There's more to building mass than just lifting heavy weight in the "big" exercises. You need to attack the muscle in OTHER positions and movements as well.

In that respect, the STRETCH position is key for optimal muscle growth. If you're not doing exercises that focus on the stretch position of a muscle, you'll never achieve your full potential for mass in that muscle. That's a guarantee.

And for lats, we're talking PULLOVERS.

The dumbbell and barbell pullover are two of the most potent "stretch" exercises for the lats.

However, the pullover does have a major weakness...and that is effective range of motion. The bottom "stretch" position is GREAT...but once you pass a certain part of the movement (approaching 90 degrees at the shoulder/vertical arms), the tension drops off the lats completely.

That's where THIS new version of the exercise comes into play...I call it the Two-Phase Barbell/Bodyweight Pullover...and it's going to SHRED your lats.

You're going to be moving from a barbell pullover DIRECTLY into a "bodyweight" pullover, using your body as resistance to continue placing massive tension on the lats over a greater range of motion.

You'll be doing an open-chain exercise AND a closed-chain exercise (two phases) during the full movement. If you're not familiar with these terms, simply put, open-chain means the weight is moving while the body is fixed. Closed-chain means the limbs are fixed while the body is moving (and is part or all of the resistance).

And let me tell you right up front, this combination is incredibly effective and downright BRUTAL on the lats.

How to Do It

You'll need a rack, a bench and a barbell to perform this exercise.

Set the bench about halfway inside the rack. Set the safety rails of the rack to about the same level as the bench (a little bit lower is ok, too). Load the bar with a moderate weight. I have 95 lbs on the bar in the demo and that was plenty for me.

Get into position on the bench. The uprights of the rack should be about in line with your lower rib cage....this positioning is CRITICAL to the exercise (you'll see why in a second).

Reach back and grip the bar with an overhand grip, about shoulder width apart. You should maintain some bend in your elbows to take stress off the joints.



Now develop tension/stretch in the lats then squeeze the bar off the rails. DO NOT "pop" or explode it off the rails - the shoulders are in a sensitive position here. The exercise is fine when done properly but momentum or sudden movements have no place here.



Continue until the bar contacts the uprights of the rack. Press the bar against the uprights and hold it there.

(and yes, you CAN also add a band attached below/behind your head and to the bar to add horizontal resistance to the pullover as well, so you don't have any gap in tension through the whole exercise. I tried that tonight and it works VERY well)

Now start lifting your feet off the bench.



This begins the SECOND phase of the exercise....a "dragon flag" or "front lever" style of pullover using your BODY as the resistance.

For this part, your shoulders will stay on the bench, but everything else is going to come up and off.

The goal here is to use your LATS bring the body up. The abs will fire, but try to NOT use them while doing this part for maximum effect.

Push the bar into the uprights as hard as you can as though trying to continue the pullover. Because the bar is braced, your BODY will come up instead.

So don't think of it as a leg raise coming from your abs...think of it as a "front lever", coming from your lats.



Come all the way up until your legs contact the bar.



Lower down slowly then set your feet on the bench.



Then lower the bar back down to the start position.



There are two ways to do this here...you can either set the bar back down on the rails and relax the lats. This will allow you to reset your body and shoulder position and have a short break from the tension.

Restarting from a dead stop is very effective for eliminating elastic tension from the muscles and forcing them to do ALL the work when you raise the bar again.

Or you can pause above the rails, feel the stretch, then begin the movement again, without touching the bar down. This is a great way to go, too. It puts massive stretch-tension on the lats for a longer period of time.

Repeat the exercise for as many reps as you can get with good form. Aim for 6 to 8 reps per set (going through BOTH phases is one rep), doing 2 to 4 sets total.

This exercise is a great one to pre-exhaust the lats, done at the beginning of a back workout, or as a finisher after perform heavy back training. I would use it as the "meat" of a back workout, so to speak.

If you try it, let me know how you like it. And yeah, I can promise you WILL get a lot of strange looks when you do it. But the INCREDIBLE tension (and pump) you can get in your lats makes it absolutely worth doing.

To see this exercise in action (VERY helpful), click here to watch it on my YouTube channel.





Enjoy!

And if you're interested in even MORE insane back exercises like this, you should grab a copy of my book "The Best Back Exercises You've Never Heard Of"...it's PACKED with killer stuff, just like this, covering EVERY aspect of your back.



Nick Nilsson
The "Mad Scientist of Muscle"