Straight-Arm PulldownMuscles Worked
The straight-arm pulldown works your lats almost on their own, because your elbows stay nearly locked and your biceps barely take part. Your arms sweep the bar down in an arc from head height to your thighs, which makes it a strong choice for learning to feel your lats work.
PrimaryLats
- Equipment
- Cable
- Level
- Beginner
- Type
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
How to do it
- Attach a straight bar or rope to a high pulley, grip it overhand about shoulder width or slightly wider, and step back a couple of paces.
- Hinge forward slightly at the hips, soften your knees and hold the bar at about head height with your arms long and elbows just softly bent.
- Keeping that elbow angle fixed, sweep the bar down in an arc until it reaches the front of your thighs.
- Squeeze your lats hard for a moment at the bottom.
- Let the bar travel back up the same arc under control until you feel a stretch under your arms, then repeat.
Form tips
- Do not bend and straighten your elbows during the rep, or it becomes a triceps pushdown.
- Keep your torso angle still, because bobbing your hips up and down takes tension off the lats.
- Choose a lighter weight than you use for pulldowns and focus on a smooth arc, since the lats are working alone here.
Why it made the list
No. 5 of 12
Best Lat Exercises
Isolation exercise for lats with no bicep involvement. Great for mind-muscle connection. Only pure lat isolation in most gyms.
More lat exercises
See it on your own body map
Log your Straight-Arm Pulldown sets in KasMaker and watch your lats fill in on the map, weighted by how much you did. Logging and the body map are free on iPhone.
