HOW DO I ENGAGE MY LATS?

When training, subtle adjustments make all the difference... & nothing demonstrates that like proper lat engagement! I briefly mentioned engaging your lats in my post about proper core engagement when I said we want to make sure our shoulders aren’t shrugging/hunching. It’s more nuanced than that though, which is why I created this video.

In short, if your posture is looking sloppy, then your lats are not engaged.. which means your core is also not properly engaged... which could lead to difficult/painful movement or even injury (ouch). So let’s talk solutions!

Focus on:

keeping neck long
keeping chest open
"locking in" shoulders (compress your shoulder blades back & down as if you were trying to slide them into the back pockets of your jeans)

All while keeping your core engaged:

not arching lower back
not puffing rib cage out

It's also worth mentioning that training your lats with exercises like lat pulldowns, pull-ups & rows could not only improve your ability to engage your lats, but also your awareness of whether or not they're properly engaging & maintaining good posture with any movement you do.

I hope you find this check list, along with this video visual helpful! Shoot me an email if you have any questions!