Muscles worked
The wide grip cable pulldown mainly trains the latissimus dorsi, the large muscle along the side of your back that pulls your arms down. The teres major, your lower and mid traps and the rhomboids help bring your shoulder blades down, and your rear shoulders, biceps and forearms join in. In practice it is the same movement as on a lat pulldown machine. At a cable station you can usually pick the bar, straight or with angled ends, so choose whichever suits your shoulders.
Common mistakes
- Pulling the bar behind your neck. It demands a lot of shoulder mobility and pushes your head forward, and many people find it hard on the shoulders with nothing extra for the back. Pull in front of your face, down towards your upper chest.
- Your elbows go back instead of down. With a wide grip, your elbows should travel down towards the sides of your ribs. If they go behind your body, it becomes a row. Think of driving your elbows into your back pockets.
- Your shoulders do not drop first. Your shoulders can rise a little at the top, but every pull should start by lowering them, with your arms following.
Variations and alternatives
- The wide grip lat pulldown is the same pull on the lat pulldown machine, when that station is free.
- The close grip cable pulldown keeps your elbows closer to your body and gives your biceps more to do.
- Pull-ups use the same wide grip with your bodyweight as the load.
Sets and reps
Pulldowns suit building muscle best, and 8 to 12 reps over three or four sets is a common plan. With a wide grip, form suffers under heavy weights, so most people stay above 6 reps. As the second pulling exercise of a session, 12 to 15 reps works well. The guide to sets and reps has more on choosing a range.
Only add weight once you reach the top of the range on every set with the same upright torso. If the next step on the stack is too big a jump, start at the bottom of the range with the new weight and work back up. That is progressive overload with the steps the machine gives you.