Master the Lat Pulldown: Target Your Back and Biceps Effectively

If you want to build a stronger, more muscular upper back, lat pulldowns will help. Sure, pull-ups and chin-ups are more hardcore and “functional,” but lat pulldowns make it easier to target your muscles with laser-like precision. Small changes to your torso angle or hand width will affect the target muscles differently.

And speaking of your hands, should you do lat pulldowns with a wide, medium, narrow, parallel, overhand, or underhand grip? With so many options, it can be hard to know what’s best.

In this article, we explain how to do lat pulldowns correctly and how the different grips affect your muscles.

Lat Pulldowns – Muscles Worked

Contrary to popular opinion, the “lat” in lat pulldowns doesn’t refer to your latissimus dorsi muscle. Instead, it’s short for lateral, which is the plane of movement that your arms move in when you perform this exercise.

However, despite this naming confusion, lat pulldowns do indeed work your lats. That said, they aren’t working alone, and several other muscles are also involved:

Latissimus dorsi

Known as the lats for short, these muscles are located on the side of your upper back. Connecting your arms to your trunk, the lats are responsible for the adduction and extension of your shoulder joints. They also play a role in medial rotation. When well-developed, the lats look like muscular wings and are responsible for your upper back width.

The lats are the agonist or prime mover during lat pulldowns. However, using different grips and hand widths will allow you to emphasize different regions of this muscle.

Trapezius

The trapezius is the large diamond-shaped muscle that covers much of your mid-upper back. Known as the traps for short, there are three sets of fibers that make up this muscle – upper, middle, and lower. The middle and upper fibers are most active during lat pulldowns, as they work to pull your shoulders together and down. The upper traps are not very active during lat pulldowns.

Rhomboids

Located between your scapulae or shoulder blades, the rhomboids work with the mid-traps to pull your shoulders back and together. There are two pairs of rhomboid muscles – major and minor – and both are working during lat pulldowns.

Deltoids

The deltoids or delts are your main shoulder muscles. Like the traps, there are three sets of deltoid fibers, often referred to as heads – anterior (front), medial (middle), and posterior (rear). All three delt heads work together, but the posterior head is the most active during lat pulldowns.

Rotator cuff

The rotator cuff is a group of four small muscles that control and stabilize your shoulder joint. These muscles are the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis. While you won’t be able to see or feel these muscles during lat pulldowns, you can be sure they’re actively engaged.

Biceps brachii

The biceps brachii, more commonly just called the biceps, is your primary elbow flexor and also supinates your forearm, i.e., turns your palm up. Located on the front of your upper arms, your biceps play a critical role in lat pulldowns. Using a supinated or palms-up grip puts your biceps in a stronger position, so you may find that grip allows you to use more weight.

Brachialis

The brachialis is like a mini-biceps, helping to flex your elbows. However, unlike the biceps brachii, this muscle plays no part in the supination of your forearm. As such, it’s equally involved regardless of what grip you use.

Brachioradialis

Brachioradialis is one of your main forearm/wrist flexors and plays a big part in your grip strength. If your hands start to fail before your lats, this muscle is a likely culprit. You can work around a weak grip by using lifting straps. However, it’s also a good idea to work on your grip strength so it is less of a limiting factor in your workouts.

Core

Core is the collective name for the muscles that make up your midsection. During lat pulldowns, you’ll need to use these muscles to stop the weight pulling your spine into hyperextension. The core muscles include the rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae. However, the rectus abdominis is the most active.

How to Do Lat Pulldowns

There are several ways to do lat pulldowns, as outlined later in this article. However, the medium-width overhand grip is arguably the most common variation and the one most lifters should master before moving on to other options.

In addition, all types of lat pulldown share many of the same characteristics, so it makes sense to master this version first.

So, get more from lat pulldowns while keeping your risk of injury to a minimum by following these guidelines.  

1. Attach a long bar to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the bar with a pronated/overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Do not flex your wrists.
7. Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
8. Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.

Here is a video we shot to show you how to properly perform a Lat Pulldown.

