Lat Importance
Lat Importance
Swimming recruits many muscles throughout the body, including the legs, hips, core, trunk and arms. All of these muscles contribute to efficient muscular movement that creates power in order to propel you through the water. However, coaches have recognized the particular importance of the latissimus dorsi (lat) muscle. This muscle is a large triangular muscle in the back. It starts at the lower half of the spine and hip and travels upwards to attach to the top of the upper arm. The lats are responsible for drawing the upper arm downward and backward and rotating it inward. The ability to perform these moves strongly and with proficiency has a great impact on swimming efficiency.
Freestyle Swimming
In the freestyle swim, the athlete lies prone in the water and pulls each arm down and back alternately as you move through the water. As previously described, this is the main function of the lats! The legs maintain the balance of your body through the kick. While other arm and back muscles are used in freestyle, the lats are the main engines for your strong movement through the water.
To properly strengthen these muscles, the lats need to be worked in 2 planes – vertical and horizontal – for proper and balanced strength gains. Common back exercises such as lat pulldowns, chin-up/pull-ups, and rows build the lats. In my personal opinion, the best exercise for the lats are chin-up/pull-ups, followed closely by the others mentioned above.
Chins & Pull-Ups:
In my personal opinion, the best exercise for the lats are chin-up/pull-ups. Chin-ups are typically performed with palms facing you, while pull-up are typically performed with palms facing out. Athletes who are new to chin-ups/pull-ups may have a very hard time with this exercise, because you are moving your entire bodyweight by just your back and arms. If you are unable to do at least several strict consecutive pull-ups, that is an indication of weakness and something that you should be working on. By strict, I mean no kipping or jumping.
A good way to start to build strength is by focusing on the negative or eccentric portion of the pull-up. Jump up to the bar, with your chin over it and very slowly lower yourself down. This builds great strength because science has shown that the negative phase of an exercise is known to be up to 150% stronger than the muscles on the concentric phase.
Lat Pulldowns:
Lat pulldowns, performed on a machine using a cable and a stack of weights, are another great, vertical plane lat exercise. When performing lat pulldowns, it’s best to bring the bar down to the front of your chest (clavicle) rather than behind your neck. And for strength purposes, the best grip is a close grip. A very wide grip stretches the shoulder girdle out, which can help to widen the shoulders, but a close grip hits the outer lats and stretches them more significantly.
Barbell Rows & Dumbbell Rows:
Barbell rows and dumbbell rows are basic back exercises that work in a horizontal plane. Rows with a barbell really hit the middle back and traps while single-arm dumbbell rows hit more of the outer and lower lats.
For barbell rows, I suggest a shoulder-width grip and a pull into the abdomen, keeping the elbows in. And resist the urge to use a lot of body English. If you start engaging the legs and other upper body muscles, you’ll greatly diminish the training effect on the lats. Go lighter and perfect your technique!
Do dumbbell rows in the same angle to the ground as you would barbell rows. Dumbbell rows create a different feel as they isolate the lats better and take the lower back and hamstrings out of the movement. Resist jerking the weight and curling your wrists. If you have to do that, it’s time to check your ego at the door and go lighter, until you have improved your form.
Go SMAC!
Julian
