your back muscles will be your lats—and there are plenty of lat-focused exercises you’ll want to include in your training to make them stronger.
The latissimus dorsi, to use the muscles’ proper name, are the wide, fan-shaped muscles that make up the majority of your mid-back. The lats are especially consequential for several reasons. They’re the biggest muscles in your upper body, combining with your traps in the upper back to form the “V” shape guys aspire to when they aim to develop a V-taper torso physique.
More importantly, the lats are crucial for some of the most essential movements you’ll make in both the gym and just about any other situation in your everyday life: pulling. From dumbbell rows to reining in your kids, the lats are involved. The key, then, is finding the best exercises to keep your lat workouts engaging. Here are our favorites, and how to tailor them into your routine.
The Best Lats Exercises
Make sure you’re hitting two or three of these moves at least once a week to round out your physique.
Deadlifts
Why: The classic barbell deadlift is often thought of as a hamstring and glute developer, but it’ll smoke your lats too. Think about it: Whether you’re lifting or lowering that barbell with a heavy weight, it’s hanging from your arms, and your back muscles have to pull. Don’t underrate this move as a foundation of a solid back.
How to:
- Load a barbell with weight on the ground and stand close to it, so it nearly touches your shins. Grasp it with an overhand, slightly-wider-than-shoulder-width grip.
- With feet shoulder-width apart and arms just outside of the legs, push the hips back as far as possible then bend the knee far enough to reach the bar.
- From the bottom position with a tall spine, pull the bar from the ground by standing tall and pulling the hips back to your standing position. Throughout the movement, it’s important to maintain a strong posture.
- Descend down controlling the bar back down to the ground.
Sets and Reps: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps
Barbell Row
Why: Fixed moves with both arms can maximize the amount of weight that can move. This move is a staple in most bodybuilders, athletes, and probably your routine by this point.
The great thing about the barbell row is, due to required stability in the spine and core muscles (keeping a neutral spine) and isometric hamstring activity (hinging the hips in a bent position), the action becomes a global pull exercise,” says athlete performance and development specialist Curtis Shannon, C.S.C.S. “I personally love programming this exercise due to all the benefits the rows have on the posterior chain, as well as the added benefits of improvement of strength and hypertrophy.”
The movement is versatile, too. “You can program this as a primary or accessory movement or add as a superset exercise,” Shannon continues. “Depending on the weight and readiness of the athlete, avoid keeping moderate to heavy lifts under ten reps. Being bent over moving the weight can put added pressure on the lower back, especially if we are already, or begin to, fatigue.”
How to:
- Stand next to a loaded barbell set on the ground. Bend your knees slightly and hinge forward so your torso is slightly higher than parallel to the ground, then grab the barbell using an overhand, shoulder-width grip. Look down, not forward. Tighten your core. Hinge upwards, raising your torso to a 45-degree angle with the ground and lifting the barbell. This is the starting position.
- Keeping your core tight and your shoulder blades squeezed, bend your elbows and pull the barbell to your lower chest. Aim to keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle relative to your torso as you do this, and try to touch the bar to your ribcage.
- Lower to the start with control. That’s 1 rep.
Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
Dumbbell Row
Why: This is one of the first variations novice lifters learn. You simply hinge forward, place one arm on a bench or rack for balance, and grasp a dumbbell in the other arm. Keep your torso steady as you bend your elbow and use your back muscles to pull the dumbbell up toward your ribcage. Dumbbell rows involve a host of back muscles, but if you want to focus on your lats here, aim to get a good stretch at the bottom of the motion.
How to:
- Start standing, holding a single dumbbell in your right hand. Now hinge forward until your torso is nearly parallel with the ground. Keep your core tight and your feet shoulder-width apart as you do this.
- Place your left hand on a box or bench for balance. This is the start.
- Pull the dumbbell back to just above your belly button, then slowly return it back to the start.
Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
Incline Dumbbell Row
Why: You’ve already seen how valuable dumbbell rows can be for your lats–now, introduce another implement (an adjustable bench) to eliminate your ability to cheat the movement by using momentum or flagging posture. With your chest on the bench, all you can do is pull. This will hit your lower lats, which are sometimes neglected during other pulling movements.
How to:
- Adjust a bench to a 45-degree angle. Place your chest on the bench, but plant your feet as if you’re standing up, not only leaning on the bench. Engage your abs and glutes to maintain full-body tension.
- Lift the weights, gripping them tightly, and keep your neck in a neutral position by gazing straight ahead.
- Pull from the upper arm, driving the weight up toward your torso. Squeeze your back for a count at the top, then control the weight back down.
Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps
Seated Cable Row
Why: This is one of the foundational back training exercises and a great place for beginners to start. Since you’re working with a machine and a bilateral load, you’ll be able to focus on scapular retraction more easily than with free weights, which is fundamental to shoulder health.
