Kettlebell Leg Lift, Romanian Deadlift Press Out

Q: Another hello from England! I was always led to believe that narrow grip tends to build more back thickness and wide grip builds more back width. Because of this, I've normally done a varied grip range; wide grip, medium grip and narrow grip lat pulldowns/pullups. Taking your HTE 2.0 programme with the rep range 10-8-6-15, I would go wide grip lat pulldown for 10, medium grip for 8, narrow grip for 6 and then wide grip for the flushing 15. As my grip goes from wide to narrow, I can naturally lift more weight as your programme calls for.

I noticed that in your HTE 2.0 programme, you've specified pull-ups, V-bar pulldowns and seated cable rows for back exercises. The latter two are more narrow grip exercises. Is there a reason why you've gone for these two exercises as opposed to a standard lat pulldown bar? Or am I reading too much into this?

Best regards!

Kalwant

Leeds, England

My Answer: Yes you are reading too much into it.  The seated cable row with a V-bar handle is more of a back thickening movement.  The V-bar pulldown, however, both widens and thickens the back. 

The V-bar pulldown is a pure hypertrophy movement (aka Shotgun movement), which is why I recommend it  for the HTE 2.0 program.  As long as you perform a full range of motion, you will feel a stretch of the lats at the top of the movement and a full contraction at the bottom.

The wide grip pulldown is a "pivot point" movement to develop back width beneath the shoulders.  The reason for this is that lat pulldowns stretch the lats and work the teres major.  Working both back muscles gives you a wide shouldered V-taper, as opposed to the look of width and thickness only in the lats.