Lat excercises
 

Anybody have any advice as to how to work my Lats with either a barbell or dumbells? I can't seem to figure out a beneficial back excercise with the equipment I have readily available at my house. At the moment I am using dumbells while bent over while supporting myself with my free arm (keeping back straight) and bringing them from the ground straight up (until about chin level). I alternate sides while doing this, but for some reason I feel like it isnt working my back as much as it is working my biceps. Suggestions?

Your torso should be parrallel to the floor when doing that. Then bring it from the ground to the side of your stomach.

Ya, I am doing that but I seem to not be working my back much... feels like its working my arms more.

Go heavier...and instead of focusing on raising the weight to your side, focus your attention on raising your elbow. Much of weightlifting is how you focus yourself. You can do an exercise that looks identical to how you did the last set, but different focus and concentration yields different muscles worked.
Like when you bench press, you should not focus on moving the weight to the top position, rather focusing on bringing your elbows closer together (ie pointed at the ceiling when they are only 18 or so inches apart) than when they are at the bottom (ie about 42 inches apart when they are pointed out to each side) yields the best chest workout and minimizes the triceps. This more closely mimics the movement and focus of a fly, which is a more concentrated chest exercise than a bench press.

Hope that makes some sense.

I can't really think of any freeweight exercises that isolate the latissimus dorsi specifically.

Besides the exercise listed in the above posts. I like to lie on my back on bench (lengthwise) and hold two dumbells or a barbell (light weights) directly above me.

Then, I slowly (with the arms straight) bring them behind my head and parallel to the floor. Then reverse the motion until the weights are back above you.

Maybe it's doing the infraspitus. Not sure since I usually do this at the end of the back and shoulder exercises.

Nice suggestions, I will try them out for sure! I am just not wanting to go buy a lat bar/tower extension for my bench :p

For your bent-over rows the key is to hold your position when your arm is parrallel with your torso. Hold for at least 3 seconds and try building from there.

I took out my trusty strength anatomy book. So here's what you can do with what you have:

1) Reverse Chin-Ups- On a chin up bar. It works lats and teres major. Underhand grip.

2) One arm dumbell row- You already do that.

3) Bent Rows - Same thing as 2) but with a barbell. (Lats, traps, teres, rhombs, biceps)

Great! I appreciate you taking time to look that up :)

chins work your lats great and it's easy to find a place where you can do them. at my old dorm...i would hang on the ceiling pipes and do my pullups there. i believe a wider grip tends to involve your lats more, but it's also good to vary your grip to keep shocking your body

Arnold Schwarz.. (well you know). Wrote an article in his BodyBuilding days showing that his huge back was partly developed by very wide chinups.

You can do regular chinups (front grip) and as a variation "chin-up" behind your neck. This requires greater strength but is a cool variation and places less emphasis on your pecs and more on your back.