Lat pulldown

Exercise technique:

Sitting on the chest pull device, pulley high, knees and feet well propped up. Make sure your hands are spaced a wider width than your shoulders. You are going to pull the bar up so that it goes to your rib cage. When starting the exercise, make sure to lean your chest back slightly with your back straight. With your chest open, first squeeze your shoulder blades together bringing your shoulders back, then pull up as you bring your elbows back.

You will avoid coming back with your arms fully extended, this will avoid complications in the elbow and shoulders. So you will keep a slight flex (flexion) at your elbow.

In addition, it also helps protect the shoulders from stretching “too hard”.

Muscles worked:

Main: latissimus dorsi, teres major, trapezius, biceps, triceps (long portion)
Secondary: shoulders, forearms, abdominals

Depending on your morphology, the pulls with the Barre in front pulley will more or less recruit the teres major or the latissimus dorsi.

Interest of Lat pulldown:

This is an interesting exercise to use as a replacement for the wide-front pull-ups on the horizontal bar if you are lacking in strength or are looking for more insulation.

Variants:

The exercise can be done by leaning a little less so that your back is closer to vertical.

The exercise can also be done with a straight bar with wrists (neutral grip) on each side in which case, it will focus more on the work on the “external” portion of the dorsal:

Danger / contraindication: 

Pay attention to the position of the arms during the negative phase (return phase), you will pay special attention to the placement of your back, it must remain straight in all circumstances.