Bulking Up the Latissimus With Bodybuilding

Your latissimus dorsi is the muscle that runs along the side of your torso. It originates at the top of your hips, sacrum and lower ribs and inserts under your armpit. It's responsible for shoulder extension and adduction -- think of holding your arms above your head with your hands out wide and bringing them down into your side until your elbows are touching your ribs. A strong, muscular latissimus dorsi, or lat, is vital in bodybuilding as it makes your whole upper body look wider.

  1. Training Schedule

    • To focus on building one specific muscle, train it more than once a week, advises trainer Nick Nilsson in "Specialization Training." Most bodybuilding splits include lat training in a back day, performed once a week, along with one weekly session each for your legs, shoulders, chest and arms. Training a body part more than once will lead to more growth over a short period, however, so step your lat training up from once a week to three times per week for four to six weeks.

    Lat Thickness

    • Your lats are a large muscle group and you can train them to be thicker and wider. For thickness, focus on horizontal pulling exercises. These include barbell rows, T-bar rows and dumbbell rows. When training your lats, focus on feeling the muscles work rather than just trying to lift as much weight as possible, advises bodybuilder and trainer Greg Merritt.

    Lat Width

    • To build wider lats, stick to vertical pulling exercises -- ones that are performed overhead, such as chinups and pulldowns. Switch between what types you do, and perform one of each in every lat session. For chinups, perform them with a wide grip and palms facing away from you, a narrow grip with your palms toward you or a neutral grip with palms facing. Use different handles or cable attachments for pulldowns, too. The one issue you may find with chinups is that you can't perform enough body-weight reps to fully stimulate your lats. Likewise if you have a high strength-to-body-weight ratio, you may need to add weight with a weighted vest or weight belt to make them harder.

    Training Guidelines

    • The training guidelines for bulking up your lats are the same as for any other muscle in bodybuilding -- perform sets of six to 12 reps, with your last one to two reps of each being extremely tough. You should just about be able to complete them with good form. If you're not looking for a lat specialization program, train them once a week before you hit your biceps instead of with multiple sessions each week. To bulk up, you also need to increase your calorie intake, particularly from protein-based foods and healthy carbs such as vegetables, whole grains and fruit.