Wide Grip Lat Pulldown

What Is A Wide Grip Lat Pulldown?

A wide grip lat pulldown is an exercise that involves pulling a cable with a wide-grip handlebar down towards the chest while keeping the upper arms close to the body and the elbows pointing downwards.

The ideal hand placement on a wide grip lat pulldown bar can vary depending on your body size, shoulder mobility, and personal preference. However, a general guideline is to place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart on the bar.

A good starting point is to position your hands about 6-8 inches wider than your shoulder width and go wider as needed. For most people, this ends up being 1.5 to 2 times shoulder-width.

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown Muscles Worked

As the name suggests, the lat pulldown exercise primarily targets the latissimus dorsi muscle. Performing this exercise with a wide grip also requires the muscles of the upper back. Including the rhomboid, teres major, teres minor, and infraspinatus.

Along with these back muscles, the external rotation of the arms activates the rear delts. And the arm-flexing action recruits the biceps.

How To Do A Wide Grip Lat Pulldown

To do a wide grip lat pulldown, grab the bar with an overhand grip and hands a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Then sit on the seat and hook your thighs under the leg pads and your arms extended overhead.

Before you begin, ensure the pulley is directly over your chest and not too far in front or behind your body. Then stretch your lats and keep your back straight with your chest up.

Now pull the bar straight down towards your chest while keeping your elbows directly below your hands. Bring the bar all the way down past your chin and squeeze your shoulder blades and lats.

Control the weight as you return to the starting position and repeat for the desired number of reps.

To recap, here is how to do a wide grip lat pulldown step-by-step:

1. Grab the bar with an overhand grip and your hands 1.5-2x shoulder-width
2. Lock your knees under the pads to prevent your body from coming off the seat
3. Start with your arms stretched straight above you, your back straight, and your chest out
4. Pull the bar down towards your chest while keeping your elbows directly under your hands
5. Bring the bar down past your chin and squeeze your lats at the bottom
6. Control the bar as you let it ascend back to the starting point and let your lats stretch at the top

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Wide Grip Lat Pulldown Form

The description and video above should give you a good idea of properly doing a wide lat pulldown. But I think it’s helpful to look at some common mistakes and how to correct them. This way, you know you’re doing the exercise with perfect form!

3 Common Mistakes

Here are what you want to avoid when performing the lat pulldown.

1. Don’t Pull Down Away From Your Body

In this scenario, you pull the bar out several inches away from the front of your chest. When you do this, your hands go in front of your elbows, and it becomes more like a lat pullover.

While it still targets the back, you aren’t in a stable and strong position to overload the lats. In addition, your arms are less externally rotated, so you don’t involve as much upper back and rhomboid.

Corrections

Now that you know what not to do, here are some tips to set yourself up for proper form on the wide grip lat pulldown.

• Think about pulling straight down through your elbows instead of your hands
• Try to position your body so the pulley is directly above your chest
• Also, think about squeezing your lats to initiate the movement

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown Variations

So far, we’ve looked at this exercise on the cable apparatus and pulling down in front of your body. However, you can also do this exercise behind your head and on different equipment.

So let’s look at those variations quickly as well.

Behind The Neck Wide Grip Lat Pulldown

Another way you might see the lat pulldown performed is behind the neck. This position is an excellent way to eliminate momentum and get more activation from the rhomboids and upper back muscles.

Some people advise against the behind-the-neck pulldown. They say there is no benefit, and it increases the chance of injury due to the forward position. But this isn’t true! As long as you do them correctly.

The key to doing behind-the-neck pulldowns safely and effectively is to position your body so the pulley is directly over your back. Then you don’t have to bend your head forward or over-rotate your shoulders and arms.

Wide Grip Lat Pulldown Alternatives

If you work out at home, then you most likely don’t have access to a cable lat pulldown station. And some gyms don’t have this equipment either.

So I’m going to give you a few wide grip lat pulldown alternatives you can do at home or at the gym.

Wide Grip Pullup

A wide grip pullup is a perfect substitute for a wide lat pulldown because it’s essentially the same movement. The main difference is that a pull-up moves your body whereas a pulldown moves the bar.

If you don’t have a pullup bar at home, you can pick up an inexpensive doorway pullup bar. Or make do with whatever you have.

During quarantine, I used a barbell and weight bench to do a modified pull-up as a substitute for lat pulldowns.

Related: How many pull-ups should I be able to do?