Lat Pulldown
The lat pulldown is a seated cable exercise: you pull a wide bar from overhead down to your upper chest. It trains the lats most, with the biceps and upper back helping, and it builds the same vertical pull as the pull-up with a load you can set to any weight.
How to do the lat pulldown
Set the thigh pad so your thighs fit snugly under it with your feet flat on the floor.
Stand up, take the bar with an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders and sit down with straight arms.
Lift your chest and lean back slightly from the hips, keeping your lower back in its natural arch.
Start the pull by drawing your shoulders down away from your ears.
Drive your elbows down towards your ribs until the bar reaches your upper chest, just below the chin.
Pause briefly, then let the bar rise under control until your arms are straight and you feel a stretch along your sides.
Setting up the lat pulldown machine
Set the thigh pad first. It should press lightly on top of your thighs when your feet are flat on the floor, so the weight cannot lift you off the seat once the load gets heavy. Sit so the cable runs almost straight down in front of your face. Take the bar standing and sit down with it rather than reaching up from the seat with a heavy stack.
Grip width and hand position
A standard bar has bends near the ends; most people grip just inside or on them, a little wider than shoulder width. Studies that compared grips from shoulder width to twice shoulder width found similar lat activity across that whole range, with slightly less weight lifted at the widest grip. An overhand grip gave more lat activity than an underhand one. No need to chase the widest grip: choose a width where your forearms stay roughly in line with the cable at the bottom of the rep. Thumbs around the bar or not is your choice, as long as the wrists stay straight.
Bracing and breathing
Lift your chest and keep a small, fixed lean from the hips. Take a breath at the top while your arms are straight, brace your midsection lightly and pull. Breathe out as the bar passes your chin or once it touches your upper chest, then breathe in again as it rises. If you have to rock back to start a rep, the weight is too heavy for your rep range.
Bar path, tempo and range
The bar travels in a nearly straight line to your upper chest, just in front of your face. Start every rep by drawing the shoulders down, then pull the elbows down and slightly back as if you wanted to put them in your back pockets. That first shoulder movement is what keeps the lats in charge. A simple instruction to focus on the lats measurably raised their activity in beginners, so the cue is worth practising with light weight. Pull with intent, hold the bottom briefly and let the bar rise under control. At the top, let the arms straighten fully and the shoulder blades travel up; that stretch is part of the exercise, not a rest.
Lat pulldown or pull-up
The lat pulldown and the pull-up train the same pattern. The pulldown lets you load less than your body weight and add weight in small steps, so it is the better choice while you build up to free pull-ups and an easy way to add back volume once you can do them. In the Muscla plan it is the gym standard for the vertical pull.
Muscles worked by the lat pulldown
- Primary
- Lats
- Secondary
- Biceps
- Upper back
- Rear delts
- Forearms
The lats do most of the work: they pull the upper arm down and back towards the body. The biceps and forearms bend the elbow and hold the bar, so they tire along with the back. The rhomboids and middle traps between the shoulder blades and the rear delts help pull the shoulders down and back and keep them steady.
Common lat pulldown mistakes
Leaning far back
A big lean turns the pulldown into a row and lets you swing the weight. Keep the lean small and the torso still.
Pulling with the arms first
If the elbows bend before the shoulders move, the arms do more of the pulling. Draw the shoulders down first, then think of driving the elbows to your ribs.
Pulling the bar behind the neck
It puts the shoulders in an awkward end position and, in studies, trained the lats no better than pulling to the front. Pull to the upper chest.
Cutting the top short
Stopping with bent arms skips the stretched part of the movement. Let the arms straighten and the shoulders rise at the top of every rep.
Letting the stack crash
Dropping the weight on the way up wastes half the rep. Let the bar rise under control, with the plates never touching.
Lat pulldown tips from the Muscla training logic
- Stop most sets with about two reps in reserve, two to three when you train for strength; beginners keep one more in the tank.
- Rest three minutes between sets for strength, two minutes for muscle and 90 seconds for other goals.
- Before your first working set, warm up with about 50 percent of the weight for 8 reps, then about 75 percent for 3.
- Stay at a weight until every set reaches the top of your rep range, then add about 2.5 percent (at least one plate of the stack) and start again at the bottom of the range.
