>Lats pull your arm back
>(like a row) or down
>(like a chin-up)...

Look, I am not the only person who says lats are used in punching. It's pretty common. Lats are used when you push a door open. They are used when you take a drink of water. They are involved in most everything that you use your arms to do.

>Scientifically speaking, your lat does
>extension and adduction, mostly. Well,
>you probably mean a whole slew of muscles,

The muscle going from under your shoulder down along the side of your rib cage.. I know what a lat is.

>and lats can't HURT,

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

>but you need to work all of those muscles
>so you can move it good. Your claviclar
>head of your pecs (upper chest), your
>anterior and later heads of your deltoid,
>and your biceps to some extent are what
>bring your arm up and out.

I am sure your butt is involved in there somewhers too. But the upper chest tugs the arm up and launches it from where it was resting moreso than the bicep. The lat is what does the work when your waist twists.. it isn't your pelvis hurling that arm in there, it's your back.

>Obviously, you need those muscles too.
>EXRX could help with specifics about
>what muscles move what, where.

Ok, yay you are smart. Maybe you are a physical therapist. Yeeha. I know how I punch. Every muscle in the body is involved when you punch. I didn't say that your arm is limp the whole time. I just said that the upper chest and the lat bring the speed. The upper chest because it flexes first and harder than your bicep or shoulder. Honestly, your bicep is only flexed for a fraction of a second before your tricep starts pushing the arm forward and takes over. The shoulder flexes as well.. but your lat does a lot of the work in driving that punch forward as you twist your waist.

Does the bicep flex when you twist your waist? Do the shoulders need to flex? Your lats do.

Maybe you don't know how to punch this way. Fine. Watch some boxers in slow motion and see what flexes. Me, I can feel it. I know what is flexing on my body.

I don't need a vocabulary lesson.

Another reason to work your lats is some much needed impact proctection on you rib area.

Chuck... a reverse pushups is as follows...

lay on your back, tuck your feet in close to your but (knees sticking up). Place your palms on the ground near your head (so your elbows are sticking up). Then push off your legs and hands until your abdomen is as high in the air as you can get it. Roll your head back trying to look at the floor when you're at the top. When you come back down, touch your neck and sholders to the ground then go up again.

These are great exercises and work a whole new set of muscles...... but I would only recommend them if you've got faily limber wrists. They stretch mine out, and mine are pretty healthy.

--A poor band player I was, but now I am crocodile king. --