Not feeling lats during exercise

[kbecker218]

I kind of have underdeveloped lats compared to most people my size because until I started working out a few months ago I'd never really used my lats at all. Because of this I can only do a few pullups, and even then it's very hard to focus the effort on my lats and not arms. For now, I just do various pulldowns and rows. For these exercises, I can't really feel it much at all in the sides of my lats. I'm definitely working my back because I can feel it more in the middle of my back, but lats are supposed to be your sides right? I've noticed some size gain in my lats, but whenever I do exercises that involve them, I flex them, but still can't really feel it in my sides. I think my technique is good since I'm not using my arms very much at all during the exercise. Is this supposed to happen or do you guys always feel it directly in your sides during the workout?

[naich]

drop the weight
pull through your elbows
dont grip the weight so hard, hook it or grip it lightly
slower negatives and hold the contraction
lats are the hardest to isolate correctly, it can take months to perfect form on things. keep at it.

[kbecker218]

I dropped the weight a lot until I learned to isolate my back. I'm pretty new, for all I know I am using my lats, because I'm definitely not using my arms. So when you use your lats you feel it on your sides right? NOT middle back?

[some1withguns]

I dropped the weight a lot until I learned to isolate my back. I'm pretty new, for all I know I am using my lats, because I'm definitely not using my arms. So when you use your lats you feel it on your sides right? NOT middle back?

That's where I feel it. It's definitely farther back than oblique soreness, but not quite as far back as you'd think.