6 straight Mr. Olympia victories – which is considered body buildings highest honor, belongs to the guy in the picture above – Dorian Yates. But let’s forget about the titles for a second because if you ask almost anyone, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the name Dorian Yates? They’ll tell you: “He had one of the BEST backs in all of history”.
Let that sink in for a second. The way his back looked comes to mind BEFORE the 6 titles. Yeah, the back is pretty damn important if you ever want to have a killer physique that even hides some of the flaws you might have. What kind of flaws? Here’s a hint:
Arnold actually had what was considered a “wide” waist. Does his waist look wide to you in that picture? I didn’t think so either. How does he make it look small then? Well, by training one particular back muscle so that it gives him that “V-taper” look and the illusion of having a small waist. So, what is that particular back muscle and how do you train it? Because if you look at an anatomy chart of the back there is no shortage of muscles to choose from.
WOAH woah woah, don’t run away just yet. Let me simplify this for you. I’ll start you off with ONE muscle that has the biggest impact on how your back looks.
Latissimus dorsi literally translates to “broadest muscle of the back”. In simple terms, it’s the lats we’re going to focus on today. And just to narrow down how it looks for you:
Notice how I showed you a picture of not only the Lats, but someone doing an exercise to train them? Because Lats aren’t there just for looks. They have a function I think you may find very important to say the least. And that is to bring the arms closer to the body. Can you think of a scenario where that might be important? Well if you can’t, here’s an example:
I always see people doing “Lat exercises” in the gym. But by me knowing the ins and outs of the Lat muscle, how they work and how to best work them based on their anatomy; those people’s efforts are painfully futile in my eyes.
And then that leads to the most common epidemic we see in gyms… ILS!
What’s that? Imaginary Lat Syndrome! And it looks like this:
If he actually had killer Lats the girl in the picture would be looking back at him!
By know you’re probably dying to know more so that you can properly train this muscle
and make it the ‘head turner’ that it can be. So without further ado, Muscle Masterclass: Lats is in session! Strap yourself in and let’s make some GAINS! :
Now that you’ve got the formula, go out there and carve out your own V-taper. You deserve it! 🙂
– Suneet
P.S. Leave a comment below telling me honestly if you’ve ever cared about training your back. I understand that it’s a muscle that you almost never get to see directly and I used to think that way too. But after watching todays video and reading todays blog, do you feel any different about back training? Leave your comments below!
