# Lat pull downs



## morgz129 (May 4, 2011)

I was in the gym other day and a guy was doing some lat pulldowns in like a shrug motion if u get me so it seemed to completely isolate the lats, is it worth doing pulldowns like that if your trying to hit lats hard?


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## Mish (May 1, 2011)

If you make sure your 'shrug' is pulling from the elbows then yes i will isolate the lats but id prefer using full range of movement

Or better still jog on the pulldowns and do pull ups


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## silver (Feb 18, 2010)

for some reason i only feel pulldowns properly with a neutral grip and sometimes a close grip. wide grip just hurt my shoulder


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## squatthis (May 3, 2010)

Pull ups FTW!


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## C.Hill (Nov 21, 2010)

Hammer close grip pulldowns/ups for the win!


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## Fluffchucker (May 17, 2011)

Hammer Strength Pulldowns & Full ROM Close Grip Pulldowns.... Antoine Vaillant style!!

Leave your ego at the gym door, forget the weight and aim for good solid reps & contraction.


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## milzy (Aug 9, 2010)

Fluffchucker said:


> Hammer Strength Pulldowns & Full ROM Close Grip Pulldowns.... Antoine Vaillant style!! Leave your ego at the gym door, forget the weight and aim for good solid reps & contraction.


 Close grip downs get my bi's more though :s


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## Fluffchucker (May 17, 2011)

Milzeh said:


> Close grip downs get my bi's more though :s


Then it sounds like its too heavy tbh.... I get some Bicep involvement, but not too much to stope doing it....


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## morgz129 (May 4, 2011)

squatthis said:


> Pull ups FTW!


Have to agree with this though


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

Full range of motion!!


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

We have this matrix lat pulldown at my gym and personally i think its cack!

Opinions?


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

antere07 said:


> We have this matrix lat pulldown at my gym and personally i think its cack!
> 
> Opinions?


Not as good as a cable latt pulldown imo!


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

Thats what i think too the gym dont agree but there is no other lat pulldown and the cables are too close to the machine


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

Just need to use what you can then, Im sure it will do a job but just not as good as the cable one. Could do pull ups instead if you really hate that machine


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## flinty90 (Jul 1, 2010)

the perfect way to do a lat pulldown if possible is to actually not grip with hands, try and use straps to bind wrist to bar, this stops you engaging biceps and makes you pull down actually using your lats...

but like i say thats quite hard to organise, so your better just treating your hands as if there hooks just hooked onto the bar and concentrate on using your back to pull the bar down... if you cant do this at first without engaging arms too much then you have too much weight on.. try with less weight until you feel the lat working correctly and biceps not taking a lot of the weight... dont swing it just pull down squeeze for a second then slow back up squeezing all the way.. stretching right out at top of movement then repeat.. lot better lat workout than banging tons of weight on then virtually swinging off the bar to get it down (like i see a lot)


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

Dizzee! said:


> Just need to use what you can then, Im sure it will do a job but just not as good as the cable one. Could do pull ups instead if you really hate that machine


Think im going to start doing pull ups, assisted ones as i actually cant do them on my own too fat haha


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## flinty90 (Jul 1, 2010)

antere07 said:


> Think im going to start doing pull ups, assisted ones as i actually cant do them on my own too fat haha


assisted pull ups are great way to start mate..


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

flinty90 said:


> assisted pull ups are great way to start mate..


Im cutting down again at the moment had a legs day today and ****ed the bottom of my back cause of bad form on the smith machine, some tossers were benching in the squat rack! but next time i do back providing its alright ill have ago


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

antere07 said:


> Think im going to start doing pull ups, assisted ones as i actually cant do them on my own too fat haha


Start with assisted and keeping taking weight off till eventually your doing it unassisted. you will be bashing out 10 unassisted in no time!


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

Doing my first lot of assisted pull ups tomorrow flapping it cause i dunno how assisted it will be and how many i will be able to do cause these things are made for "normal" people not man mountains like myself so im thinking try and get out as many of them as i can before swapping to this cable machine (below)



Putting the straight bar across using both of the cables and using that as a personal lat pulldown only thing i wont have is the knee pads.

I have to put the bar over the two cables cause it doesnt have an eye in the middle

Just seeing what you think about trying this as i hate that diverging lat pulldown and i feel i wont be able to fatigue asmuch on pull ups


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

Anyone?


