In this article we will try to explain, in addition to which muscles are activated with the lat machine movement, how to perform it, what are the essential prerequisites and how to evaluate them before inserting the exercise into the training routine.
upwards, as in the pull-up or pull-ups on the bar, or a resistance towards the body, as in the case of the pull-down on the lat machine or similar (vertical traction type), the muscles involved will be - in order of intervention - respectively:- Great dorsal (lat);
- Large round;
- Big breastplate;
- Posterior deltoid;
- Rhomboids;
- Middle and lower trapezius;
- Brachial biceps;
- Brachialis;
- Brachioradialis.
In addition, of course, to the gripping muscles of the hand.
For further information: Lat Machine: Types of Traction and Differences . Not that the supine grip, requiring frontal adduction, causes less involvement of the great dorsal and the great rotonchus, however it allows greater activation of the arms, complicating the emphasis on the target muscles.
- Find the right height of the seat of the machine, which must allow you to grab the bar by stretching but sitting, without limiting the maximum range of the movement, unless you want to set a "stop" as we will see below;
- Sit down with the cord above your head. If you want to use the thigh block, the position will be traditional (with your gaze towards the machine), vice versa (to do without the block but without removing it from the machine) it is possible to sit backwards (the cable pulley will remain set back from the traditional position) ;
- Grasp the bar, with a prone grip, wider than the shoulders (about 20-30 cm more per side). The back is naturally curved, but not hyperextended;
- The beginning of the traction movement requires the scapular activation by depression, after which it is possible to pull the bar up to under the chin. Remember to emphasize the sensitivity on the use of the back muscles, not on the arms;
- The eccentric (return) phase may involve scapular relaxation in the phase of maximum elongation.
When the series (set) is almost at the end, the last 2-3 repetitions (rep) are missing and the energies are low, there is an instinctive lifting of the feet from the ground and a collection of the knees towards the chest. This happens not necessarily because the load is high, but to look for something to bond with and optimize traction.
This is precisely one of the reasons why, in order to ensure maximum effectiveness of the exercise, it becomes almost essential - with some exceptions - to remove the thigh block from the machine - or to sit upside down.
With these measures it is avoided the involvement of the hip flexors which would intervene markedly in the downward traction action.
One way to understand this is to perform a set of lat machines with the thighs locked and then do another one, always with the same load, with the knees free. In the second case, the exercise will be much more difficult because there is no involvement of the ileo-psoas and the rectus of the femur, the two very powerful hip flexors that intervene in the movement by making a fixed point.
When can the thigh block be useful?
The use of cushions could possibly have a value in the event of a problem of lumbar hypolordosis or a cancellation of the curve.
In such situations it is in fact probable that there is a weakness affecting the ileo-psoas, which could therefore be reinforced using the legs for anchoring. This hypothesis would in any case be evaluated on the basis of the subject under examination.
To recreate the physiological lordosis at the lumbar level, you could also position your legs not in a sitting position, but as if you wanted to assume a kneeling position. In this position the hip flexors would be stretched, recreating a normal curve in the spine.
To learn more: Dorsal or isotonic, while the second is a calisthenics.
In the lat machine, compared to the pull-up, the fixed point of leverage changes but, for the rest, the muscles involved are more or less the same. For this reason, this exercise is particularly useful for increasing strength in the early stages of physical preparation.
In pull-downs the hands are fixed at the top and the body is pulled up, while in the pull-down the body is fixed and the hands are pulled down.
Hardly a neophyte will have the ability to lift the weight of his body to a bar - even if only for more than 2 or 3 reps (but there are always exceptions) - and that is why in the preparation for the pull-up solutions are practiced " facilitating ".
For example, there is a machine that, to facilitate the approach to the pull-up, offers the possibility of "unloading" the natural weight. Equipped with a vertical mobile platform, depending on the weight chosen, it helps to assist the ascent phase pushing the body up - as weight increases, resistance, or weight, decreases.
A similar effect can be obtained by using an elastic to be fixed to the bar and to pass under the feet.
However, especially in girls and for heavy subjects, the best system remains to use the lat-machine or vertical traction as preparatory to movement.
In compliance with the didactic progression, it will be very practical to carry out only the eccentric phase of the pull-up movement (descent), thanks to the use of a box to reach the starting position.
