Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown
Seated cable pulldown taken wider than shoulder width, pulling the bar to the chest with the lats.
How to do it
- Attach a wide bar to the pulldown station and set the thigh pads snug.
- Sit down and take an overhand grip clearly outside shoulder width.
- Sit tall with braced abs and only a slight backward lean of the torso.
- Depress your shoulder blades, then pull the bar toward your upper chest.
- Stop when your elbows reach your torso and hold for a beat.
- Let the bar rise under control to a full overhead stretch and repeat.
Key technique cue
Shoulder blades down, bar to the upper chest — torso nearly still, never behind the head.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Swinging the torso back to move the bar, which shifts the work off the lats.
- ✕ Arching the lower back at the top, which trades range for spinal extension.
- ✕ Starting the pull with the arms, which lets the biceps limit the set.
- ✕ Pulling the bar behind the neck, which forces the shoulders into an exposed position.
Benefits
- ✓ Loads a vertical pull in small steps for users without pull-up strength.
- ✓ Keeps the lats as prime mover through a long overhead range.
- ✓ Low skill and easy to coach, so it fits early program tiers.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 You are here -
Step 2
About the exercise
The wide-grip lat pulldown is a seated vertical pull with the hands set outside shoulder width on a cable stack. You depress the shoulder blades first, then flex the elbows and extend the shoulders to bring the bar toward the upper chest. The lats are the prime mover in every studied version; the biceps, posterior deltoid and middle and lower trapezius assist, and the abs stop the torso arching back. EMG across seven pulldown variants found no significant difference in lat activation between wide and narrow grips, so grip width is a comfort choice rather than a different target.
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