How Hunter Labrada Builds His Lower Lats for a Complete Physique

Hunter Labrada lower lats

Hunter Labrada performs pulldowns on a machine unilaterally to engage the lower lats. 

The latissimus dorsi is one of the largest muscles in the human body. It plays a crucial role in supporting your spine during various exercises and aids in respiration, making it an essential component of comprehensive body development. Additionally, the lats contribute to a broader, more aesthetically pleasing frame, resulting in a well-defined back. 

Due to their extensive surface area, the latissimus dorsi are easily identifiable on your back and are divided into three sections, each fulfilling distinct functions. This article will focus specifically on the lower lats, emphasizing its significance in bodybuilding. It will also provide effective training exercises for athletes to develop a well-defined back. 

Overview — What Are the Lat Muscles?

lower lats

The latissimus dorsi is a flat wide muscle at the sides of your back. It runs from the lower spine to the upper arm bone on each side of the back. Your lats play an important role in upper extremity movement and are an accessory respiratory muscle (1). These muscles are essential for pulling exercises; strengthening them can enhance your exercise performance. They are divided into three parts which include:

  • The Upper Lats
  • The Middle Lats
  • The Lower Lats

Lower Lats

The lower lat is one of the three parts and is often neglected during exercises because athletes focus more on the upper body and upper back. However, not involving your lower lats enough can lead to an imbalanced physique and increase the risk of injuries during training. Below is more on the importance of the lower lats in bodybuilding.

  • They help to adduct, extend, and rotate the arms and shoulders inward, which is helpful for training. 
  • It helps stabilize the shoulder joint during core upper body movements like pull-ups, lat pulldowns, and rows.
  • It increases your pulling power.
  • They help build a strong and aesthetically pleasing back.
  • Completes back development and is key to a muscular and well-defined back.
  • Helps avoid an imbalance in your physique that limits overall strength. 
  • Contributes majorly to the V-shape aesthetically pleasing physique.

How Do You Target Them? 

Focusing on them requires technique because other muscles, like the shoulders and arms, tend to take over. The following tips can help you avoid this when training and target them effectively.

Use a Supinated Grip

A simple act, like changing the placement of your grip, can make a big difference in recruiting muscles. A supinated or reverse or underhand grip emphasizes the lat muscles. This also effectively builds them since they are part of them. Using an underhand grip equally emphasizes the biceps, which also helps the lats during the movement. This results in a greater contraction of the lat muscles, leading to effective lat development. Switching to a reverse grip also limits the involvement of other muscles, like the rear deltoids, which would be activated when using a pronated or overhand grip. 

Tuck Your Elbows In

Exercises like pulldowns, rows, and pull-ups are excellent lat-building routines. However, bringing your elbows closer to your torso is essential to include or focus more on your lower lats. This reduces the extra movements from other muscle groups, like the biceps and upper traps.

Flaring your elbows out limits your range of motion during a lat exercise. You might target your lat muscles but not get the full benefits from this exercise. However, when you tuck your elbows in, you utilize a better range of motion, which targets your lower lats better during pulling or rowing exercises. This leads to better muscle activation, which is good for muscle hypertrophy. Studies show that using a full range of motion produces a greater increase in muscle mass (2)

Some of the major functions of the lat muscles are to adduct, extend the arm and shoulders, and rotate it inward. When you close your elbows to your torso, you get a proper scapular retraction and effectively work your lower lats.

Use Straps

Many times, grip strength interferes with the quality of your back exercises. To strengthen your grip and focus better on your lower lats, use wrist straps or hook grips when training. You can also use grip trainers to strengthen your grip over time. Below is a video of IFBB Pro League Men’s Open bodybuilder Hunter Labrada showing how to target your lower lats using wraps on a machine to do a unilateral lat pulldown.

Best Lower Lat Training Exercises

Bent-Over Barbell Row

The bent-over barbell row is excellent for building your back and lower lat muscles. If you have access to a barbell, try this exercise. You can also use other free weights, such as dumbbells and kettlebells, to do bent-over barbell rows.

  1. Your starting position is to hinge at your hips, slightly bend at your knees, and grab the barbell using an underhand grip.
  2. Pull your shoulder blades back, keep your chest out, and pull the barbell slowly till it touches your stomach.
  3. Hold this position for one to two seconds, then reverse the movement back to the starting position to complete a rep. 

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown

The wide-grip lat pulldown focuses more on the lat muscles, creating more tension with less muscle engagement on the forearms and biceps.

  1. Take a seat facing the machine, grab the bar with a wide, overhand grip, and lean back slightly. This is your starting position.
  2. Brace your core, keep your back straight, and pull the bar towards your chest.
  3. To finish a rep, pause for about two to three seconds and slowly reverse this movement to the starting position.

Pull-Up

Pull-ups are effective bodyweight exercises you can do to work your lower lats.

  1. Your starting position is to grab a pull-up bar with straight arms and feet hanging from the floor using an overhand shoulder-width length.
  2. Pull yourself towards the bar by squeezing your arms, back, and lats.
  3. Make sure your head goes over the bar and lower yourself down with control to the starting position. 

Sample Workout

Ready to build your lower lats? Below is a sample lower lat workout to add to your overall training. 

Exercise Sets Reps
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown 4 8-12
Weighted Pull-Up  4 8-12
Hammer Strength Machine Rows (Neutral Grip) 3 8-12
Bent-Over Barbell Row (Underhand) 3 8-12
Straight-Arm Pulldown  2 8-12
Seated Resistance Band Row 2 8-12

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References

  1. Jeno, S. H., & Varacallo, M. (2023). Anatomy, Back, Latissimus Dorsi. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
  2. Schoenfeld, B. J., & Grgic, J. (2020). Effects of range of motion on muscle development during resistance training interventions: A systematic review. SAGE open medicine, 8, 2050312120901559. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312120901559 
Terry Ramos
As a personal trainer and writer, Terry loves changing lives through coaching and the written word. Terry has a B.S. in Kinesiology and is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and ISSA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. He enjoys playing music, reading, and watching films when he's not writing or training.