Lat Pulldown is a staple and one of the most popular exercise for building a muscular back. As its name suggests, this exercise primarily focuses on the latissimus dorsi muscles. This muscle group is one of the major muscle groups for building a wide V-tapered back. Lat Pulldown exercise is so popular because of its effectiveness and availability. It is obviously one of the best exercises for lats and you can see literally every gym having the pulldown machine. So, every gym-goer whether he/she is a beginner or advanced, has performed or at least seen other people doing this exercise.
There are still many people who haven’t learnt the proper form to perform this amazing back exercise, Lat Pulldown. And, because of lack of form, they often fail to target the primary muscle grpup i.e. lats rather other muscle groups like biceps, traps are forcefully pressurized. And, ultimately, both the time & energy are wasted. If you are one of them, don’t worry as we are here to describe how to perform Lat Pulldown exercise with perfect form & without any mistakes which will help you to focus on the necessary muscles and prevent any injuries. Let’s follow the easy step by step method to learn the proper form of this exercise.
Perform Lat Pulldown Exercise with these Step by Step Guide
- Firstly, before starting the exercise, make sure you have pinned moderate weight in order to pull down the weight with proper form so that the lat muscles can be perfectly targeted without any wasting energy or mistake.
- Next, adjust the seat height or the bar height so that you can grasp the bar with your outstretched arms while sitting. This will help you to get the full range of motion during the exercise without leaving your seat or without other inconveniences.
- After that, sit comfortably and straight. Make sure, your feet touch completely on the ground and lock your thighs properly under the pads. These small details will play vital roles when you will be lifting heavy.
- Now, it’s time to hold the bar and start the Lat Pulldown exercise. Grasp the bar with a wide overhand grip and pull the bar down slowly while engaging your lats (not other muscles) and pull until the bar reaches above your chest to the height of your chin and your elbows should be squeezing the shoulder blades.
- While pulling down the weight, make sure your torso should not be lean backwards too much otherwise it will target your arms and it will literally be waste of time. So, your torso should be straight or you can slightly lean backwards but not too much.
- Now, from the bottom position, slowly and with proper balance, return the bar to the place it was hanging. While releasing the bar, make sure, your lats should still be engaged and you should avoid recruiting other muscles such as biceps & traps while doing this. Only your elbow and your lats will be working together.
- Just like this, pull the bar with the weight down again above your upper chest, squeeze the shoulder blades and release the bar slowly to the starting position.
- Now, repeat this 8 or 12 in this set. Rest for 60 seconds. In the next set, if you think you can perform with more weight, put the pin lower and start the Lat Pulldown exercise again with 8-12 reps. If you have to move your torso and lean backwards too much with the weight you perform then understand that you have gone too heavy.
How many Reps & Sets should you perform?
In the last point of step by step guide, we have already mentioned that you can do 8 to 12 repetitions per set depending on the weight you pull to get maximum results for your lats. And, you can do these reps under 3 sets or if you add a warm set then 4 sets will be enough to emphasis on the lats. Just focus on the stretching & squeezing of the muscles and perform with the proper form which we have provided earlier.
Lat Pulldown Variations
There are lots of variations of this popular back exercise because of different grip positions. In most cases, the normal variation is the wide-grip one which we already know. Some other popular variations & grip positions are: V-grip, Neutral grip, underhand grip, Rocking Lat Pulldown, Single-hand Lat Pulldown, close-grip etc.
It is a surprising fact that the normal one that means the wide-grip version of Lat Pulldown is not the best variation at all rather it is the most common and has proven to be effective for the beginners thus popular too! But, the best variations of Lat Pulldown are Rocking Lat Pulldown & V-grip Lat Pulldown in our opinion. Anyway, if you learn to perform the normal version of Lat Pulldown with proper form then other variations will fall in line.
Relate: Best Back Workout Routine For A Perfect Back!
Where Should You Place Lat Pulldown in Your Back Day?
Well, some people get confused about the placement of the exercises in the workout session. Let us clear you one straight fact. Suppose, your workout session consists of 2 free weight exercises and 2 machine exercises then you should perform the free weights exercises first in the routine because, in case of free weights, heavy weights need to be lifted and lots of stamina get drained in these movements so first do all the free weights exercises then come to the machine exercises which are all about lifting moderate weight with proper muscle activation and stretching.
Now we all know that Lat Pulldown is a machine exercise so you better perform this exercise towards the end of your back session or you can even finish off your workout session with Lat Pulldown. It will be perfectly fine too. First do all the free weight exercises like Deadlift, Barbell Rows etc. then, you can go for machine exercises like Lat Pulldown and others. If you want an awesome back workout routine for building a perfect back, read this article.
Therefore, we hope that you have now learnt properly about how to perform Lat Pulldown exercise with correct form without any mistake. By doing this exercise perfectly, you can see results much faster and very soon, you would notice your thick lats hanging from your shoulders & spine making a V-cut look! Anyway, if you have found this article helpful enough then don’t hesitate to express your valuable thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks for visiting & appreciating our work.