How to Do a Lat Pulldown

Overview

Lat Pulldown is an exercise meant to help build serious upper body muscles and strength. However, it has also been shown to engage muscles in other parts of the body like back muscles.

This kinetic chain workout targets muscles in the forearms, trapezius, biceps, rhomboids, shoulder joints, shoulder girdles, and latissimus dorsi. Surprisingly, it can also help with chest muscle activation along with elbow extensors and flexors.

However, with body exercises, you cannot rule out the possibility of incurring injuries. Any exercise including lat pulldown can be dangerous unless you are working with a fitness trainer to guide you on how to do it correctly.

A study published in the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology assessed the benefits and risks involved in kinetic movements.

However, you can also learn some body-building tips by either watching a video or reading an article online. So, if you are reading for tips on how to do lat pulldown, you are in the right place.

In this article, you get detailed information on lat pulldown including tips on how to perform the exercises, the benefits, precautions, and mistakes to avoid, among other things.

How to Do a Lat Pulldown

Lat pulldown may seem easy exercise but if not done in the right way, you may end up with unexpected injuries in the process of training. Here are expert tips on safe pulldown.

• Ensure you are sitting comfortably on a pulldown seat with your placed flat on the floor. Remember to check the bar height and if need be adjust the bar height to ensure that it effectively supports your seat height. A gym trainer can help you with this in case you are unable to do it yourself.
• The height of the bar should be at a level where your arms can outstretch and grasp the bar comfortably without necessarily standing up. The bar height level should also enable you to extend your arms and reach a motion’s full range.
• In case the station has a thigh pad, ensure that you adjust it to enable the upper thigh to tuck firmly beneath the pad. This is important because supports you as you put on apply effort into the bar.
• Grasp the bar with a wide overhand grip or knuckles-up grip. While other grips and positions are still possible, this particular position is standard and great when you are starting.
• Pull down the bar until it is at your chin level. While you shift slightly backward, ensure that you are exhaling in a downward motion and you are keeping your upper torso still. As you engage your abs during the pulling, ensure that your feet are flat on the floor. Stay at that point and avoid going lower.
• While you maintain your square shoulders, ensure that you are squeezing your shoulder blades together.
• From the bottom position with the bar placed near your chin, slowly get the bar back to the starting point as you control its gradual ascent. As you do this, ensure that it does not crash into the weight plates.
• You should go on until you finish 8-12 repetitions in a single set. Take rest then carry on until you complete your targeted program sets.

Safety and Precautions

For safety reasons pulldown done behind the neck is not recommended because the spine contact with the bar plus the shoulder joint rotation can easily cause injuries.

If you have existing shoulder, elbow, or wrist problems, you should first talk to a physical therapist or your doctor for advice on whether or not the exercise is appropriate for you.

Should you feel any kind of pain or experience much stress on your shoulder joints during this exercise, it is advisable that you stop the exercise right away.

Also, note that the number of reps one can do in a single workout depends on factors such as weight used, strength, and level of experience.
So, it is always good to work with a professional fitness trainer to guide you on how best you can go about this exercise to prevent unnecessary injuries.

Benefits of Doing Regular Lat Pulldowns

Lat Pulldowns have a number of health benefits and some of them are discussed below:

Work for the entire upper body

Lat pulldown exercise targets every pulled muscle in the upper part of the body including the shoulder joint and girdle, Trapezius, forearm muscle, Biceps, Latissimus, hand, wrist muscle, and rhomboids.

The upper body muscle during this exercise is the triceps muscle but every other part of the muscle is engaged although during the pulling session.
A study in Dynamic Medicine looked into the benefits of lat pulldowns on upper body muscle and strength.

Easily adapt your workout

Lat pulldown is a versatile upper body workout that offers a number of grips to choose from. It comes with plenty of options just in one exercise.

With one lat pulldown exercise, you can have many workout variations for your shoulder and back. For instance, you can select from a narrow grip to a wide grip for an easy workout.

It also comes with a number of bars to allow you to switch out to different handlebars so that you can easily adapt to your workouts.

Great for beginners

Lat pulldown is one of the most popular forms of body-building workout for beginners who have not reached the level of cranking pull-ups.

Bodybuilding exercises can be dangerous unless you work with a fitness expert to help you navigate through them until you master them.

However, the lat pulldown is an exceptional body-building workout not just with low injury risk, but one of the easiest forms to master even by newbies.

Minimal Injury Risk

Like any other body-building workout, lat pulldown can lead to some injuries if not performed correctly.

There are some movements with the potential to cause strain to your shoulder joints, elbows, neck muscles, and wrists.

However, compared to pull-ups, the injury risk of lat pulldown is quite low. The exercise allows you to shift position for you to be able to adapt to your physiology, hence minimizing injuries.

Lat pulldown is generally a low-impact workout that allows you full customization, meaning an easier time to protect your joints during the entire full range of motion.

Greater Core Activation

When you perform lat pulldown it enables your abs to engage allowing you to stabilize on your seat. Core stabilization is important because it is the only way your upper body muscles can activate to pull down.

Movements including jumping, running, and playing sports engage the whole body by enabling the lower body to move the legs and the upper body to move the arms as your core coordinates movement between both.

So, any exercise that works to activate your core in connection with your lower body, upper body, or a combination of the two can be great for your body’s overall fitness. A stronger, mobile, and flexible core enables you to move easily and also reduces injury risks.

So, compared to other body-building exercises like pull-ups and chin-ups, the lat pulldown is the best because it not only works to activate the core but is also great for overall functional mobility and fitness.

A study published in Sports BioMechanics made a comparison between lat pulldowns and chin-ups. The results showed that chin-up exercises increased engagement in the biceps, lats, and shoulders while lat pulldown increased engagement in the abdominal muscles.

Greater Pulling power

Lat pulldown is an exercise that targets what fitness experts call the “pulling muscles.” In layman’s language, these are muscles that engage so that you can be able to pull something towards you.

Whenever you try to pull something towards your direction, you feel muscle activation not in your biceps and forearms as the muscles in your upper back and shoulder fire up during the pulling exercise.

Lat pulldown is a great exercise for activating all these muscles. This workout enables you to feel greater pulling power not just in the gym but in other life aspects.

A publication in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research looked into the effect of lat pulldown exercises on pulling power. It was established that lat pulldown exercises can help maximize power gains, improve training efficiency, and improve general physical functions.

Other Variations and Tips for Doing Lat Pulldowns

Fitness experts recommend performing lat pulldowns in the following ways in order to meet your goals and skill levels.

Light Weight or Bands for Starters and Beginners

If you are a beginner, you can start with bands or light weights to ensure the use of the correct form. You can similarly try doing the exercising in a standing position, with one leg forward like you are walking. Consider Dmoose Resistance Bands as an excellent choice, especially for beginners or those seeking effective home workouts.

Straight Arm Pulldown

Straight-arm pulldown is a method that requires you to keep your elbows nearly fully extended throughout (while standing). It is meant to hit the muscles on the upper arm’s back known as the triceps.

Alternative Grips

As the name suggests, alternative grips involve trying narrow, wider, over- or underhand grips to aim at precise muscle groups.

You can use a middle-distance grip with your hands about shoulder-width apart and forearms upright to work on the middle back and biceps.

While a wider grid works to recruit more back muscles, close grip pulldown focuses on forearm muscles.

Reversing Your Grip

If you reverse your grip to underhand with knuckles in a downward position and palms up, it helps put more work on the muscles on our upper arm’s front called the biceps.

Mistakes to Avoid When Doing a Lat Pulldown

To prevent injury or strain and get the most out of lat pulldown exercise, you should avoid the following mistakes:

Arching Your Back

Aim at maintaining a neutral spine so that you can protect your lower back from strain or injury. You can do this by ensuring you are in an upright sitting position with your chest lifted as you pull the bar.

Holding the Bar Wider than Necessary

When grabbing the bar especially if you are a beginner, you should ensure that it is outside your shoulders and not too wide. Your elbows should remain pointed down and not out to the sides as you bring down the bar.

Using Your Forearms

When pulling the bar down, it should come from your back and not your forearms doing the work. Ensure you are pulling down from your armpits in order to activate your lats.

Using Momentum

Like any other workout, ensure that when performing pulldown, you are doing it slowly and with control. Working out pulldown faster uses momentum and may reduce the utilization of the targeted muscles.

Pull Down Too Far

If you allow the elbows to go backward, your shoulder joint will experience excessive stress. So, ensure you are lowering the bar either to the chin or slightly below. Stop at the point where your elbow requires going backward to carry on pulling the cable down.