Pro Tips:

Make lat pulldowns even more effective with these handy performance tips, many of which can be applied to other lat pulldown variations:

• Do not lean back or sway to pull the bar down. This takes tension away from the target muscles.
• Squeeze and don’t jerk the weight down to minimize momentum and keep your muscles under tension for longer.
• Pause at the midpoint of each rep to maximize lats activation and improve your mind-muscle connection.
• Use a full range of motion to maximize muscle engagement.
• Avoid using too much weight. Ego-lifting will make lat pulldowns less effective. Make sure you can feel the lats doing most of the work and not your biceps.
• Pull to the front and not the back. Behind-the-neck lat pulldowns are harder on your shoulders and reduce lat engagement, making the exercise less effective but more risky.
• Use a false or thumbless grip which tends to reduce biceps activation and lets you focus more on your lats.
• Use lifting chalk to dry your hands, prevent slippage, and reinforce your grip.
• Use lifting straps of your hands fail before your lats. However, you should also work on developing a stronger grip.

Lat Pulldown Benefits and Drawbacks

Not sure if lat pulldowns deserve a place in your workouts? Consider these benefits and then decide!

Very adjustable and accessible

Pull-ups and chin-ups are great, but you need to be strong enough to lift your body weight using just your arm and back muscles. This feat may be beyond the ability of many exercisers, either because they’re weak or heavy.

You can adjust the weight with lat pulldowns, so they are accessible to all levels of strength and experience, irrespective of body weight.

Very safe

Performed with good technique and an appropriate load, there is very little to go wrong with lat pulldowns, and accidents and injuries are rare. They’re very shoulder-friendly, and most people can find a grip that is both comfortable and effective.

Perfect for intensity-boosting drop sets

Most lat pulldown machines have selectorized weight stacks, so you can change the load quickly and easily. This makes them ideal for drop sets. Rep out to failure, reduce (or drop) the weight by 10-15%, and then rep out again. Do 2-4 drops to fully exhaust your muscles and stimulate maximal hypertrophy.

Widely available

Most gyms have at least one lat pulldown machine. As such, this is a very accessible exercise, and most gymgoers should be able to include it in their back workouts.

Plenty of variations to choose from

As you will see in the next section, there are numerous ways to perform lat pulldowns, each with a slightly different effect. Lat pulldowns need never be repetitive or boring.

While lat pulldowns are a mostly beneficial exercise, there are also a few drawbacks to consider:

Limited overload

The amount of weight available for lat pulldowns varies from machine to machine. If you are very strong, you may find that you can max out on the lat pulldown at your gym. When this happens, you should seek out a plate-loading lat pulldown machine or graduate to weighted pull-ups.

Using very heavy weights can be difficult

Getting into the correct lat pulldown starting position with a weight greater than your body weight can be a real challenge. You may find yourself dangling from the bar and unable to get your legs under the knee pads.

If this happens to you, you can ask a training partner to help you or may need to switch to pull-ups, where getting into the right starting position is considerably easier.

Equipment requirements

While most gyms have at least one lat pulldown machine, you probably won’t have space for one in your home gym. As such, most home exercisers cannot do lat pulldowns. However, you can replicate this exercise with resistance bands, or you can do pull-ups and chin-ups instead, using a resistance band for assistance if necessary.

10 Lat Pulldown Variations and Alternatives

Basic overhand medium-grip lat pulldowns are an excellent exercise, but if that’s all you ever do, you’ll soon get bored and hit a plateau. Changing your grip will affect the target muscles slightly differently and help you avoid training ruts.

Use these variations to customize your back workout and target the areas you want to develop. However, remember that the lats will always be the engine that drives your lat pulldowns, and any changes you make will only have a very small effect.

1. Overhand wide-grip lat pulldowns

Overhand wide-grip lat pulldowns are very popular with bodybuilders. They use this exercise to increase upper lat width, creating that highly prized V-shaped torso. On the downside, a wide grip is less efficient, so you won’t be able to lift as much weight. This means wide-grip lat pulldowns are good for muscle hypertrophy but less so for building strength.

