Here is a follow up the the review I did on the lat EMG study that compared 4 grips. @bryanboorstein came in to help us demonstrate some of the variables that are going on in these experiments. One of the reasons I got the lab in the first place was to replicate study protocols and then expand upon them to investigate these variables.
We were able to reliably demonstrate the impacts of limiting range of motion and the resistance profile on the lats. This is why I try to keep those variables as close as possible when investigating the different bias of certain movements and exercises. For example comparing the short position of a short and long head bicep exercise with the same resistance profile and range of motion. But I wouldn’t compare a the short vs lengthened ranges exercises to each other. The lats in particular seem to have a significant change in amplitude relative to length, even when still loaded. This could be part of the reason the rowing motion was so high here.
EMG is a Proxy that requires very specific conditions to be informative IMO and very few people understand those well enough to be informing exercise decisions in it. Even then, you have to account for other factors like range of motion, and stability. This is why there isn’t a direct correlation between EMG amplitude and the best exercises for hypertrophy.
My current assessment is that taking all evidence into consideration, your motions leveraging the rib cage like pull Arounds and sagittal pulls are my top picks for lat hypertrophy, but many other exercises are above the threshold of being effective still. None of these exercises were zero lats on EMG. But if we are to consider ROM and stability on top of this, I think there is a strong case to give some of the @n1.education exercises aka KAS bullshit, a try.