Lat pulldown
Main muscle worked: Latissimus dorsi, teres major and biceps
Lat pulldown is one of the best exercises for your back, especially the latissimus dorsi. It is also a great exercise for both beginners and advanced individuals. It can also be great preliminary training for chin-ups since the muscles you use with this exercise and chin-ups are almost identical.
Overhand grip lat pulldown
- Place your hands in the bar (overhand) in wider than shoulder width. Then sit on the bench.
Tips: It is very important to keep your chest out, meaning to keep your scapula (shoulder blades) pinching before starting. In addition, do not raise your shoulders. Keep this posture throughout this exercise.
- Pull a bar down toward upper part of your chest, slightly lean your upper body backward.
- Raise the bar back slowly and repeat the exercise.
Perform 8-12 reps for 2-3 sets.
You can try a thumb-less grip for better back muscle engagement. Thumb-less grip is to keep your thumb straight instead of wrapping the bar around. When you wrap the bar around with your thumb, the body tends to use the strength of the arms more than the strength of the back. Since you want to focus on your back for this exercise, you can try a thumb-less grip to engage your back more than your arms for a better result!
The pictures show the bad example of posture when performing lat pulldown. As you can see, I am not keeping my chest out, not pinching my scapula (shoulder blades) and am raising my shoulders.
Underhand grip lat pulldown
- Place your hands in the bar (underhand) in shoulder width or narrower. Then sit on the bench
Tips: Same as overhand grip lat pulldown, It is very important to keep your chest out, meaning to keep your scapula (shoulder blades) pinching before starting. In addition, do not raise your shoulders. Keep this posture throughout this exercise.
- Pull a bar down toward upper part of your chest, slightly lean your upper body backward.
- Raise the bar back slowly and repeat the exercise.
Perform 8-12 reps for 2-3 sets.
Again, the pictures show the bad example of posture when performing lat pulldown. As you can see, I am not keeping my chest out, not pinching my scapula (shoulder blades) and am raising my shoulders.
Note: With this exercise, there is more engagement in biceps so it might be possible to handle heavier load compared to overhand grip lat pulldown