How cool. That's a great feeling. I think back was one of the toughest muscle groups for me to connect with in working out. Pullovers was the exercise where it really started "clicking" for me.
Cathe mentions this, but I think it really has a lot to do with putting your mental focus into the targeted muscle group. I try not to think of the motion I'm doing so much as contracting the muscle first, then the motion just sort of "happens." If you have a friend or partner that's willing, it can be helpful if you could just have them touch your back while you're doing a couple reps (i.e. put their hands across your lats, rhomboid area -- depending on your hand grip). This is a kinda neat trick. It can help that mind/muscle connection or pathway get clearer. You might try it on concentration curls (biceps) sometime, to see if you notice the difference. That's an easy one to do by yourself. For me anyway, if I put a couple fingers across the muscle, the focus there intensifies somewhat.
It even helps me to "imagine" a touch on whatever muscle group I'm working. Especially on days where my focus and connection just aren't as keyed in. Like anything else, this can vary a lot from day to day for me. But for example, on lateral raises, if I imagine my medial delt being touched, I'm able to really bring the focus into working that muscle contraction. Maybe back is trickier because it takes some time before you develop a sense of what/where/how that complex and unseen muscle group really works and feels when isolated (and the biceps seem to want to be so "helpful"). If you can, also trying not to grip any harder than you have to in order to hold on -- that's helped me. Loosening my grip can sometimes take my biceps out of the picture a bit and help me use my back more on days I'm having a bit of trouble with that.
I really recommend the touch technique if you can try it sometime (though I know not everyone has someone "handy" to do that).
HTH ~ Lori
