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Issue #177

Contents

Editorial
by Juan Carlos Lopez

20 Questions with Cover Model Mercy Ozambela

Pictorials
Mercy Ozambela, Fiona Sarah Faith, Megan Bachelder, Larissa Nowak & Tiffany Whitmore

Training Your Lats
by Tina Jo Orban

Video Interview with Cover Model Mercy Ozambela

 

Training Your Lats by Tina Jo Orban

We all seem to need a superhero theses days. Why not be your own? Or at least you can look like one. Your Latissimus Dorsi, or “Lats” are the on the posterior side of your upper trunk. If you train and build your Lats you can emphasize the look of a smaller waist-line. Think of a superhero figurine. Having a V-shape can give the illusion of a fitter build and a smaller waist! While it is true YOUR LATS are considered by many a major “back” muscle, they are really primarily a principal mover of your Glenohumeral joint (shoulder’s major ball and socket joint). The main movement of your Lats is adduction. This means when your lats contract they pull the humerus (upper arm bone) toward rib cage. For example spread your arms out as if your body were to make the letter “T”, now bring the arms back down towards your side, that’s adduction! This is why Lat Pulls are such an effective Lat exercise! Pull-ups with a pronated grip are as well. Cable Lat Pulls and Pull-ups (or “Chins” as we called them in the ‘old days’) are nearly the same exercise. But, adduction is not the only movement Lats do. Lats are also a major medial rotator of the same joint. Standing forward in the anatomical position, feet flat on the ground with palms facing forward, rotate your arms beginning at the shoulder until your palms face backwards, that is medial rotation, and your Lats and Teres Major are the primary movers! This is why I love, love, love STRAIGHT ARM CABLE PULL DOWNS for lats  (See link for image). I find it very effective to use a rope or straps that really allow for adduction and rotation! If you know what a muscles action is— then you will know how to best exercise it! So far we have: Cable Lat Pulls and Pull-ups (or ‘Chins’) and Straight Arm Cable Pull Downs. What is left? Well, lots of people perform rows—
sure, that hits some lats, but honestly rows hits Traps and Rhomboids more. This applies to all rows; dumbbell, barbell single-arm, double-arm even cable rows. And people like to do Deadlifts for Lats too. Again, the prime movers are Traps and Rhomboids. Additionally many muscles in the entire body work to stabilize your deadlift position. Deadlifts are awesome overall back and Hamstrings. But I have one exercise that I love to work into my focused LATS BLAST: the Pullover. Many of you may use this for your chest routine. But again this motion of technically adduction with your arms already in medial rotation (to grasp the weight) makes pullovers and excellent LAT EXERCISE. Top Secret: Swimmers have some of the BEST LATS in the UNIVERSE and guess what the the Dumb-bell Pull-over mimics, many swimmer movements. For example the Freestyle/Front Crawl and Butterfly Stroke employs a similar motion. When you think about it if you observe athletes and the type of training they do you can deduce what builds certain types of physiques. If you look at pro-cylclist many have small upper bodies with ripped and muscular legs. Likewise, speed skaters generally have highly developed quads and hamstrings. On that note, think of swimmers and Lats. Upper torso musculature propels them through the water. Its all pecs, delta and lats, that come into play repetitively. And thus you have builds like Michael Phelps V shape  His build is sleek overall, yet his chest and lats are much more developed than his lower body. The point here is Dumbbell Pull Overs are a ‘kick-butt’ Lat exercise.

Okay now here is the LATS BLAST WORKOUT:
Warm Up:  ROWING MACHINE 5 minutes.
*If you don’t have a rower, do high and light dumbbell rows, say two or three sets of 25 reps. The concept of why one would warm-up bears repeating: well lubricated, mobile joints in this case the Glenohumeral joint (shoulder) and the radio-humeral joint (elbow) prevents injuries.
Warm ups also facilitates good blood flow to nourish the working muscles and helps prevent fatigue.
Pull-Ups:
These can be tough for women, and the reason is we can carry our weight differently. Yes this is true, even for fit women. Skeletal Mass SM distribution is higher in males upper halves when compared to women. Furthermore, women when we do carry body-fat the Gynoid distribution tends to pack it in our lower bodies! (i.e., buttocks and thighs).  This is great for evolution (think mating), but bad for pull-ups. Anyhow, perform as many pull-ups as you can in one go, rest one minute or two, and repeat. Try at least FOUR SETS.
Lat Pulls, If you just did the above exercise with a pronated grip, then use a D-Bar grip for your Lat Pulls. Why? Changing your grip will help alleviate fatigue in the forearm muscles as well as switching emphasis from brachial to biceps which assist this movement.
Lat Pulls 3-4 Sets 15 or less reps. One minute rest periods.
Straight Arm Cable Pull Downs
3-4 Sets
12-15 Reps.
One minute rest periods.
And that is a great focused Lats routine. If you want to include this Lats work out in Back Routine I would cut the sets down or cut out one of the exercises. Depending on your stamina and goals. Working out more than a couple of hours intensely has been shown to be more catabolic and thus so won’t help you build. So know when enough is enough.

1.  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/325103666834737814/
2. https://www.skimble.com/exercises/30989-dumbbell-pullover-how-to-do-exercise
3. https://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/08/13/
michaelphelps_wideweb__470x313,0.jpg

4. "Skeletal muscle mass and distribution in 468 men and women aged 18–88 yr” Journal of Applied Physiology. Vol 89 No. 1 1 Jul. 2000. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/
jappl.2000.89.1.81

 

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