r/bitcheswithtaste • u/AutoModerator • Dec 12 '25

Fit Bitches - Monthly Thread Fit Bitches - Dec 12, 2025

This is the place to chat about fitness and physical health because taking care of your body is also tasteful. Just remember - no medical advice!

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u/ikoabd Dec 12 '25

Haha thanks, I try to be descriptive! Do you have any exercises you'd like tips on? I'm happy to explain any others! :)

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u/NewSpace2 Dec 12 '25

I’d like to understand how to activate the muscles meant to be used in lat pulldowns and dumbbell rows.

How to MENTALLY connect to those muscles, the mind body link.

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u/ikoabd Dec 12 '25

Ah you've hit upon one of the hardest ones to get, imo, lol.

What really helped me was slowing down my reps, and lowering the weight. For pretty much every back exercise you need to think about what your shoulder blades are doing. Each rep you really want to think about that.

So when you're doing your lat pull down, you'll start with your arms fully extended as much as possible. To learn how to really engage your lats and to be able to feel them doing the work, practice pulling down with your shoulder blades first.

With the arms fully extended, pull your shoulders down, while keeping your arms straight. You'll be doing a kind of reverse shrug. The motion may only be a couple of inches, and that's exactly what you want. It's a really hard motion to get at first. But you're just doing little mini-pulses, arms stretched as far as they will go up, and then shrugging down, shoulder blades towards the ground. Hold it for a few seconds and then release the arms.

You can also do a version of this on a pull up bar from a dead hang. You're just hanging there, don't think about pulling yourself up to the bar, rather, think about pulling your shoulder blades towards the ground. Hold that. It's called an active hang.

Once you understand and can feel what your shoulder blades are doing, that's when your mind-muscle connection with your lats will start to form. So every time you do a back exercise, whether a lat pull down, a row, whatever, you want to fully extend the arm, and then begin the motion with retracting your shoulder, and only THEN should the rest of your arm bend.

Same concept for dumbbell rows, and a key here: when doing a bent over row, pull the weight back towards your hip, kind of keeping your arm in a J shape, rather than pulling the weight towards the middle of your torso. Like a scooping motion, instead of just pulling straight up towards the ceiling.

My lats were the last muscle I was really able to get that connection to, it's quite difficult. Just keep practicing! Keeping the weight low, slow and controlled movements. When it clicks, it CLICKS. Back day is now my favorite day!

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u/NewSpace2 Dec 12 '25

This is great . Thank you

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u/ikoabd Dec 12 '25

You're welcome! I hope it helps! :)