Steps:

1. Attach a long bar to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the bar with a pronated/overhand, wider than shoulder-width grip. Your arms should form a broad V-shape.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Keep your wrists straight.
7. Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (upper), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• Fill out your upper lats to make your back wider.
• More challenging than most other lat pulldown variations.
• Less weight is needed for an effective workout.

Tips:

• Drive your elbows down, back, and in to maximize lat and mid-back engagement.
• Keep your wrists straight.
• Lift your chest up toward the bar.

2. Overhand close-grip lat pulldowns

You won’t see many people doing overhand close grip lat pulldowns because they’re hard and feel a little awkward. However, they involve a large range of motion, making them useful for developing lat flexibility. They hit your forearms hard and emphasize the lower fibers of your lats.

Steps:

1. Attach a bar to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the bar with a pronated/overhand, slightly less shoulder-width grip.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
7. Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
8. Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (lower), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• An effective way to target the lower lats.
• A challenging forearm workout.
• Provides your lats with a deep, beneficial stretch.

Tips:

• Keep your upper arms close to your sides as you pull down.
• Drive your elbows back to maximize lat engagement.
• Do not lean back, as doing so makes this exercise easier.

3. Neutral close-grip lat pulldowns

This popular exercise works in much the same way as #2 but is considerably easier on your wrists and more comfortable. The neutral or parallel close grip is also very strong, and most lifters can use more weight for this variation. Like overhand close-grip lat pulldowns, this exercise emphasizes your lower lats and also hits your mid-back.

Steps:

1. Attach a neutral grip bar to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the bar with your palms facing inward.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
7. Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
8. Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (lower), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• A comfortable, joint-friendly grip.
• Hits both the mid back and lower lats.
• Develop back width and thickness simultaneously.

Tips:

• Lean back slightly to increase mid-back engagement.
• Use a little more weight than for conventional lat pulldowns.
• Use lifting straps to reinforce your grip if necessary.

4. Reverse grip lat pulldowns

Using a reverse or supinated grip puts your biceps in their strongest position, so you should be able to use more weight or crank out more reps before hitting failure. On the downside, using a reverse grip slightly decreases lat engagement, but using more weight or doing more reps should cancel out this deficit.

Steps:

1. Attach a straight bar to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the bar with a slightly less than shoulder-width underhand grip.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
7. Contract your lats as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep.
8. Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (lower), biceps, trapezius, rhomboids, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• An excellent biceps and back exercise.
• Good for building strength.
• A useful precursor to bodyweight chin-ups.

Tips:

• Keep your forearms parallel throughout.
• Drive your elbows down and back to maximize lat engagement.
• Use a little more weight, as this is a strong grip and arm position.

5. Neutral wide grip lat pulldown

Wide grip pulldowns are typically done using a straight bar and a pronated grip. While effective, this puts your arms in a mechanically disadvantageous position, limiting the weight you can use and the number of reps you can perform. Using a wide neutral grip bar makes for a more comfortable workout and puts your biceps in a stronger position. However, not all gyms have such a bar.

Steps:

1. Attach a long parallel grip bar to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the bar with your palms facing inward.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbows, bend your arms and pull the bar down to your upper chest. Tuck your elbows into your sides.
7. Smoothly extend your arms and continue for the desired number of reps.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (upper), biceps, trapezius, rhomboids, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• A strong, comfortable grip.
• Allows you to lift more weight and/or do more reps.
• An excellent biceps workout.

Tips:

• Pull your elbows down and into your sides to maximize lat engagement.
• Keep your chest up throughout.
• Pause at the bottom of each rep and flex your lats hard.

6. Cable crossover lat pulldowns

What’s wider than wide-grip lat pulldowns? This exercise! Cable crossover lat pulldowns involve pulling in from the sides, which really hits your upper lats. It’s not unusual to feel this exercise directly beneath your armpits. Use this move to fill in your lat gaps and build the ultimate V-taper.

Steps:

1. Stand between the uppermost handles of a cable crossover machine and take one in each hand. Kneel in the middle of the machine with your arms outstretched to form a Y-shape.
2. Lift your chest and pull your shoulders down and back.
3. Bend your arms and pull your elbows into your sides.
4. Extend your arms and repeat.
5. Continue for the desired number of reps.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (upper), trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• One of the best exercises for wider upper lats.
• Very shoulder-friendly.
• An excellent back workout finisher.