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

You should fatigue alot more doing pull ups!

do unassisted pull ups to failure then each time you do them try beat the previous amount


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

I cant do unasisted thats the thing so im going to do asmany as possible then try do more and more and less assisted if you know what i mean


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## engllishboy (Nov 1, 2007)

Fluffchucker said:


> Then it sounds like its too heavy tbh.... I get some Bicep involvement, but not too much to stope doing it....


Or he could be pulling it to far down. When I do them, after after my hands get past my nose the biceps seems to take more of the slack. So now, I make sure to fully stretch the late, shrug back and then pull and squeeze the back, bringing it no further than my face. Thumb hooked over instead of undertow bar too


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## Ginger Ben (Oct 5, 2010)

antere07 said:


> I cant do unasisted thats the thing so im going to do asmany as possible then try do more and more and less assisted if you know what i mean


Work on your pull ups mate, do assisted then once your done on them do as many negatives as you can and as slowly as you can. The better you get at those the better lats you will have. After that go straight into one arm dumbbell rows, these hit lats really well if you do them properly.

I don't do any lat pull downs in my routine anymore as new gym doesn't have one!


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

Cheers bro my problem is the lat pulldown is sh!t not a normal cable one so i dont like the way it works


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

Mate My last gym never had a latt pulldown so i just done pull ups but i could only ever manage like 5 first time i ever tried i done 2 lol now we got a latt pulldown so i use that i like it better


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## harryalmighty (Nov 13, 2011)

antere07 said:


> Think im going to start doing pull ups, assisted ones as i actually cant do them on my own too fat haha


just use the assisted pullup machine, work out a weight where you can bang out 8 - 12 then each week lower the stack by one plate. simple.


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## flinty90 (Jul 1, 2010)

hey mate if you are struggling with pull ups do them like this (how i do them) until you can do a full bodyweight pull up, there assisted as you can take a bit of weight with your legs, but i love these to start off my back workout..

give them a go mate


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## Mowgli (Aug 23, 2009)

If you're struggling to do a pullup with your own weight, sack off the assisted machine because it assists you on both the positive and negative part of the movement. It's easy and completely pointless. When you reach the top and you're supposed to be contracting, there's barely any resistance against the contraction.

Rather than p1ssing about with other exercises that aren't actually the real thing, do a pull up. If you can't pull yourself up, jump and pull yourself up at the same time. Hold yourself up at the top and lower yourself down. Do it again. And again. And again. And again. Until either your grip dies or you can't resist on the negative any longer. Then do more. Several times a week.


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## flinty90 (Jul 1, 2010)

Mowgli said:


> If you're struggling to do a pullup with your own weight, sack off the assisted machine because it assists you on both the positive and negative part of the movement. It's easy and completely pointless. When you reach the top and you're supposed to be contracting, there's barely any resistance against the contraction.
> 
> Rather than p1ssing about with other exercises that aren't actually the real thing, do a pull up. If you can't pull yourself up, jump and pull yourself up at the same time. Hold yourself up at the top and lower yourself down. Do it again. And again. And again. And again. Until either your grip dies or you can't resist on the negative any longer. Then do more. Several times a week.


the version i have posted above is just as good as mate to be fair !!!


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## B.I.G (Jun 23, 2011)

Start with negatives.. Get a bench next to the bar and just do sets of lowering yourself down slowly.

Over time you'll get better and soon be able to pull yourself up.


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## Beats (Jun 9, 2011)

Gotta agree with Flinty here I do the version he posted up now and then and I feel a better contraction doing it that way than struggling so much with a normal pull up


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

I done the "fatboy" pull ups today just done like 4 just to see what it was like but didnt want to work it too much as it weren't back day and im adding them into the next back session! Alot better than the assist IMO i can see it being the type of thing that i will get good at quick too ive always wanted big lats and this might be the beginning to big lats for myself

Cheers guys for helping!


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## jay101 (Aug 9, 2011)

antere07 said:


> Doing my first lot of assisted pull ups tomorrow flapping it cause i dunno how assisted it will be and how many i will be able to do cause these things are made for "normal" people not man mountains like myself so im thinking try and get out as many of them as i can before swapping to this cable machine (below)
> 
> View attachment 85417
> 
> ...


One of the gyms i use has that same cable machine and the only way to do lat pull downs is to sit on the floor and depending how heavy your are and the weight your pulling it can be quite fun when it comes to your last rep and setting the stack down


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## antere07 (Sep 29, 2011)

Haha just let it lift you till your standing lol I never really thought how IDE keep myself on the ground but it would have to be heavy weight to lift me back up lol


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