invisible lat syndrome

9.5

A posture with arms held wide that makes a person look like they have large back muscles, without visible muscles

noun
/ɪnˈvɪzəbl læt ˈsɪndroʊm/

Jargon

: síndrome de lat invisible

He realized his exaggerated posture was due to invisible lat syndrome and corrected it during training.

Examples

Many gym-goers joke about invisible lat syndrome when someone walks with their arms held wide.
Videos mocking invisible lat syndrome have become popular among fitness influencers online.
He suffers from invisible lat syndrome when he stands.
Many gym-goers experience invisible lat syndrome after months of training.
Many gym-goers joke about invisible lat syndrome when someone walks with their arms held wide.
Videos mocking invisible lat syndrome have become popular among fitness influencers online.
He realized his exaggerated posture was due to invisible lat syndrome and corrected it during training.

Surface Forms

invisible lat syndrome singular

invisible lat syndromes plural

Morphology

invisible + lat + syndrome

The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'invisible' (not visible) + 'lat' (back muscle) + 'syndrome' (set of symptoms), so a learner who knows these words can infer it refers to a condition involving non-visible/underdeveloped lats and associated posture. This is a literal, compositional noun phrase following normal English compounding patterns and is therefore immediately comprehensible to learners who know the parts.

Etymology

Invisible lat syndrome comes from a funny image: someone stands with their arms wide and chest out as if they have big lats, the back muscles, but the muscles are not there and are 'invisible'. So the phrase is used jokingly for the exaggerated poor posture that looks like someone is pretending to have muscles.