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Wide grip lat pulldown

Vertical pull for the back on a machine.

How to do it

1 of 3

Grip the bar wide

  1. Starting position

    Sit in the lat pulldown machine with your thighs under the pad and grip the bar wide with palms facing forward.

  2. The movement

    Pull the bar toward your upper chest with your elbows moving down, then extend your arms upward with control.

Most common mistake

Don't pull the bar behind your neck, bring it down in front of your head to your upper chest and keep your chest lifted.

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Muscle group
Back
Equipment
Machine
Where
Gym
Logged as
Weight × reps

Muscles worked

The wide grip lat pulldown mainly trains the latissimus dorsi, the broad back muscle that pulls your arms down and gives your back its width. The teres major, the middle and lower trapezius, the rhomboids and the rear delts help. Your biceps, brachialis and forearms work too, though slightly less than in a close grip or underhand pull. Many people feel the wide grip more towards the outer edges of the back, but the difference from a close grip is smaller than many think.

Common mistakes

  • Gripping too wide. With your hands near the ends of the bar, the movement gets short and often feels awkward in the shoulders. Take a grip clearly wider than your shoulders, but where your forearms are roughly vertical when the bar is at your chest.
  • Rocking your upper body to get the weight down. A slight lean back is fine, but it should stay the same for the whole set. If you have to throw yourself backwards, the weight is too heavy.
  • Setting the thigh pad too high. You then lift off the seat when the weight gets heavy. Adjust the pad so it sits snugly on your thighs before you start.

Variations and alternatives

Sets and reps

The lat pulldown is best suited to building muscle, and most people do it for 8 to 12 reps over three or four sets. 6 to 8 reps works if you want to go heavier. For pure strength in vertical pulling, weighted pull-ups or chin-ups are the more common choice, so sets of 3 to 6 reps are unusual here. For endurance, or as a lighter second back exercise, 12 to 20 reps works well. There is more in the guide to sets and reps.

Weight stack steps are often large, and one jump can cost you several reps. That is why progressive overload works best with reps first: stay at the same weight until you reach the top of your range on every set, then go up one step. Small add-on weights, if the machine has them, make the jump smaller.

Also called

  • latsdrag
  • lat pulldown
  • pulldown
  • wide grip pulldown

Swap for

Taken, or missing the equipment? The same movement with something else.

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