Your Questions Answered, Part 9

These are your questions. You asked—we answered.

Steve: Okay, we have a biomechanical question here from Dustin Dunnit. He wants to know, "What is the best exercise hand width to work the lower lats?" Because he always thought that "... a wide grip for the low lats and a close grip for the upper is the way to go." But he wonders if he has that backwards.

Dave: Lats are lats. You know what I'm saying? It's like...you have a bicep. You know, there are two heads of a bicep. How are you going to work the lower part of this head? You know, or how are you going to work the upper part? You are going to work the bicep, alright. So the lats are the same way. I mean, there's a lot of muscles in the back...the question really becomes, you know...Are you talking about trying to make your lower lats attach lower? Because it's physically impossible to do. That's why you have people like Kai Greene with real high attachments, and then Dennis Wolf with really low attachments...

Steve: Actually he has the high ones, too.

Dave: He's got the high ones too...So, Columbu. You know—real low. You're not going to change that. You're only going to be able to make it thicker and wider. So now if it's a matter of making it thicker, making it bigger, I think from a bodybuilding perspective...and one thing that I've always believed and that John has actually reinforced is, you have to find the movement that you feel it the most in the area that you're trying to work—especially if it's a weak point that you're trying to bring up. You can do all the deadlifts, bent rows, and all the heavy compound stuff that you want, but a lot of times you're not going to feel that in a specific area that you're trying to bring up. That has to be done with more slowly done isolation-type movements that are going to focus on that. So I would suggest trying things like reverse-grip one-arm pulldowns—with big stretch and trying to arch. You got to find your way through and think your way through until you find that position, and then keep the weight where you can keep the focus on that position. And focus on it that way instead of trying to ask somebody for a specific movement to do that because what I can mentally trigger and activate, you know, with one movement, may be completely different than what somebody else is going to be able to mentally activate. And I see that a lot of times when I am working with John. You know, we will be focusing on one exercise—and we're trying to focus on his upper/middle back right now, and when we do the same movement, you know, I can do it exactly the same way he does, but when I do it, the total focus is really on more on my upper, real high trap. His is more in a different area. And it's the same thing, done exactly the same way. But where our focus is is a little bit different, and I think that is the key here—is to be able to find out where that focus is...and still keeping full-back development. If it's bodybuilding you've got a lot of areas to cover in the back. A lot of areas. So you need to make sure you hit all those.

Steve: And it seems like here like he's just saying...using the word "lats," so that's the entire back, where there are certain...

Dave: You got to do erectors, man...

Steve: ...certain horizontal pull that's gonna hit the center back. As opposed to a pulldown or chin that's going to...

Dave: Yeah, and a lot of it's still going to depend upon...you know, bodybuilding's kind of a world of opposites. So, if you do a wide-grip pulldown, a lot of people think that's going to hit the lats out wider where it actually hits in closer—it's like the reverse. You know, a wide stance in squats is going to work more the groin where a close stance is going to work more the outsides. So it's almost an opposite type of thing. And it depends, once again, on the range of motion. So the back covers a lot of...you know, you got erectors, you got traps, rhomboids, you know, rotator cuff—you got all kinds of shit going on back there. Rear delts, all this other kinds of stuff that needs to be covered, and if you're trying to focus on one area, you need to make sure that you're getting that focus on that area mentally, to be able to contract. And where I disagree with a lot of stuff that was said years ago is in bodybuilding you need to train your weakness first. I disagree with that. I think, especially with your back, you want to fatigue everything else first—then go after what's weak. Because everything else is already shot. So it's going to be really hard for that to take over. So when everything else is shot, it's going to be easier for you to zero in on a movement that might be able to target that.

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