There are very few muscles that impact our movement like the latissimus dorsi or for short, lat. The latissimus dorsi is a back muscle most known in the exercise world as the pull up and seated row muscle. It makes that wide “V” shape you see in bodybuilders when they pose. The lat is a critical muscle in connecting our upper body to our lower body for pretty much every activity of daily life. When we walk our trunk rotates on our pelvis (the lumbopelvic hip complex) and the posterior oblique myofascial sling is a part of that process. The lat dorsi is a big part of the myofascial sling (often referred to as one of the 5 primary kinetic chains) that connects to the lower body through fascia of the lower back and supports efficient moving. 

In this blog post, we will cover what happens when the lat dorsi doesn't function properly and what the lat dorsi is supposed to do.