Your Lats are Core Muscles

There are two very popular gym exercises that targets the lats. There's the lat pull-down, in which you sit with your legs braced under a padded bar, and the seated row, in which you sit with your feet up on supports in front of you. What happens when you sit? You cut your body in half. You certainly use the lats to pull a bar toward your body. But by sitting on your butt you prevent that co-contraction with the glutes that provides stability for your lower back.

The lat pull-down and seated row share one other characteristic: They're typically done with god-awful form. People new to working out with weights will hunch their shoulders on the seated row, which prevents the targeted upper-back muscles from doing much of anything, while the more experienced hardcore muscle builders will do a limbo-like move on the lat pull-down, leaning so far back that they're using everything but their lats to move the weight. (and jerking like crazy)

Here is the new rule for working your lats: Do the movement in a position that will allow the lats to act as both a prime mover and a core stabilizer such as standing, prone, hanging from a chin-up bar. Instead of sitting kneel or stand, which will force you to stabilize your core while working your lats and the other upper-back muscles (the new rules of lifting supercharged)

This is some good stuff.... so let's change the way we work out lats... it's a core muscle because it's attached to the tailbone all the way around the erector spinae, the columns of muscle on either side of your spine down to the glutes. So, when you're working your lats, look at it as a core workout.

And that's today's 411 on Health and Fitness.

Lisa D.

A WELL TRAINED BUTT IS BEAUTIFUL!

Now we all desire to have a well rounded buttocks. I can not tell you how many times I've had women say to me they want a butt like mine. LOL. And you know what I tell them... this butt runs in the family, however I have gone the extra mile to enhance it's shape and keep it round and firm. I have always had a butt, but it wasn't always round and lifted. I can not guarantee you you'll get a butt from doing lunges and squats, but I can guarantee you the butt you do have will no longer drag behind you.

Here are Eight Fun Facts About Squats

1.   The front and back squats use two big lower-body muscle groups-the hamstrings and quadriceps-in the same way.

2.    All else being equal, the more you lift on any squat variation, the more muscle you activate. That's why it's so important to increase your strength over time. (USE WEIGHTS WHEN DOING SQUATS AND LUNGES)

3.    You can probably lift more weight on the back squat if you take a wider stance, and rotate your thighs outward. That increases activation of your glutes and adductors (inner thigh), but not your quadriceps and hamstrings which are the prime movers.

4.    Muscle activation is highest when your thighs are parallel to the floor. Cutting a squat short allows you to use more weight, but with less work for the muscles you're trying to build.

5.    Going below parallel at the bottom of the movement increases activation of your glutes, but not your quads and hamstrings. Thus, you may get better overall muscle development with the front squat, since most of us can go deeper than we can on the back squat.

6.   You activate 43 percent more muscle squatting with free weights vs. a Smith machine, the barbell on rails found in some good gyms and all bad ones. This is despite the fact that most people can life significantly more weight on the Smith.

7.    It's not just because you recruit more stabilizing muscles when you use free weights. The quads and hamstrings-along with the calf muscles-also work harder than they do on a Smith machine.

8.    Same goes for the leg press and leg extension. Even though you can move a lot more weight on a leg press, nothing beats lifting a heavy weight on a vertical path with no help from a machine.

You can find this information in the book The New Rules of Lifting Supercharged by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. If you are serious about weight lifting, I truly recommend you add this book to your library.

I personally do not use machines to work on my buttocks or legs. I use free weights. Right now, I squat and lunge with 25lbs. As I get stronger I'll be lifting heavier. Remember your legs have the biggest muscles in your body, therefore you can go heavy when working your legs and buttocks.

Remember Healthy Hearts = Healthy Weight
Lisa D.