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Lat Pulldown

You sit with your thighs anchored under a pad and pull a cable bar from overhead down to your upper chest. It is the same vertical pull as a pull-up, but the weight stack sets the load, so it suits people who cannot yet do pull-ups or want more controlled volume.

Lat Pulldown, start position
Start
Lat Pulldown, end position
End
FrontBack
PrimarySecondary
Main muscles
Lats
Also working
Biceps, Upper Back

How to do it

  1. Set the thigh pad so your legs are locked in with your feet flat.
  2. Take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders and sit down with your arms straight overhead.
  3. Lean back slightly, about 10 to 20 degrees, keeping your chest up.
  4. Pull the shoulders down first, then drive the elbows down toward your ribs until the bar reaches your upper chest.
  5. Let the bar back up slowly until your arms are straight and your shoulders rise into a full stretch.

Cues

Short phrases to think during a set.

  • “Shoulders down, then elbows down”
  • “Bar to the top of the chest”
  • “Lean stays the same all set”
  • “Full stretch at the top”

Common mistakes

  • Leaning far back and swinging the torso to move the stack. That turns it into a row with momentum. Lighten it and keep the lean fixed.
  • Pulling behind the neck. It forces the shoulder into an extreme rotated position for no extra lat benefit. Pull in front, to the upper chest.
  • Stopping short at the top and never straightening the arms, which cuts off the stretched part of the range.

The short version

Coaches give the pulldown two main jobs: building toward a first pull-up, and adding vertical-pull volume that is easy to load and control. A grip slightly wider than the shoulders is the usual default. Neutral and close grips give a longer range and more biceps, and very wide grips mostly shorten the movement. The usual way a pulldown goes wrong is adding stack weight until the lifter has to lean back and swing to move it.

Why people do it

  • The load is set by a pin, so beginners and people who cannot yet do a pull-up can train the movement
  • Small, precise load changes make progression straightforward
  • Swapping handles (wide, close, neutral) changes the angle without changing the setup

Drawbacks

  • Needs a cable station, so it is a gym-only exercise
  • Strength carries over to pull-ups but not one-to-one; you still have to practise pull-ups to get them
  • Less grip and trunk demand than hanging from a bar
  • Heavy stacks top out on some machines, and the thigh pad stops holding you down well near the top of the stack

Sources

Questions

Is the lat pulldown a good substitute for pull-ups?+

It trains the same muscles through the same pattern, so it works well while you build toward pull-ups. Once you can do a few, keep practising them, because the hang and body control do not come from the machine.

What grip width is best for lat pulldowns?+

A little wider than shoulder-width is a sensible default. Going much wider shortens the range. Neutral and close grips are just as valid and many people feel their lats better with them.

How do I feel my lats instead of my biceps on pulldowns?+

Start each rep by pulling the shoulders down, then think about driving the elbows toward your hips rather than pulling with the hands. Dropping the weight and slowing the return helps more than any grip change.

Should I lean back on lat pulldowns?+

A small lean, about 10 to 20 degrees, lets the bar clear your face. Rocking back further on each rep is momentum.

Swaps on other equipment

Each has the lats as its main muscle and is also a pull, on a different piece of equipment.

Variations

Pull-Up · Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown · Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown · Close-Grip Lat Pulldown · Single-Arm Cable Pulldown · Straight-Arm Pulldown

Other lat exercises

Written for this site from the sources listed above. Last reviewed October 20, 2026. How this site is put together · Report a mistake