By back zone
Lat Width exercises
Thirty-six of the 77 exercises in BackMaxx load Lat Width. Eighteen of them pull from overhead, and that is the group a session should open with.
The short answer
Lat Width exercises are the 36 movements in BackMaxx that load the lats — 21 with the zone as their primary target, 15 as a secondary. Eighteen are vertical pulls, fourteen are rows, two are straight-arm isolation and two are stretches. Width comes from the overhead group; the rows keep thickness from sliding.
Start with the group that pulls from overhead
Thirty-six exercises load Lat Width. Eighteen are vertical pulls, fourteen are rows, two are straight-arm isolation and two are stretches. That split is the entire decision. The lats run from the armpit down, and they only reach full length when your hands are above your head.
So the first movement of the session comes from the overhead eighteen. The lats need a full stretch at the top and a long range, and no row offers either.
The fourteen rows carry Lat Width as a secondary tag for a reason: they load the lats hard at the bottom of the pull and nowhere else. Second movement, not first.
The ladder to a strict pull-up
Twenty-two of the 36 are beginner-tier, and most of those are rungs on one ladder. Work down it until a rung is genuinely hard, then live there for a few weeks.
| Rung | Movement | Prescription |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dead Hang — relax into a full hang and breathe | 3 × 20–40s |
| 2 | Active Hang — blades pulled down away from your ears | 3 × 15–30s |
| 3 | Scapular Pull-up — your arms never bend | 3 × 8–12 |
| 4 | Negative Pull-up — three to five seconds on the way down | 3 × 4–6 |
| 5 | Assisted Pull-up, or Banded Lat Pulldown at home | 3 × 8–12 |
| 6 | Pull-up, Chin-up, Neutral-Grip Pull-up | 3 × 6–10 |
| 7 | Weighted Pull-up, L-Sit Pull-up, Commando Pull-up, Towel Pull-up | 3 × 4–6 |
Rung 7 holds seven of the ten advanced movements in the whole corpus. Pull-Up Progression runs this ladder for six weeks if you would rather follow it than assemble it yourself.
Two per session, and no more
When a plan leads with Lat Width, the zone gets exactly two of the main slots: a heavy vertical pull, then a row or a straight-arm pulldown. Your next two weakest zones take the remaining slots. A 30-minute session holds four main movements; under twenty minutes it holds three.
Two is the ceiling because a third overhead pull competes with the first for the same grip and the same elbow path. Straight-Arm Pulldown is the useful exception — elbows locked at a slight bend, sweeping down with the lats rather than the triceps — since it adds lat work without asking anything of your hands.
The opener is fixed too. Lat Width sessions warm up with Scapular Pull-up, Active Hang or Dead Hang, all of which are on the ladder above.
Pulldowns and bands, if the bar is out
Fifteen of the 36 are gym-only and six need a pull-up bar. Without either, the band entries do the overhead work: Banded Lat Pulldown, anchored high with you kneeling tall, and Banded Straight-Arm Pulldown for that same elbows-down-and-back sweep. Towel Pull-up is home-only and grip-limited — the towels give out before the lats do.
Grip width matters less than people expect. The six pull-up bar movements differ far more by tempo and load than the wide, close and neutral pulldowns differ from each other.
What a Lat Width score is reading
Zone scores run 0 to 100. For Lat Width the model reads one outline: how far your back carries out past your waist, measured from the armpit down. Relative width is what moves the number, which is why the shoulder-to-waist ratio tends to track alongside it.
BackMaxx orders your six zones worst-first and gives the weakest one the lead. If Lat Width is not that zone this week, it still gets a slot — just the second one. The V-taper guide covers what the score does as width arrives.
Beginner (22)
Intermediate (7)
Advanced (7)
Frequently asked questions
How many Lat Width exercises should one session contain?
Two. A vertical pull from the overhead group leads, then one row or a straight-arm pulldown. A third lat movement fights the first for grip and elbow path, and the slots are better spent on your next two lagging zones.
Why are rows listed under Lat Width at all?
Fourteen rows carry Lat Width as a secondary zone because they load the lats through the bottom of the pull. Barbell Row, T-Bar Row, Meadows Row and the rest are primarily Upper Back movements — real lat work, but at short range rather than full stretch.
What if there is no pull-up bar or pulldown machine?
Use Banded Lat Pulldown at 3 × 12–15 and Banded Straight-Arm Pulldown at the same prescription. They are the only home entries that resist you from overhead. Fifteen of the 36 movements are gym-only, so the band pair plus one-arm rows carries a bedroom session.
Which Lat Width exercises are advanced?
Seven: Commando Pull-up, L-Sit Pull-up, Towel Pull-up, Weighted Pull-up, Weighted Chin-up, Meadows Row and Pendlay Row. All seven run at 3 × 4–6 or thereabouts, and five of them hang from a bar.
Which of these do you actually need?
BackMaxx scores six zones and eight muscles from one photo, then picks the movements that fix the lowest number — from the same 77-exercise library.
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