Only a quick one....(Lats or Wings)

So just a quick one before I get to the gym.

The lats (lattissimus dorsi) are what gives people the 'V' shape that people so often talk about and look to achieve, large wings down to a small waist. My method for creating this has worked a treat, for a guy who never really focused in on training my lats in particular, I pretty much look like I can fly when I flex them out hah

As I said in my first post it was a regular routine of mine to work out my upper body about 5 times a week. So training my back was pretty regular and by the end of my first year or building my back in general was pretty defined and quite large. With a combination of lat pull downs and lat rows it pretty much sent them well on their way to the size they have become, but I believe the key to my success was due to the fact that every single training session, no matter what I was training. I would do a series of sets of pull ups.

Depending on your size and initial strength you may not even be able to do a single rep, if you are at this level you should start by getting a step up so that you are high enough to do a negative rep. So you start at the 'pulled up' position and try to stay in this position once you have stopped supporting yourself with your feet. Start off with as many as up to 5 per set and three sets per day. Slowly building yourself up and soon you will be able to do full pull ups, you can move on to eventually doing up to three sets of seven reps.  Now once your are at this position you can then start to add weights to your workouts, keeping your reps low and increasing the weight will stop the increase in muscle pain.

Don't get me wrong you will still feel the pain, lets be honest the phrase 'no pain no gain' couldn't be a truer statement for lifting and building. BUT by not over exhausting your muscle you can reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) so that you won't feel as much pain as you would if say you could do 3 sets of 20 reps.You must remember I did this every single training session so I still had to go and lift my entire training sessions' worth of weights. Most of the pain will originate from the coming down phase of each reps. Eccentric muscle contractions such as the lowering of the bar when your are bench pressing or simply walking down the stairs, your muscles are forced to contract when they are lengthening.

You may hear a lot of things about how over training the same muscle group is detrimental to your progress but not only have I experienced it first hand and found it to be more than just a success, but I've also seen it in others that I've trained with over the past 6 years.

So remember, this exercise must be done every day and as always have the determination to continue. Hanging from the bar will also be a good way to warm up to it, something that I will explain in later posts.

Peace!