Wesley Vissers Shares 4 Exercises to Create Wide Lats and Grow Lower Back Thickness for the ‘Ultimate V-Taper’

‘The Dutch Oak’ offered technique pointers for building a V-taper worthy of contending for the Classic Physique Olympia title.

Written byDoug Murray

Published on 2 September 2024 | 11:17 AM EDT

Quality of technique is one of Wesley Vissers‘ top priorities in training while in prep for the 2024 Mr. Olympia contest. In a recent YouTube video shared on September 1, 2024, Vissers demonstrated four exercises to create wide lats and grow lower back thickness for the ‘ultimate V-taper.’

Wesley Vissers started his IFBB Pro League tenure quietly, but his impact in Classic Physique has crescendoed into something much bigger as of late. He took seventh place at the 2023 Olympia contest, making huge strides in his physique since. These improvements were on display in Columbus, Ohio at the 2024 Arnold Classic. Despite his status as an underdog, Vissers out-muscled Ramon Queiroz in a massive upset.

Although he earned his qualification for the 2024 Mr. Olympia thanks to the victory, Vissers decided to test himself at the Arnold Classic UK show, once again claiming gold in a dominant performance. In light of his continued success, bodybuilding veterans agree he’s become one of Chris Bumstead‘s primary threats headed to the biggest event of the year. In between preparations, Vissers walked fans through how he’s building his back to combat the reigning five-time Classic Physique Olympia winner.

“Another video on how to work a specific muscle group, this time the lat width. How to create wide lats with also some lower back thickness as well so that the width and the lower back thickness can create that ultimate V-taper.”

Wesley Vissers’ 4 Exercises to Widen the Lats for an Ultimate V-Taper

Check out his selections below:

Unilateral Lat Pulldown Machine

Chest Supported T-Bar Row

Seated Row Machine

Cable Pullover

Unilateral Lat Pulldown Machine

Vissers begins the demonstration with the unilateral lat pulldown machine. Whenever he’s performing this exercise, he makes sure to keep his elbows close to his body, which allows for a better contraction in the lats.

“The first movement of course will be a pulldown movement, which means you are pulling something down from the top to the bottom. We’re going to do it in a special way, namely in a unilateral way. A difficult word for one arm at a time.”

“The first thing you notice is this handle it gives you freedom of motion,” said Vissers. “Whenever I’m doing this motion, you want your elbow to be pretty close to the body. When the elbow is close to the body, that’ll allow the contraction of the lats.”

To keep the stress at the top of each repetition, Vissers says to position your working arm closer to the machine.

“We’re always starting out with the weaker side first or the smaller side,” explains Vissers. “Sit in a way where you actually are going to sit closer to the direction of the arm that you’re using so that the stress at the top is more.”

Chest Supported T-Bar Row

He credits chest-supported t-bar rows as an effective maneuver for building the bottom of the V-taper.

“Whenever you want to work on the lower lats and basically the bottom of the V-taper, you always want the elbows to be able to go close to the body, at least closer than this super wide grip.

This also has a more narrow grip option, and the nice thing about this is you can truly work and isolate the lower lats without the erectors muscles that attach to the spine. So you can truly isolate them here but this time we’re going for heavier weight because we’re using both arms at the same time.”

While bringing the weight up, he slightly arches his back to maximize the contraction.

“What you want to look out for when I go all the way down of course there’s a stretch, once I go up, I’m going to slightly arch my back to be able to really get close to the maximum contraction possible because that is very important to engage the lower lats.”

Seated Row Machine

Using the seated row machine, Vissers explains that he can achieve a maximum lat stretch by pulling the weight towards his body while keeping the working arm/shoulder ‘dropped down.’

“This works just as fine with one cable as most gyms have that of course, but I’m going to use the advantage of this, and start with the left side and grab the right cable because this already puts my body in a position where the stretch of the lats is maximum because the lats wrap around the rib cage so you want to have the cable pull the lats apart away from you,” instructs Vissers.

“Once I do the movement, you can see I’m pulling it towards me but now I have the freedom again with my arm and look at this elbow, the working arm elbow, the shoulder, of course, needs to be dropped down with the elbow going close to the body again.”

Cable Pullover

Cable pullovers serve as Vissers’ favorite isolation exercise for the back, which he credits for working the V-taper on top in addition to the lower back simultaneously.

“We have arrived at my favorite isolation movement for the back, for the upper back, so for the lats, the V-taper on top, the width, and the lower back at the same time. So always do this at the last because this will finish off the entire back.”

He prefers a bar attachment over ropes and advised lifters to stick with 12-15 repetitions.

“This is a cable pullover with this is actually a regular bar but it’s a slightly different handle but it’s still a bar where you hold it wider, you can also hold it with a rope. I prefer the bar because the superior stretch and another variation would be the dumbbell pullover that is for the stretch as well.”

“Make sure you pick a weight that you can do at least around 15 reps with, 12 at the bare minimum because again, it’s an isolation movement so you’re taking the biceps out of the movement. This is purely focused on the lats but also a little bit of that serratus muscle right here.”

Not only will Vissers have to take out Bumstead, but he’ll have to once again defeat Queiroz alongside other notable threats in Classic Physique, such as former two-time Olympia winner Breon Ansley, Urs Kalecinski, and rising threat Matthew Greggo.

With momentum and a golden era physique in his corner, time will tell if Wesley Vissers can do the unthinkable and dethrone Bumstead. Don’t miss the 2024 Mr. Olympia contest taking place next month from October 10-13 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Watch the full video from Wesley Vissers’ YouTube channel below: