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Technique

  1. Sit on the lat pulldown machine and adjust the thigh pads to secure your position.
  2. Grasp the bar with a wide, overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width.
  3. Pull the bar down toward your upper chest, leading with your elbows.
  4. Slowly release the bar back to the starting position with control.

Form tips

  • Avoid using momentum; focus on controlled pulling and lowering of the weight.
  • Engage your lats by squeezing your shoulder blades together at the bottom of the movement.
  • Ensure a full range of motion, pulling the bar down until it nearly touches the chest.
Logging: Total weight used.

Muscles

Strength

Primary

  • Back
  • Chest
  • Biceps
  • Forearms
  • Serratus anterior

Secondary

  • Shoulders
  • Triceps
  • Rotator cuff
  • Rhomboid major
  • Middle trapezius
  • Lower trapezius
  • Latissimus dorsi
  • Teres major
  • Biceps brachii (short head)
  • Brachialis
  • Brachioradialis
  • Serratus anterior
  • Pectoralis minor
  • Pectoralis major (sternal head)

Equipment

Appears in

Calisthenics skills
Joint movements

Progressions

e085

Pullup

Intermediate
e0hv

Neutral grip pullup

Intermediate
e0hw

Chinup

Intermediate
e11t

Rings pullup

Intermediate

Regressions

e1bw

Machine lat pulldown

Beginner

Variations

e1bw

Machine lat pulldown

Beginner
e1ai

Weighted chinup

Intermediate
e12l

Weighted pullup

Intermediate
e15g

Zottman curl

Beginner
e0jz

Barbell biceps curl

Beginner
e134

Double dumbbell biceps curl

Beginner
Want to log this exercise? Open it in Calistree. Text and images are used under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; the video plays from the original source.