I never feel my lats when I do any of the lifts that are suppose to work them.

[realworksuks]

Pullups, rows, bent over rows. My lats never get sore (and I can do like 25 pullups too.) The only time my back gets sore is when I do deadlifts and that is just lower back. I have virtually zero lat spread and been working out for six years.

How can I fix this?

[timgeorge123]

Just my opinion, the way i got my back to get sore and really start seeing results when doing a lat spread, but on back days i take a wide grip for lat pulldowns. And on the movement i try to pull my shoulder blades together and really squeeze the muscle at the bottom of the movement. Back days i hold at the contracted point for about half a second. Also i dont go fast, i keep it controlled and go slow and really contract the muscles.

Keep good form throughout the movement, even if that means going down in weight.
On all back exercises, rows, pulldowns, etc.. i try to pull my shoulder blades together to really squeeze the back all around.

I found it worked for me, you can try it if you want!

EDIT: Also try imagining the muscles contracting, i found it that when i think about the muscle working it actually gets used properly..
Just my 2 cents.

[DYTrainer]

Soreness doesnt mean anything, so that shouldnt be your goal. However, if you can't feel them working when doing the lift, then something is off. When you say "lats" I'm just going to assume you mean the whole back muscle group.

Lats:
Close grip, either neutral or supinated grip. Close grip give the lats the biggest range of motion, which is good. Keep your back arched, the lats cant contract if you are hunched over. Pause in the fully contracted position and really feel the lats squeezing. Chin ups, lat pull down machine, hammer DY row, all good.

Upper Back: Teres, rhomboids, infraspinactus, rear delt, lower-mid traps and some lats
Wide grip with palms pronated. Once again, keep that back arched to contract the back muscles. Squeeze in the fully contracted position to really get a feel of what it's supposed to be like. Can use a hammer machine, pull ups, lat pull down.

Traps
Upper traps: Some sort of shrug, be it db, bb, machine or whatever. Important thing here, once again, is to hold and squeeze at the top. This is a really small movement and need to get the most out of it. However, this isn't a full body exercise, if it looks like you are humping the air to get the weight up, then it's too heavy.

Lower-Mid: Traps a huge muscle group, deadlifts or rackpulls hit that area nicely

Lower back: Deadlifts / rack pulls / hyperextensions. All good, use one that fits your goals.

There are many other exercises out there that are great for the back. Too many to list, so just check out the workout database on this site.

General Tips:
1) When doing pull downs, do not swing your body. If you have to do that, then the weight is just to heavy. You shouldnt be parallel to the ground when doing that exercise.
2) Think of your hands as hooks simply connecting the weight to your back. Thumbless grip might help, as could straps. Don't let the smaller and weaker arm muscles take the brunt of the weight, make the much larger and stronger back do it
3) If you can't hold and squeeze the weight in the fully contracted position then the weight is to heavy
4) Create a well balanced back routine. It is one of the most intricate muscle groups, don't ignore parts of it.
5) If you don't have a strong mind-muscle connection cut the weight you are doing in half and really focus on the form. Doing heavy weight with crap form will get you no where fast, while doing lower weight with correct form will get you where you want to be.
6) Building on #5, try to get your ego out of lifting. What's more important? Moving heavy weight for the sake of moving it, or stimulating the muscle growth process by lifting "lighter" weights correctly.

[tlrmde]

Make sure to disengage your forearms & looks to really squeeze hard at the point of optimum contraction. Posture wise, I found for lat pull downs, that the further I pump my chest out (arching my back to a certain extent) really puts me in a great position to squeeze & focus in on my lats.

[WillGoesBoing]

Are you using full ROM and really squeezing your shoulder blades together? I see guys at the gym get up on the pull up bar and go down 5 inches then go back up. Try dead hanging on each rep, and go up as high as you can and pause for a second.

When someone says they can do 25 pullups and not have developed lats, they're most likely not doing it correctly.

[Slow50hh]

I use straps and a thumbless grip when doing any pulling movement. Before I start my reps, I'm strapped up and get a little stretch in the lat to start the "mind/muscle" connection, then I focus on pulling from that stretch point. Concentrate on flexing your lat and pulling from the elbow, not using the arms to move the weight.