Tips:

• Pause at the midpoint of each rep to hammer your upper lats.
• Keep your arms out level with your torso.
• Lift your chest to increase upper back engagement.

7. Single-arm lat pulldowns

While it’s common to have one arm stronger than the other, big left-to-right strength imbalances can affect both your appearance and your upper body function. Single-arm lat pulldowns are a simple way to fix such imbalances and are also an excellent method for improving your mind-muscle connection, not to mention your lateral core strength.

Steps:

1. Attach a long D-shaped handle to your lat pulldown machine.
2. Adjust the knee pad so that, when your feet are flat on the floor, it holds your legs in place.
3. Stand up and hold the handle with one hand.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back and sit down. Make sure your legs are held securely in place.
5. Lift your chest and arch your lower back slightly.
6. Leading with your elbow, bend your arm and pull the handle down to your shoulder. Tuck your elbow into your side.
7. Smoothly extend your arm and continue for the desired number of reps.
8. Switch arms and do the same number of reps on the other side.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• An effective fix for left-to-right strength imbalances.
• Good for enhancing your mind-muscle connection.
• Delivers an excellent oblique workout.

Tips:

• Keep your shoulders and hips level throughout.
• Pull your elbow in close to your side to maximize lat engagement.
• Use an overhand, neutral, or underhand grip as preferred. Alternatively, let your wrists rotate naturally as you pull down.

8. Straight arm pulldowns

Every lat pulldown variation discussed so far works the biceps as much as the lats. In contrast, straight arm pulldowns involve no elbow movement, and your biceps are left out of the exercise. Straight arm pulldowns are one of the few lat isolation exercises and are ideal for warming up or finishing off your lats.

Steps:

1. Attach a straight bar to a lat pulldown machine.
2. Hold the bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip. Brace your core and pull your shoulders back and down.
3. With straight arms, step back to tension the cable. Lean forward slightly from your hips.
4. Without bending your elbows, push the bar down to your thighs.
5. Raise your arms and repeat.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi (lower), trapezius, rhomboids, core.

Benefits:

• One of a few lat isolation exercises.
• Perfect for pre- and post-exhaust supersets.
• This is an excellent exercise for swimmers and anyone whose sport involves throwing.

Tips:

• Keep your chest up, core tight, and lower back slightly arched.
• Use as big a range of motion as possible without letting the weights touch down.
• Experiment with different grip widths to see which you prefer.

9. Resistance band pulldowns

Home exercisers are often unable to do lat pulldowns. After all, not everyone can fit a lat pulldown machine in their home gym, and chin-ups and pull-ups may be out of the question. The good news is that you can replicate all of the previous exercises using a resistance band and a suitable anchor.

Just ensure that your resistance band is in good condition and won’t snap mid-rep, and your anchor is strong enough and won’t fail. Getting hit in the face by a resistance band is no laughing matter!

Armed with your resistance band, you should have no problem recreating your favorite pulldown exercise and working your lats at home.

10. Pull-ups and chin-ups  

If you are very strong or don’t have access to a lat pulldown machine, pull-ups and chin-ups could be your next best option. Yes, you’ll need to up your game and lift your entire body weight with just your arms, but that will only enhance your muscle and strength gains. Pull-ups and chin-ups might be low-tech, but they’re very high-effect and offer a lot of bang for your workout buck.

Steps:

1. Hang from an overhead bar using a wider-than-shoulder-width overhand grip (pull-ups) or a narrower-than-shoulder-width underhand grip (chin-ups).
2. Pull your shoulders back and down and brace your core. Bend your legs so your feet are clear of the floor.
3. Starting with straight arms, bend your elbows and pull your chin up and over your bar.
4. Smoothly lower yourself back down and repeat.

Muscles targeted:

Latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, biceps, forearms, core.

Benefits:

• Minimal equipment required so ideal for home and outdoor workouts.
• A very functional pulling exercise.
• A good test of relative strength.

