🔥WIDER GRIP = WIDER LATS? NOT REALLY!

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard this countless times: “grip the bar at its widest to develop a wide back.” 

And mind you, I actually believed the same for a while, until I questioned this very thing myself on how would that actually even work.

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• ✅  Muscles grow as a response to a continuous & progressive stimulus induced by training, fueled by proper nutrition.
  As long as the stimulus is “right” meaning that it is actually hitting the muscles you’re looking to develop by fully contracting them, they will grow. And by “growth” you get both: thickness & width.

When it comes to lat pulldown, a medium grip seems to works even better than a wider one, research shows

And that obviously, because a narrower grip allows for better technique & ROM, which seems to have a greater impact on not only lats, but also trap & infraspinatus muscles as well.

How wide, you ask?

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• It’s gotta feel comfortable abd you gotta be able to perform full ROM in order to fully contract your back muscles, and maintain your shoulders in a safe spot: around 1.5 shoulder width.

❌A wide grip for them ego lofters: “yuh braw, you need to grip the bar at the opposing edges of the bar to stimulate that width brah.”

By gripping the bar so wide, you will never be able to even fully complete the movement & let alone contract your back muscles at the bottom. Your shoulders won’t even be able to stay locked down, so they’ll be more likely to internally rotate forward and completely shut down the back engagement. As a result you’ll get a bro-spotter to help you out with your struggling reps, some shoulder pain, and probably zero back development.