What Are Lat Towers?

In fitness training, the term "lats" refers to the lateral muscles -- those located around the upper and middle back, beneath the shoulder and partly covered by the trapezius. Developing the back leads to better posture and a stronger overall core. The piece of gym equipment made to exercise the lats, called a lat tower, allows exercises that target this area and several others.

  1. The Basics

    • Lat towers are typically easy to identify among other exercise equipment as they are taller than most and have a handlebar or another grip attachment hanging from the top. The weights are kept at the base to provide resistance as the handlebar is pulled downward. Lat towers may also include a small bench and possibly a back pad and leg extension set. The main activity is the lat pulldown; to do these, the user grips both ends of the handlebar and pulls down to either the upper chest or shoulders. The lat tower is also used for several other exercises.

    Attachments

    • While the most common handlebar for the lat tower is long and flat with grips at either end, a variety of attachments can be used depending on the muscles that need to be targeted. The long, flat bar can easily be brought behind the head for lateral exercises; smaller bars, or other attachments that keep the hands close together, can be comfortably brought only to the chest, making them better for chest exercises. Other attachments, such as a loop of rope, can be used for abdominal workouts, and a single-hand attachment is good for triceps and crossing exercises. All of these use a downward motion similar to the standard lat pulldown.

    Target Areas

    • With its natural pulldown positioning, a lat tower is well suited to exercising the upper, middle and lower back; shoulders; chest; abdominal muscles (including the obliques); triceps; and forearms. Depending on the additions, especially the inclusion of a lower weight connection or a leg extension set, lat towers can also target the quadriceps and hamstrings as well as the biceps.

    Exercises

    • Beyond the lat pulldown, changing of body positioning and handles allows exercises such as tricep curls, abdominal crunch, oblique crunch, chest pulldown and standing shoulder extensions. With a lower connection and extension, lat towers may also accommodate quadricep and hamstring extensions, bicep curls and lower back extensions. With a little creativity, users can devise a number of different exercises using this single piece of equipment.

    Freestanding and Attached

    • Lat towers are either freestanding models or are included as a part of other types of equipment. In general, larger gyms use freestanding towers, as having too many exercises who want to use one piece of equipment can leave others waiting to continue or complete their workout. These freestanding towers often have both top and base pulleys but leave off the leg extension.

      Home exercise systems often incorporate a lat tower, leg extension, bench press and butterfly station into one piece of equipment. This allows one system to offer multiple exercises, which works in a household because home gyms usually don't need to serve multiple users at a time.