There is no better exercise for your lats than pull-ups. The great thing about them is that they also work the middle back, biceps, triceps and others as well.

In short, pull-ups are a great compound, upper-body movement that you should master.

Now, I am not a gadget person when it comes to the gym. All I workout with is my Gymboss Timer and my gloves. The problem is, pull-ups are hard to do for most women. It requires significant upper body strength to do, of which most women do not have. That said, they are certainly do-able! If you are a woman, it may just require that you put in some time building up your lat and arm muscles first.

This is where the gadget comes in. I built my strength up by doing lots of reps on the Lat Pulldown machine in conjunction with using a little device called the “Perfect Fitness Perfect Pullup Assist”. This thing actually works. You simply attach it to the bar, adjust it to your height, put your foot in the stirrup and then pull yourself up. It has 3 exercise bands which can be added and removed to give you more or less resistance (see pic below), so that as you get stronger you just remove a band and it makes you work harder to pull yourself up.

Here are some pics showing it in use.

I highly recommend this handy little device to help anyone be able to do their first pull-up, or to help those who can already do pull-ups do more. Simply do as many as you can, then immediately step into the Perfect Pullup to help you crank out even more. This will build your strength and over time allow you to do even more unassisted. I like the results I am seeing:

Good Luck!