Tips:

• Don’t swing, kick, or kip, as doing so takes work away from your target muscles.
• Think about lifting your chest and not your chin up to the bar to increase muscle recruitment.
• Use a resistance band to make these exercises easier or a weighted vest to make them more challenging.

Lat Pulldown Guide FAQs

Do you have a question about lat pulldowns or back training in general? No problem, because we’ve got the answers.

1. What is an easy way to remember which lat pulldown exercise works which muscles?

With ten different lat pulldown variations and alternatives, it would be easy to forget which one works which muscles. However, there are a couple of ways to make all this information easier to remember.

As a general rule, the wider your grip, the more upper lat activation there will be. Think wide grip for wide lats. In contrast, a narrower grip tends to hit your lower lats more. Exercises that involve more pulling in than pulling down emphasize your middle back, i.e., mid-traps and rhomboids.

Keeping this in mind, you should have no problem identifying which part of your lats you are working on.

2. How many reps and sets should I do to build bigger lats?

Contrary to popular belief, you can build bigger muscles with almost any rep range – from as low as five to 30 reps or more. The main proviso is that you must train your muscles to within a couple of reps of failure to make them grow. This contrasts the 6-12 rep range that was once the standard recommendation for hypertrophy training.

That said, sets of 6-12 are arguably more time-efficient than sets of 30 or more, so use your best judgment when deciding how many reps to do.

Regarding sets, two to four should be sufficient for most people, especially if you are doing several back exercises in a row. If you feel you need more than four sets to fatigue your lats, you are either stopping your sets too soon before failure or resting too long between efforts.

3. How many times a week should I train my back?

While some lifters can get good results from one back workout per week, most people will make better progress if they train their backs twice a week, e.g., Monday and Thursday. This provides a good balance between work and recovery.

However, this doesn’t mean you should do the same back workout each time you train – that would soon become boring. Instead, create two different back programs to keep your workouts interesting and productive.

For example:

#	Workout one		Workout two
	Exercise	Sets x reps	Exercise	Sets x reps
1	Deadlifts	4 x 4-6	Pendlay rows	4 x 4-6
2	Wide-grip lat pulldown	3 x 8-10	Close-grip lat pulldowns	3 x 8-10
3	Single-arm rows	3 x 10-12	Seated cable rows	3 x 10-12
4	Straight arm pulldowns	3 x 15-20	Dumbbell pullovers	3 x 15-20
5	Face pulls	3 x 15-20	Band pull-aparts	3 x 15-20

4. How much wider will wide-grip lat pulldowns make my back?

Unfortunately, this is one of those questions we cannot answer. That’s because your ultimate muscle shape and size are determined by several factors, including your genetics, muscle origin and insertion points, training history, attention to diet, rest, and recovery, and your commitment and motivation.

Even if we knew all these things, we don’t have a crystal ball and cannot see into the future!

So, all we can say is if you train hard, eat right, get plenty of sleep, and don’t quit, you can significantly increase your back width. Build your workouts around lat pulldowns and pull-ups, and you’ll be heading in the right direction.

5. What are the best exercises for building a thicker upper back?

While lat pulldowns are great for building back width, rows build upper back thickness. There are lots of effective rowing exercises, including:

• Bent-over barbell rows
• T-bar rows
• Cable rows
• Inverted rows
• Single-arm dumbbell rows
• Chest-supported rows
• Kroc rows
• Pendlay rows
• Meadows rows
• Yates rows

With so many different exercises to choose from, you should have no problem finding the perfect rows for your needs and goals. Combine vertical and horizontal pulling exercises to build a back that’s both wide AND thick.

Lat Pulldown Guide – Wrapping Up

Lat pulldowns deserve a place in everybody’s back workout. Regardless of which variation you perform, this popular exercise will help you develop a broader, stronger, more muscular upper back. You can emphasize your lower lats with close grip lat pulldown variations or spread your wings with a wide grip. Most lifters should do both.

However, wide lats are only part of what makes an impressive back; you also need thickness, which is where rows come in. Combine vertical and horizontal pulling exercises to build an impressive 3D back that looks good from every angle.

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