The lats muscles take up a lot of space on the sides of your back, which makes them one of the muscles that you should pay close attention to because they give the back that athletic shape and have many benefits. One of the exercises that will help you with this exact purpose is the Lat pulldown wide grip.
Follow with me to learn about the wide lat grip and the correct and safe way to do it and the mistakes that you must avoid in order to obtain satisfactory results, as well as the benefits and some alternatives.
Let’s find out together!
What is a wide grip lat pulldown?
Lat Pulldown with a wide grip is a compound exercise for the back muscles, the most important of which is the lats muscles. It also targets several other muscles secondary, so that it is performed on the cable machine and the bar is pulled down with a wide grip, which leads to a significant contraction of the lats muscles.
Bodybuilders rely on this exercise mainly to target the lats muscles and strengthen them and increase their size as well.
- Utility: Basic
- Mechanics: Compound
- Force: Pull
Wide grip lat pulldown muscle worked
This is a compound exercise that works more than one joint, and this means that it targets most of the muscles associated with these joints. The lats are the muscles that most contract and stretch, so the lat pulldown exercise mainly targets the lats muscles, (look at the targeted muscles in lower).
Here are all the muscles that integrate with this exercise.
Target muscle:
- Latissimus Dorsi
Synergists:
- Brachialis
- Brachioradialis
- Biceps Brachii
- Teres Major
- Rear Delts
- Infraspinatus
- Teres Minor
- Rhomboids
- Levator Scapulae
- Traps (Lower, Middle)
- Pectoralis Minor
Stabilizers:
- Triceps, Long Head
Front Pulldown Muscle Targeted
How to master wide grip lat pulldown?
Well if you have never done this exercise before, you must first learn some steps or some movements that will make you do it correctly.
It is best not to approach the cable machine until after doing some warm-up first, then start extending your shoulders back and forth, as well as your arms with your shoulder blades, push the middle of your back back and push your arms forward as a kind of improving movement and flexibility of the joints, also extend your fingers in Vacuum like you’re actually pulling the bar to you.
This is a routine that you can do several times until it becomes a little easier for you, but that does not mean that you will always do this before each exercise.
So while sitting on the bench you can practice with a wooden stick first and do some pulling and improve performance until the movement becomes more familiar to you.
Then now you can sit on the bench in front of the cable machine and choose the lightest weight available there, and then start doing some repetitions in the presence of your coach.
I am sure that you will master it in your first session and this is necessary because you do not want to do a compound exercise in the wrong way because it will affect a group of muscles.
Then comes the stage of choosing the appropriate weights, you can now start adding some weights that are in line with your level of fitness and that do not constitute an obstacle to the track of the clouds or hinder your position on the bench.
How to do a wide grip lat pulldown correctly
- Adjust the cable machine to a weight that matches your fitness level, a weight that you can easily handle for 10 or more repetitions.
- Hold the bar with wide fists, more than shoulder width apart. Fists point forward.
- Keep your body relaxed and pull the cable to you until you take a position that is most comfortable on the bench, fix your knees on the pillow well and keep holding the cable.
- Keep your back straight, your chest pushed forward, you should keep your elbows slightly in front of you, but not excessively.
- Keep them almost sideways, because when you pull down, you will face a problem if your elbows are straight on the sides, while if you keep them a little in front of you, you will be able to pull at a greater depth.
- Now you are ready, start pulling down pressing your elbows and pull down as far as you can straight towards the top of your chest.
- Leave the cable to return to the top and extend your arms well with it, then press your muscles again and pull down and try to stay fixed on the bench and more straight.
Pro tip to improve your performance with wide grip lat pulldown
The lat pull-down exercise is not complicated and it’s easy to do and master in a short time, but like all other exercises it has some subtleties that you must know in order to use them to your advantage.
The first thing you should practice is the position of the elbow because it has an active role in managing that weight, and it is responsible for whether you are pulling the weight correctly or not, so you should focus on keeping the elbows slightly in front of you because this will also put your shoulders in a position not exposed both of them at risk.
If you want to train the lats muscles, avoid pulling to the back of the neck, this is dangerous for your shoulders and will not benefit you, and you may not be able to pull the weight if it is heavier, so focus on always pulling to the front of your body because there is a greater contraction and extension of the lats muscles and this is what we desire it.
