The elusive lat muscle. There are a million and one ways to cue how to access your lats and sometimes clients still struggle to engage each rep. “Protect your pits” is a quick easy saying to add to your arsenal of cues for lat engagement.
The Latissimus Dorsi muscle is a large muscle spanning across your mid-lower back, attaching at several points along the ribs, under the shoulder blade and all the way up to the humeral head. The primary function of this muscle is to move the upper arm and assist in respiration. Therefore retracting the shoulder blade down will help to engage the lats. The problem is, most people don’t generally feel the lat by just retracting their shoulder blade down. This is due to many things, including mobility, position of the humerus in the glenohumeral joint and disassociating the upper arm from shoulder blade. “Protect your pits” like being tickled under arm is an external cue everyone can relate to that assists in stabilizing that upper arm WITH the shoulder blade.
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