All this is necessary because the pull-up exercise, or free pull-ups, puts a strain on the strength of those who practice it. In many sectors, such as the military, it is used to evaluate efficiency in terms of strength of the person undergoing the exercise. Lifting your body weight for 10-15 reps means that you have significant strength in the back muscles and all the accessory muscles that work on that movement.
Unfortunately, as always, not all exercises are free from having problems and as usual we have to "virtually" make a small reference to these movements that work the back muscles, with particular reference to pull-ups or lat machines.
Pull-ups and pull-downs are really noteworthy exercises, first of all for the fact that they are multi-joint activators, but above all for the massive muscular effort that derives from them. But unfortunately the question is always the same: <>
For further information: Great Dorsal Muscle. This is because range of movement (ROM) and any uncomfortable or pathological conditions of the joints and tendons, especially of the shoulder, come into play - but not only that, the elbow and wrists are often involved.
To understand if a subject can perform the lat machine, I have to test the flexibility and the possibility of joint movement of that person. Ultimately I have to evaluate its specific ROM.
Flexibility tests are once again the key to planning a profitable and safe training, or to minimize the risks deriving from the exercises.
If the subject in question does not show obvious problems of poor flexibility at the shoulder level, being able to easily bring the arms in extension without compensation, he can practice the lat machine in peace, considering only the type of training that you intend to practice with reference to the objectives. growth, strength, or other conditioning abilities.
The stiffness of the shoulder joint is therefore the main stop to practice in complete freedom of the lat machine.
The causes of this joint stiffness can be so many. An inadequate flexibility of the dorsal or rhomboid or trapezius muscles, or even of all the muscles involved in the movement in question, can compromise the complete flexion of the humerus in both the frontal and sagittal planes.
This means that if the muscle is not adequately elastic, the lateral elevation movements of the arm up above the head or from the front of the body (adduction-abduction in the frontal and sagittal planes), will be limited or in any case not completely free.
This will mean that, due to the load used in the exercise, the arms will in any case be pulled upwards, in the eccentric phase of the movement but due to the compensation of the lumbar curve which will create an adaptive hyperlordosis to allow the excursion to the shoulder; it should be noted that this is a "phony excursion" as without that compensation for the lower back that movement would never have been possible except limiting it to a certain point where the great dorsal would have allowed the elevation of the arm.
In the latter case, the aid of a retainer that limits the ROM is essential in order not to burden the lumbar vertebrae which, posing in hyperlordosis, especially in conditions of overt precariousness, could give rise to pain.
How to limit the ROM?
A suitable strategy would be to avoid the complete extension of the arm above the head and when you begin to observe an increase in the lumbar curve, setting that point as the maximum excursion of the eccentric phase.
Leaning on a Personal Trainer in this case, and in all cases where the ROM needs to be fixed, is really essential.
Before attempting this exercise, however, the wisest choice is to adequately stretch the back muscles or those that have a limitation to that movement.
If it were a question of a retraction of only one part of the body, it would become advisable to rely on unilateral stretching techniques to stretch only that muscle that needs greater range of movement, in order to balance it with the contralateral one.
Other issues
For the concentric part of the movement, therefore when the bar is pulled towards the chest, other problems may arise; therefore it will be necessary to evaluate also the flexibility of the rotators.
The evaluation of the flexibility of the rotator muscles of the shoulder, in particular of all those that rotate the humerus - such as the pectoralis major, subscapularis, teres major or the same grand dosale - is very important. These muscles, which all have an accessory function of internally rotate the humerus, they may compromise the freedom of movement when at the end of the excursion the arm is in lateral rotation, therefore in external rotation, and it will not be able to rotate externally because it is held back by the aforementioned muscles which are not adequately flexible. At this point, to complete the movement, it will be compensated with a medial rotation of the shoulder and an increase in dorsal kyphosis.
In this regard, one could intervene with a functional limitation of movement up to the point where the shoulder begins to rotate medially, usually as soon as the elbow falls below the joint. For this, the alert and attentive eye of the Trainer should always be if necessary, it will slow down the movement by establishing the maximum range of movement for the concentric phase.
Once again the wisest choice would be to increase the flexibility of the internal rotators who in this case give a brake to movement.
To learn more: Training the Lats See other articles tag Lat machine - Dorsali
