Best Lat Exercises12 Picks, Ranked
The latissimus dorsi is the large, flat muscle that runs from your upper arm down the sides of your back to your lower spine and hips, with the smaller teres major helping it. It pulls your arms down and back toward your body. That makes vertical pulls like pull-ups and pulldowns the main pattern, with grip width and hand position changing the feel. Straight-arm pulldowns and pullovers train the same job with the elbows nearly locked, so the lats do the work with little help from the biceps.
- Weekly working sets
- 10–25
- The weekly range KasMaker measures lats volume against. Fewer is a light week; more is past what most lifters recover from.
- Recovery window
- ~72 hours
- The base time KasMaker's recovery map allows for lats to recover, scaled up or down by how much you did.
The list
The list mixes bodyweight pulls with cable and machine options. Pick one or two from the top as staples: pull-ups if you can do several clean reps, or Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown if you are still building up to them. Then add a variant with a different grip or arm path, like Close-Grip Front Lat Pulldown or Straight-Arm Pulldown. Over the weeks, add reps first and then load, or move from assisted pull-ups to your full bodyweight.
Covers: Latissimus dorsi and teres major.
Pullups
The king of lat exercises. Bodyweight compound. Wide grip targets lats maximally. The benchmark of upper body pulling strength.
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown
Machine version of pull-ups for those who can't do them yet or for higher rep work. The most common cable machine in any gym.
Chin-Up
Supinated grip shifts some emphasis to biceps while still crushing lats. Often easier than pull-ups, making it more accessible.
Close-Grip Front Lat Pulldown
Neutral/close grip allows heavier loading and more ROM. Hits the lower lats well.
Straight-Arm Pulldown
Isolation exercise for lats with no bicep involvement. Great for mind-muscle connection. Only pure lat isolation in most gyms.
Bent-Arm Barbell Pullover
Stretch-position exercise for lats. Classic bodybuilding movement. Unique angle not covered by rows or pulldowns.
V-Bar Pulldown
V-bar attachment allows neutral grip pulling with heavier loads. Hits the lower lats and mid-back together.
Underhand Cable Pulldowns
Supinated grip pulldown emphasizes the lower lats and biceps. Good for building a thicker back.
V-Bar Pullup
Bodyweight pulling with a close neutral grip. Hits lats and mid-back. More challenging than standard pulldowns.
Leverage Iso Row
Machine iso row provides lat-focused pulling with guided movement. Ideal for isolating each side independently.
Shotgun Row
Single-arm cable row with a unique angle that targets the lats through a long range of motion.
One Arm Lat Pulldown
Unilateral cable pulldown addresses left/right lat imbalances. Greater range of motion per arm.
Other muscle groups
See how much each muscle is getting
KasMaker colors every muscle on a body map by how much you've trained it, so you can tell at a glance whether your lats got enough work this week. Logging and the body map are free on iPhone.
