This article was originally published in www.t-nation.com. T NATION recently ran a terrific article on how and why to do pull-ups. In this one, I want to tackle a subject that’s related, but different: how to build bigger, stronger lats. If your lats have a natural propensity to grow, you don’t need to know much more than whatever you learned the last time you picked up Flex: do a lot of pull-ups, pulldowns, and rows, and make sure everyone can see your “intense” face when you do them. The rest of us have to give the matter a bit more thought,…
Author: Nick Tumminello
Nick Tumminello
Known as the “trainer of trainers”, Coach Nick is an internationally-recognized fitness professional with over 20 years of “in the trenches” experience. Nick has trained thousands of clients including professional NFL players, figure and bodybuilding athletes, and plenty of average Joes and Janes. He is also the inventor of the NT Loop, a world-class resistance band.
Dumbbell Pull Overs are one of our favorite Lat exercises because they’re easy to coach and we feel they’re very effective at building bigger and stronger lats when used in conjunction with more compound Back-Training exercises. In addition to using the traditional style Dumbbell Pull Overs, there are a few other Lat Pull Over variations we also utilize in the Performance U training system. This video displays our top 3 ways to do Dumbbell Pull Overs: Personal Trainer Tips on using Dumbbell Pull Overs: The hardest part of the dumbbell pullover (i.e. the point of maximal loading on your lats)…
The Lunge exercise is a great option for adding in a lower-body training stimulus that’s unilateral (i.e. One-Leg) dominant, which not only can have a high (functional) transfer into the unilateral leg dominant stances, level changes and changes of direction that are so common in sports, but also may help reduce injury risk. Not to mention, by focusing on the strength and ability of each leg independently, like when doing Lunge exercises, it allows you to “bringing up” your weak side. In addition to using the traditional lunges (walking or reverse), which you’re already familiar with, the Performance U training…