How to Stretch Your Lats for a Stronger Deadlift

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Your latissimus dorsi (lats) are the largest muscles in your back. When deadlifting, they stabilize the spine to maintain a straight back and keep the bar close to your body for the lift’s duration. While your lats aren’t the primary muscle group affecting your lift strength, stretching them offers some impressive benefits. Discover the best routines to stretch your lats for a stronger deadlift.

Why Strengthen Your Deadlift?

A strong deadlift is an excellent indicator of full-body strength. Deadlifts generate high electromyography (EMG) activation across various muscle groups, including the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, traps, lats and forearms. An EMG wearable sensor helps you evaluate how functional an exercise is for your muscle growth.

Traditional deadlifts are highly effective in glute and hamstring muscle activation. With stretched lats, you can better target these muscle groups for a stronger and convincing deadlift.

Bear in mind that deadlifting puts strain on your leg and abdominal veins, especially the inferior vena cava — a primary abdominal vein — and those in your calves. The strain on your venous system can cause abdominal pressure that prevents blood from flowing to your heart and restricts its flow through the leg veins. Hence, stretching your lats before and after you deadlift is essential to improve blood circulation and overall vein health.

The 5 Best Ways to Stretch Your Lats

You should warm up before any form of weight training for a safer and more effective session. Stretch your lats regularly for a stronger deadlift that alleviates pressure on your venous system and other areas.

Young attractive woman practicing yoga, stretching in Downward facing dog exercise, adho mukha svanasana pose, working out, wearing black sportswear, indoor full length image, studio background

1. Downward-Facing Dog

Downward-Facing Dog is a well-known yoga technique that helps stretch your spine and strengthens your lats from a different angle than many others. If you start practicing it in flows, you could increase your flexibility and relaxation:

  • Position yourself on all fours on a decent yoga mat with your hands flat and your wrists directly under your shoulders. Tuck in your toes and raise your heels.
  • Lift your hips up and back until your knees are under them, leaving you in an inverted V position. If you have tight hamstrings, bend your knees to accommodate them and form a straight line from your wrists to your hips.
  • If necessary, slightly push your feet apart and move your hips from side to side. This action may help you stretch your lats further.
  • Hold this position for 60 seconds, working on straightening your legs to feel your lats and hamstrings stretch further.

Focus on proper alignment and your body’s needs while doing this exercise. You might choose to hold the position for less time and repeat it more often if it enhances the effectiveness.

2. Active Floor Stretch

Using this technique, you effectively use your muscles to stretch others in your body. Active stretching requires no equipment or assistance to achieve decent results:

  • Kneel on the floor, then push your hips back and lie one forearm along the surface.
  • Lean your body weight onto your lowered forearm and stretch out your other arm, straightening it along the surface until it reaches your prone arm. You’ll feel the side of your body stretching.
  • Hold your outstretched arm in position for up to 10 seconds before returning it to its original position. Repeat the stretch 10 times.
  • Switch your arms and do the same to feel the pull on the other side of your torso. Again, repeat the stretch 10 times.

3. Exercise Ball Stretch

Ideally, you’ll want an exercise ball for this routine, but you can use the back of a small chair or the wall to achieve a similar result:

  • Kneel in front of the exercise ball with your hands on the floor — the tabletop position. Keep your neck neutral.
  • Place one hand on top of the ball with your thumb facing upward, supporting yourself with the other.
  • Lean forward, pushing your head down. The ball will roll forward under your arm and will engage the lat muscles in your back when you maintain your posture.
  • Hold the position for 20 to 30 seconds, then swap arms.
  • Alternate your arms each time, repeating the routine as you see fit. 

4. Child’s Pose

Another well-known yoga technique is the Child’s Pose. It passively stretches your lats, making it ideal as a recovery exercise after weight training:

  • Kneel on your mat with your butt resting on your heels. Widen your knees enough for your torso to sink between your thighs.
  • Reach your arms forward, sliding your hands across the mat with your palms down. Stretch as far as you can.
  • Push your hands toward one corner of the mat until you feel your opposite lat stretching. Hold the stretch for 30 to 60 seconds.
  • Repeat the process on the opposite side.

There’s never a bad time to stretch your lats, so if it’s effective, you can also use this pose before a deadlift.

5. Cat-Cow Stretch

The Cat-Cow Stretch is a dynamic yoga lat stretch that loosens up your spine’s motion range to warm up your lats effectively. It is an ideal back routine to consider before you hit the weight room:

  • Begin the routine in the tabletop position with your palms and knees on the surface.
  • With your arms straight, take a deep breath and arch your back down, raising your chin upward as far as possible. Then let your breath out. This position is the Cow Pose. 
  • Hold the position and breathe in again, then push your back upward, lowering your chin in line with your spine, not to your chest — the Cat Pose.
  • Again, release your breath. Repeat the whole cycle 10 to 15 times.

Stretching Lats Before and After Training Provides Improved Deadlift Posture and Circulation

While there are several other exercises to stretch your lats, the above ones have proven effective in improving posture for stronger deadlifts and reducing the chances of blood circulation issues that can arise from weight training. Whichever stretches you choose before and after your deadlifts, ensure you feel them in your lats to optimize your lifting performance without adversely affecting your vein health.

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Michael Wood, CSCS
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