Latissimus Dorsi-SMR

Muscles worked

The muscle under tension is the latissimus dorsi, which pulls the upper arm down and back toward the ribcage.

A stretch loads it at the far end of the range it normally works in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.

Every exercise for:Lats

How this movement works

You get into position and hold. One joint sets the angle and one muscle group takes the tension, so the load stays exactly where you put it. Hold for time, breathe normally, and come out the moment the position drifts: a shape that has quietly shifted is no longer training what you set it up to train.

It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.

What you need

A foam roll is a firm rolling contact point — depending where you put it, it either applies pressure to tissue or takes the stability out from under you.

Every exercise using:Foam roll

These train the lats too, using equipment this one does not:

• Leverage Iso Rowmachine
• Narrow Parallel Grip Chin-upsbarbell + body only
• One Arm Lat Pulldowncable
• Overhead Slammedicine ball
• Pullupsbody only

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 45 lats exercises in this database, 23 are listed at beginner level.