Lat Pull Downs Workout

Lat Pull Downs Workout.............

Muscles worked: Lateral muscles, adding width of the lats

Spotter needed: No (but can help you train muscular failure).

Minimum Equipment Required: lat pull down machine to (weight stack or load plate)

The best equipment to use: as above

Warm up: If the first exercise in the back lat pulldowns I strongly recommend workout warm up the back muscles with about 5 warm up sets are going progressively increasing the weight and the reduction of repetitions as you go through the warm-up sets. For example:

Warm-up Set 1: 20% of the weight you normally lift 12 reps
Warm-up Set 2: 60% of the weight you normally lift 8 reps
Warm-up Set 3: 75% of the weight you normally lift 5 reps
Warm-up Set 4: 85% of the weight you lift in the rule for 3 reps
Warm-up Set 5: 95% of the weight you normally lift for 1 rep

How often should this exercise: pulldowns are ideal for adding width to the back and can be carried out with each workout. Pulldowns are perfect if you're struggling with wide grip pull ups and looking to improve it!

When should this exercise: pulldowns use much energy, so it is recommended that they start at the back to carry out training.

How the exercise: First, adjust the seat on the lat pull down machine so that when sitting your feet flat on the floor with your legs at a 90 degree angle and also ensure your legs are comfortably below the pad.

Take the LAT-Bar (palms facing away from you) with top handle with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width. Pull the weight down, you keep your arms straight and sit on the seat with his feet firmly under the pillow and the feet on the ground.

Keep your back straight and neck neutral with your spine, begin to pull the bar down toward your upper / middle of the chest, you may find that as you pull the bar down your body again moved a bit, this is normally, do not worry about it, so make sure you do not swing back or lean back too far to bring the weight on the chest, is when you swing the weight or leaning back hard too!

If the lat bar reaches the chest hold for a half second, then begin to bring the bar back to the starting position, controlling the weight of the whole movement. Make sure you do not block the top position you reach the elbow to keep a slight bend in your elbow, the lat muscles throughout the movement to ensure tight stay.

Common mistakes:

Difficult to raise - I often see people in the gym lift much too heavy, they in fact so heavy that they just throw the weight and gravity to bring it back down without lifting strict control whatsoever. Unfortunately for these people they risking only injuries to the lower back and lat muscles do not work efficiently.

Leaning too far back and swinging - The lat pull down a lot of people seem to overload the weight stack, this means they have to sit back and swing, to get the weight of their chest. Sorry to do this significantly increase the chances of a lower back injury and not the lat muscles efficiently.

By pulling the lat bar to the stomach - I often see people pull the lat bar in the stomach, unfortunately this does not work the lat muscle, but the shoulder muscles worked and that means you could risk injury to the shoulders. Always disconnect the lat bar to your upper / middle chest to ensure the proper contraction of the lateral muscles.

Mentality: How tiring it can be hard to bring the bar down toward your chest, if that happens halfway through your set try to lock your arms on the top position for 2 seconds and then try to use the lat- lower bar to the chest again.