Want to maximize muscle growth on the lat pulldown? Hit these five key elements of good technique.
Want to cash in on building muscle with the lat pulldown? There are five key elements you need to be mindful of.
You can find a lat pulldown in just about every gym — and in every gymgoer’s back workout as well. It’s one of the best back exercises out there, but if you want to squeeze every morsel of muscle out of your lat pulldowns, make sure you’re hitting these five marks:
Bodybuilder, coach, and content creator Jeff Nippard turned his usual fare into a game show on Aug. 21, 2024. Approaching a gymgoer, Nippard offered the man $500 for every technical element he hit during a set of lat pulldowns.
We’ll run through all five and see if there’s any scientific evidence to support these tips when it comes to building muscle or increasing strength.
1. Using a Full Range of Motion
“I’m always looking to see people get a big stretch on their lats at the top,” said Nippard. He’s referring to using a full range of motion and allowing your shoulders to drift up toward your ears during the lat pulldown’s eccentric phase.
The authors were primarily discussing lower-body exercises, however, muscle is muscle.
2. Controlling the Negative
Strength training exercises have two distinct phases; the lifting, or concentric portion, and the lowering, or eccentric — also referred to as the lift’s ‘negative’. When it comes to a cable back exercise like the lat pulldown, squeezing all the juice out of the lowering phase is essential for maximizing muscle growth.
Credit: Nikolas_jkd / Shutterstock
3. Keeping an Upright Torso
“I was impressed by how you maintained an upright [torso] without excessive swinging,” Nippard told his guest. Cheating your form has its place, even in bodybuilding, but most of the time you’re doing more harm than good by heaving back and forth.
4. Using the Knee Pad
When it comes to maximizing muscle growth, stability is key. The more stable your body is, the harder your back can contract. On the lat pulldown, Nippard says this takes the form of wedging your thighs against the station’s knee pads.
Dedicating effort to contracting your abdominal muscles while trying to train your back isn’t exactly a recipe for success.
Credit: Reshetnikov_art / Shutterstock
5. Pushing Past Failure
Make no mistake, you don’t need to train to failure in all cases to build muscle. (If you’re new to bodybuilding, ‘failure’ generally refers to performing reps until you physically cannot lift the weight).
“You pushed the set hard and actually went beyond failure to do a couple lengthened partials,” Nippard told his guest while handing him another Benjamin.
The lat pulldown is one of the best exercises for long-length partials because the first half of the movement is much easier than the second half.
Once you can no longer bring the bar down past eye level, you can continue to do only the first half of the range of motion and build additional muscle in the process. Jackpot.
/
A new cancer drug called trastuzumab deruxtecan, also known as Enhertu, has just been approved…
Key Takeaways Eating certain foods before bed can interfere with sleep and digestion. High-fat, spicy,…
Hyrox isn’t new—the German-born workout started in 2017—but it’s recently been picking up steam in…
In a world that frequently assesses our value based on external factors like appearance, achievements,…
Australians are being urged to roll up their sleeves for a flu vaccine amid rising…
This human experience is a journey, marked with highs and lows and much in-between. Along…