Lat Pushdown
A straight-arm cable exercise: standing at a high pulley with a straight bar, you push the bar down in an arc to your thighs with locked elbows, isolating your lats.
- Primary muscles
- Lats
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- Weight × reps
Loads from YouTube only when you press play. The video is by an independent creator.
Why do it
Because your elbows stay locked, your biceps can't take over, so it's one of the clearest ways to feel your lats working. People often use it before pulldowns or pull-ups to get the lats going, or at the end of a back session for extra volume. The cable keeps the tension steady through the whole arc, unlike a band, which is light at the top. Keep the weight moderate; it's an isolation exercise, not a strength lift.
How to do it
Attach a straight bar to the high pulley and stand facing the machine, feet shoulder-width apart, knees soft.
Take an overhand grip wider than shoulder-width with your arms extended up toward the pulley and hinge forward slightly at the hips.
Keeping your arms straight, pull the bar down in an arc until it reaches your thighs.
Let it rise slowly back overhead. Your elbows stay locked, so the lats do all the work without the biceps helping.
Common mistakes
Bending your elbows
Once your elbows bend, your arms start pressing the bar down. Keep them locked through the whole arc, and lighten the weight if you can't.
Standing too upright
Hinge forward slightly at the hips so your arms start overhead in line with the cable. Standing straight shortens the arc and loses the stretch at the top.
Crunching over the bar
Leaning in and rounding forward moves the bar with your torso. Keep your hips and torso still and let your arms sweep down from the shoulders.
Letting the bar fly back up
Let the bar rise slowly overhead until your lats stretch. A fast return throws away half of the work.
Sets, reps and progression
How many sets you do and how close to failure you take them depend on your goal and your week, not on the exercise. These guides cover it:
Alternatives that train the same thing
Same movement, a different angle or piece of equipment.