[terman1]

A thumbless grip has personally helped me to concentrate more on the muscles I intend to target.

[Fawsune]

Soreness doesnt mean anything, so that shouldnt be your goal. However, if you can't feel them working when doing the lift, then something is off. When you say "lats" I'm just going to assume you mean the whole back muscle group.

Thanks for the informative post! I was having the same issue as the OP and I'm pretty sure this will solve it during my next workout.

[canyonrat]

Go wide grip on pull ups and lat pull downs. imagine someone has there finger touching the middle of your back and you are trying to pinch it with your back muscles

[ZoranM]

My lats never get sore ....



and I can do like 25 pullups too...



I have virtually zero lat spread and been working out for six years.

Interesting..

[italianplaya30]

try using a slower tempo focusing on the negative (3 seconds to get to the bottom) and squeeze on the top for a count of 1

[HighRolluh]

Pullups, rows, bent over rows. My lats never get sore (and I can do like 25 pullups too.) The only time my back gets sore is when I do deadlifts and that is just lower back. I have virtually zero lat spread and been working out for six years.

How can I fix this?

U can rep out 25 pullups at 182 lbs. Strong back maybe? Deadlifts, weighted pullups, concentrate MMC, slow 313, squeeze em consistently while reppin, and try T-bar rows.

[dc91]

Really emphasise your squeeze at your back. Pinch those shoulder blades together and try to avoid using as much of the arms as you can.
Also change your entire back routine, mix in drop sets, super sets, ect really anything to cause a bit of shock.

[alfius7]

I found out after a couple of years of working out that I was doing almost ALL my work with my biceps. Someone told me to focus on that mind-muscle connection and to bring the bar down( for ex. on lat machine) with your ELBOWS. Keep almost a fixed angle with the elbows too.You might have to lower the weight, and as someone already said also try thumbless grip.

[SimplyShreddies]

I've been having the same problem for a long time. Sometimes i would get muscle soreness and sometimes not, it was pretty inconsistent. And eventually my forearms would stop me from doing more pullups when my back felt fine, i'm gonna try thumbless grip...

[k9pit]

Try DB Pullovers.

[realworksuks]

Thanks for all of the advice. I will let you guys know how it works. Yes, I can do 20-25 full range of motion pullups. My arms are always sore as hell afterwards, back doesn't feel anything. Maybe I am not going high enough above the bar? How far should my elbow be brought down on this lift? Like, should my chest get up to the bar?

And no, during pullups I never focus on pinching my shoulder blades together, and actually never really do focus on that with the exception of a seated cable row maybe.

I think you guys are right about the mind muscle connection. I don't feel pullups on my back but I read that's one of the best back exercises for lat width.

EDIT: Actually, I just took a dumbell that I have in my basement and did some bent over rows very slowly with a pause at the top while focusing on pinching my shoulder blades together and I can feel my back is sore already. Or it at least feels worked. Either that or my spine is just tense from holding the BOR position. I will see tomorrow. Hmmm.

[forearms61]

db or cable lawnmowers

[WillGoesBoing]

The thing about back workouts is that you really need to focus on the squeeze and raise and lower the weights in a controlled fashion. I'm guilty of this when I was a n00b, but a lot of people tend to jerk the weights when doing a pulling or rowing exercise. As a lot of people mentioned, imagine your fingers as hooks, contract and use your back to pull the weight back. Try using very low weights so that you're able to concentrate and do it slow, and see how that feels.

[GeneralSerpant]

My back was sore once. I don't remember the workout. I think Pull-overs were involved.

[Obduro]

Pullups, rows, bent over rows. My lats never get sore (and I can do like 25 pullups too.) The only time my back gets sore is when I do deadlifts and that is just lower back. I have virtually zero lat spread and been working out for six years.

How can I fix this?

If you want to increase the load on your lats there's a really good tip that I learned from one of Larry Scott's videos. He says that whenever you're doing a pulling exercise for back like rows, pullups, etc, avoid grip the bar with your four fingers and try to get as much of your palm on the bar, kind of like curling your wrist to get max palm to bar contact. I've tried this and it works srs. In the vid, skip to 5:45 and 7:18, he'll explain it.