Lat pulldown

Why it's here

The lat pulldown trains the same pulling movement as a pull-up, but you choose the weight, so it works whether you can do a pull-up or not. In recreationally active young men, eight weeks of pulldowns raised pulldown strength by about 28% and more than doubled the number of pull-ups they could do ^[1]. In a separate trial, muscle fibres sampled from the lats grew over eight weeks of a program whose only pulling exercises were the pulldown and the seated row ^[2].

The evidence

• Training study Thirty-four recreationally active male students trained the lat pulldown three times a week for eight weeks, four sets of twelve, with the weight rising from 65% to 80% of their maximum. On a standard machine, maximal pulling force (tested as an all-out static pull) rose by about 28%, and pull-ups went from about two to about six. The trial measured strength and pull-ups, not muscle size, and had no untrained comparison group ^[1].
• Training study Eighteen young men with no regular resistance training for at least two years trained for eight weeks with six exercises, of which the lat pulldown and the seated row were the only pulling exercises. Muscle fibres taken from the lats grew, and pulldown strength rose by about 17%. Because both exercises trained the lats, the trial cannot say how much each one contributed ^[2].

How to do it

1. Set the thigh pad so your legs are held firmly in place, and take the bar with an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders. The first trial above used 10–20 cm wider than shoulder width ^[1].
2. Keeping your head neutral, pull the bar down in front of your face to just below your chin, as in that trial ^[1].
3. Let the bar rise under control until your arms are straight, then pull again.

Stop an exercise that causes significant or unusual pain and have it assessed. This page describes the movement; it is not rehabilitation advice.

Making it harder over time

This is a moderate compound exercise in the Progressive Overload Calculator, which adds weight in steps of 2.5%–5% once every set reaches the top of your rep range, and adds reps until then.

Alternatives

• Pull-up — Needs only a bar. In trained men, stopping each set while reps were still quick built more pull-up strength than grinding on.
• Seated cable row — A supported row that trains the middle of the back. Paired with the pulldown, it was half of the pulling work that grew lat fibres in eight weeks.