The latissimus dorsi, commonly known as the lats, is the largest muscle of the upper body, spanning the entire width of the back. Its size and attachments to the arm, spine, and pelvis often lead to confusion about its role in resistance training. People often wonder if this muscle should be categorized with “push” muscles or “pull” muscles. Understanding the lats’ specific biomechanical function is the only way to accurately classify its involvement in exercise.
Understanding Push and Pull Movements
In strength training, “push” and “pull” refer to the mechanical direction of force applied against resistance. This classification helps structure workout programs by grouping muscle function.
Push movements involve extending the limbs to move a weight or object away from the center of the body. The primary muscle groups involved are the chest, anterior deltoids, and triceps. Examples include the bench press, overhead press, and push-ups, where force is directed outward.
Conversely, pull movements involve contracting the limbs to bring a weight or the body toward the torso. Pulling exercises target the muscles of the back, posterior deltoids, and biceps. This action is defined by the arms moving in a path that shortens the distance between the hands and the core.
The Primary Function of the Latissimus Dorsi
The latissimus dorsi is a broad, flat muscle originating from the lower back, spine, pelvis, and ribs, and inserting onto the upper arm bone (humerus). This attachment dictates its primary actions at the shoulder joint. The muscle’s job is to move the arm relative to the torso.
The three main actions the lats perform are shoulder adduction, extension, and internal rotation. Adduction is the motion of bringing the arm down toward the side of the body from an elevated position. Extension involves moving the arm backward, such as bringing the arm down from an overhead position.
These movements draw the arm closer to the torso’s midline. The lats are also active when the body moves itself toward a fixed arm, such as during climbing or chin-ups, acting to pull the body mass upward and forward.
Classifying the Lats: Why They Are a Pull Muscle
Based on its primary anatomical functions, the latissimus dorsi is classified as an upper-body pull muscle. The muscle’s design focuses entirely on drawing the arm toward the body, which defines a pulling action in strength training. The extension and adduction motions performed by the lats are the opposite of the forces generated by the chest and triceps.
The lats are incapable of generating the outward force necessary to push a weight away from the body. While they assist in stabilizing the trunk during heavy push exercises, their role is supportive, not the primary driver of movement. Their concentric contraction is always associated with a pulling motion, confirming their classification.
Confusion sometimes arises because the lats are located on the back side of the body, yet they attach to the front side of the humerus. Despite this insertion point, the muscle fibers ensure that contraction pulls the arm backward and inward toward the spine, confirming their categorization with other pulling muscles.
Key Exercises That Target the Lats
Targeting the lats effectively requires performing exercises that utilize their functions of adduction and extension against resistance. These exercises are divided into two main categories: vertical pulls and horizontal pulls. The common factor across all effective lat exercises is the effort to drive the elbows toward the hips or the center of the back.
Vertical Pulls
Vertical pulling movements are those where resistance is pulled down from above, such as the pull-up and the lat pulldown. In a pull-up, the body is pulled up toward a fixed bar, engaging the lats to extend and adduct the arms. The lat pulldown mimics this action, where the exerciser pulls a bar down to the upper chest using shoulder adduction.
Horizontal Pulls
Horizontal pulling, or rowing, movements are equally effective at recruiting the lats, focusing more on the extension component. Exercises like the seated cable row or the dumbbell bent-over row involve pulling a weight toward the torso from a horizontal plane. The lats are activated as the exerciser retracts the shoulders and drives the elbows backward past the plane of the body. Training the lats through these various pulling angles supports comprehensive development and strength.