This unique setup changes the orientation of your grip from horizontal to vertical.
The Best Exercise For Building Wider Lats...
Changing the grip like this takes the biceps almost completely out of the exercise, forcing all of the tension onto the lats, specifically the outermost fibers of the lats, exactly where you WANT the tension to go.
This is an advanced exercise that requires good "normal" pull-up strength to perform. It will challenge your grip strongly, as well as your lats.
To perform this one, you'll need a power rack and two Olympic bars (empty).
Stand the two bars up almost vertically, resting them in the upper corners of the rack. They bars should be at a steep angle, not fully vertical.
Kneel down in front of the bars and grip as high up on them as you can reach.
Lock down your shoulder blades by pulling your arms down without pulling yourself up.
Then pull yourself up into a pull-up, coming up as high as you can..
One thing you likely will encounter is the tendency for the tops of the bars to move inwards as you pull yourself up. This is normal but it is something you'll need to learn how to control.
What you want to do is try to "push" the bars outwards as you pull yourself up. This further reduces bicep involvement and will really ramp up the loading on the lats.
There are two primary ways to perform this exercise...
The first is with continuous tension. Keeping your knees bent, come down ALMOST until your knees touch the ground, then come back up.
Repeat, without ever coming down to full extension and without ever touching the ground at the bottom (pictured here).
The second method is stopping and resetting your lats/lockdown on each rep. At the bottom of each rep, let your bodyweight rest fully on the ground, relaxing your back. Then reset and re-lockdown your shoulder blades and repeat.
Both methods are very effective.
Finally, as you fatigue, you can actually self-spot yourself by keeping your toes on the ground. This allows you to use the quads to generate a little more force to allow you to get more reps.
When doing this one, I recommend 2-3 sets of as many reps as you can get. You don't need a lot of sets of these. Perform these very near to the beginning of your back workout....they're extremely demanding.
Overall, this is a fantastic way to build wider lats and hammer your upper back in a way its never experienced before.
I've got another killer pull-up exercise that will challenge your lats in a more conventional way...Three Pause Pull-Ups. You'll be doing regular pull-ups but with targeted pauses on the way up.
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Want more unique and challenging exercises to work your entire body with simple equipment? All you need is just a barbell, dumbbells and a bench. Check out The Best Home Gym Exercises You've Never Heard Of!
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