- After your last set, Muscla asks “How heavy was that?”: Light adds weight, Good progresses as planned, Heavy keeps the weight and At the limit holds it or drops one step.
Lat pulldown sets and reps by goal
| Goal | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–6 → 2–5 → 4–8 | 3 min |
| Muscle | 6–10 → 8–12 | 2 min |
| Lose fat | 6–12 | 90 s |
| Fit | 8–12 | 90 s |
| Comeback | 8–12 | 90 s |
An arrow marks the range for the next 4-week block.
Muscla counts the lat pulldown as a heavy compound lift, so it uses the ranges for heavy pulls and presses. Pick the row for your goal; the arrows show how the range changes from one 4-week block to the next. Each exercise gets 2 to 5 sets.
Estimate your lat pulldown one-rep max
Filled in with example values. Replace them with yours.
Estimated 1RM
Brzycki 62.1 · Lombardi 61.6
Epley: 50 × (1 + 8 ÷ 30) = 63.3 kg
| Reps | Weight | % of 1RM |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 62.5 kg | 100 % |
| 2 | 60 kg | 94 % |
| 3 | 57.5 kg | 91 % |
| 4 | 55 kg | 88 % |
| 5 | 55 kg | 86 % |
| 6 | 52.5 kg | 83 % |
| 7 | 52.5 kg | 81 % |
| 8 | 50 kg | 79 % |
| 9 | 47.5 kg | 77 % |
| 10 | 47.5 kg | 75 % |
| 11 | 47.5 kg | 73 % |
| 12 | 45 kg | 71 % |
Lat pulldown alternatives
- Pull-Up
- Cable lat pulldown full range of motion
- Assisted pull-up
- Chin-Up
- Wide grip pull-up
- Band assisted pull-up
- Band underhand pulldown
- Band close-grip pulldown
- Dumbbell Pullover
- Scapular pull-up
Lat pulldown questions
Is the lat pulldown as good as pull-ups?
Both train the same vertical pull. The pulldown lets you pick a load below your body weight, which is why Muscla gives beginners and returners the pulldown until free pull-ups are within reach.
Which grip width is best for the lat pulldown?
Any overhand grip from about shoulder width to twice shoulder width trains the lats about equally. The widest grip let lifters move slightly less weight, so a grip a little wider than your shoulders is a good default.
Should I use an overhand or underhand grip?
An overhand grip produced more lat activity than an underhand grip in a direct comparison, regardless of width. The underhand version still trains the back; in that study it did not raise biceps activity either.
Is the behind-the-neck lat pulldown bad?
It does not train the lats better and shifts more work to the biceps and rear delts. Pulling to the front is the better choice for almost everyone.
How much weight should I start with on the lat pulldown?
Muscla suggests about 0.4 times body weight for men new to training, rounded down to the stack, so 30 kg at 80 kg body weight; women start lower. If you get clearly more reps than planned in your first set, the app raises the weight for the remaining sets.
How many sets of lat pulldowns per week?
Muscla aims for 10 to 16 hard sets a week for the back if you train regularly and 8 to 12 if you are new; with the goals fat loss, fitness or comeback it aims for 10 to 13 and 8 to 10. Each set of pulldowns counts fully for the back and half for the biceps, and a row usually shares the work.
Train it with Muscla
Muscla plans your sets, reps and rest, and sets the next weight after every session.
Coming to the App Store. Free to start.
Sources
- Andersen V, Fimland MS, Wiik E, Skoglund A, Saeterbakken AH. Effects of grip width on muscle strength and activation in the lat pull-down. J Strength Cond Res. 2014;28(4):1135-1142. PubMed
- Lusk SJ, Hale BD, Russell DM. Grip width and forearm orientation effects on muscle activity during the lat pull-down. J Strength Cond Res. 2010;24(7):1895-1900. PubMed
- Sperandei S, Barros MAP, Silveira-Júnior PCS, Oliveira CG. Electromyographic analysis of three different types of lat pull-down. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(7):2033-2038. PubMed
- Snyder BJ, Leech JR. Voluntary increase in latissimus dorsi muscle activity during the lat pull-down following expert instruction. J Strength Cond Res. 2009;23(8):2204-2209. PubMed
- Schoenfeld BJ, Pope ZK, Benik FM, et al. Longer interset rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. J Strength Cond Res. 2016;30(7):1805-1812. PubMed