How to Do It:
- Take a seat on the machine with your feet on the holders, a little wider than shoulder width. Drive the heels, and squeeze the glutes. Grab onto the handle.
- Lean slightly forward and round out the upper back. Think about pulling the shoulder blades apart as much as possible.
- Aim to get a good stretch through the lats. As you row, pull the shoulder blades down, back, and together just as you did in the beginner version. Row the handle bar in, landing just above your belly button.
- You should finish in the same position as the beginner row: perpendicular with the floor, spine straight, with the shoulder blades squeezed together.
Sets and Reps: 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps
Elevated Plank Row
Why: Use the bench to train your lats in a different way—and get your core more involved too. You’ll give the lats and mid back plenty of valuable work, if you position yourself properly.
How to:
- Set up in a single arm plank on the bench, with your legs spread wide and your elbow in front of you in an externally rotated position.
- Lift the dumbbell, keeping your hips low by tightening your glutes and obliques.
- Row the weight up to a parallel position relative to your torso, pause and squeeze the back, then lower back down.
Sets and Reps: 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Reeves Incline Row
Why: Another advanced bench row swaps your dumbbells for an EZ bar or shorter barbell so you can take a new grip. This incline row allows you to pull from a wider position, giving your muscles a different stimulus.
How to:
- Start with your chest on an incline bench, a loaded EZ curl bar (or barbell) beneath the bench.
- Grasp the bar by the plates. Lift it from the ground. Tighten your shoulder blades.
- Row the bar up, touching the bar to the bench, then lower.
Sets and Reps: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps
Gorilla Row
Why: This bent-over row variation challenges you to work from a wide stance, while also giving you a chance to ease some of the tension you feel in your lower back during a traditional bent-over row by pulling from a dead stop from the floor.
How to:
- Stand in an athletic stance as you would for a bent over row, then widen your feet slightly, and tighten core and glutes, making sure hips are lower than shoulders.
- Grip the weights tightly in both hands. Maintain this position.
- Keeping your shoulders level with the ground, row the right weight upwards, pressing the other weight into the ground.
- Repeat on the other side.
Sets and Reps: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps
Boost Your Gains
Not sure how often you should be hitting the gym to reach your lats goals? Use our Workout Finder below to get a personalized training plan recommendation from our library of workout programs complete with weekly schedules, exercise guides, and tips for dialing up your results.
Pullups and Chinups
Why: The pull-up and the chin-up are well-known moves, and staples for lat development. Both moves are simple: You hang from a bar, with an overhand grip (pull-ups) or an underhand grip (chin-ups), and pull your chest to the bar. To really hit your lats, avoid the so-called “kip,” a CrossFit idea that has you explosively swinging your hips to create momentum that drives your chest to the bar. Work up to 3 sets of 10.
How to:
- Hang from a pullup bar with an overhand (pullup) or underhand (chinup) grip, hands about shoulder-width apart.
- Keeping your core tight, bend at the elbows and shoulders and pull your chest to the bar.
- Pause, then lower with control.
Sets and Reps: 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps
Lat Pulldowns
Why: The lat pulldown is a cousin of pullups and chinups, and it definitely seems similar. But we’re giving it its own spot here because of how it lets you focus in on your lats. Freed of grip concerns and the need to manage your lower body perfectly, you can really focus in on your lats and finish off every rep with a good squeeze.
You can be even more strategic once you start adding the pulldown to your workouts. “This exercise can be programmed as a superset to an upper body push exercise,” says Shannon “It can be programmed as a progressive exercise to help advance to wide grip pull ups. And lastly, used as an activation exercise to help get the lat muscles ‘firing’.”
How to:
- Sit in a lat pulldown station and grab the bar above with a grip slightly wider than shoulder-width. Tighten your core and keep your torso upright.
- Pull the bar down toward your chest, bending at your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades.
- Slowly return the bar to the top of the station.
“The key to getting the biggest ‘bang for your buck’ is keeping your torso not completely erect, but at about a 60 percent angle,” says Shannon. “As well as focusing on tempo and control to get that concentric (lowering the bar) and eccentric (raising the bar) effect.”
Set and Reps: 3 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps
Close-Grip Lat Pulldown
Why: Switch up the handle and narrow your grip for this pulldown variation, which allows you to increase the range of motion of your pull. This will also provide a safer position for your shoulders—especially if you can use a V-bar, as is demonstrated in the video.
How to:
- Set seat at a comfortable height. Grab the handle, using a neutral grip if it’s a V-handle or an underhand grip for the more standard wide bar.
- Plant your feet on the ground, engage your core, and squeeze the bar tight.
- Lean back slightly, then squeeze your shoulders and drive them down as you pull. Drive your elbows down as you pull the bar to the top of your chest.
- Hold at the bottom, then return to start position under control.
Sets and Reps: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to