How to target lats
As it is known that this exercise also targets the biceps muscle, but try to squeeze it less, focus on the lats muscles always.
This may seem a little difficult, but it is not impossible because you can develop muscle contact over time. It is simple tricks that you do with your mind and focus on it.
One of the tricks is that you keep your arms just a tool to help you snatch that weight, so instead of wrapping your thumb around the bar you can keep it in the same direction with the other fingers and you’ll have to pull with more effort than a normal grip.
If your movement is correct, you will know this by the response of your back muscles, so when you do everything right, you will discover that the back is the area that interacts most with the exercise, and thus you know that you are doing the right thing and begin to develop it little by little.
Wide grip lat pulldown mistakes
Making mistakes will not benefit you in anything, and it is necessary to correct mistakes and not overlook them, because everything you try to do and all that effort you make during training may not benefit you if you are wrong, so it is necessary to avoid making mistakes in order to obtain satisfactory results.
Here are 5 common mistakes people make during Lat pull-down exercises.
1- Feet not firmly planted
This is a common mistake, sometimes it is your turn to use the cable machine after someone taller than you finishes it, the mistake is that you train according to the adjustment of that person and do not adjust the bench and the support pillow according to your feet and this makes you unstable and uncontrollable in movement and you will lose your strength In front of the cable resistance.
So you should be comfortable with your feet fully on the ground, and your knees well supported.
2- Creating momentum
This is another mistake we see everywhere, people tend to create pulls with their body weight, leaning backward excessively to pull the weight and then lunging forward when the cable comes back up, if you think a little you will find that this is not in the interest of the muscles at all, because they remain comfortable throughout the exercise.
So stop creating momentum, try to get your back a little bit and pull with your elbows steadily without swinging with the movement of the cable.
3- Don’t take advantage of your range of motion.
Usually this is due to heavy weight or lack of experience and this is normal, but when you do not take advantage of the range of muscle contraction available to you, you miss a lot with the exercise, many people do everything right but in the pull phase the cable stops in front of their mouth or eyes, this Not enough because you still have more stretch to the chest contour.
Try to take advantage of the range available to you as much as possible.
4- Pulling bar too low
We mean that you should pull to the depth well, but what is the best depth? It is not to exceed the upper chest muscles, some people make this mistake as they pass their chest muscles down while pulling, and this makes them work the chest muscles as well, and the more unwanted muscle activity, the less the main muscle activity.
So the best depth you can reach is under your chin above your upper chest muscles.
5- Not using the eccentric contraction
This is also a mistake that you should avoid, many people focus on the pulling phase only while not paying attention to stretching their arm well so that the pull is slow but the upward stretch is faster and random which is not good.
So try every time you pull slowly to be able to return the eccentrics slower and more accurately as well, because this will keep the muscles under intense tension and they will work successfully.
Wide grip lat pulldown benefits
- It is the most intense exercise that targets the lats muscles and stimulates them to grow and increase their size.
- Activates the muscles of the upper part of the body.
- Helps improve performance with upper body strength exercises.
- Improve the function of the lats muscles.
- Increase muscle mass and strength.
- Helps you protect your back from injury.
- Improve the mobility of the shoulders and make them more flexible.
Wide grip lat pulldown vs close grip
There are no big differences in terms of the targeted muscles, but the wide grip is superior to the close grip in the number of targeted muscles, and some studies have proven that the wide grip activates the muscles more effectively, especially the lats muscles, while the close grip records more activity in the biceps and triceps muscles, and this It generates less impact on the lats muscles.
3 Best variations of wide grip lat pulldown
The purpose of the variables is that they get you out of the routine of performing the same exercise over and over again and also give you the opportunity to target your muscles in other ways and with the same effectiveness, and they can be relied upon in order to train your lats and achieve your gains.
1- V Bar Lat Pulldown
The V-bar supports the narrow fist, and it is almost the same exercise. The grip differs only, and this does not make it bad or not target the muscles well, but many athletes rely on it to target the lats muscles, and there are those who prefer it over the wide fist, perhaps because he feels that it hits the lats muscles well.
That’s why it’s a good idea to even rely on a close grip when targeting the lats, as this will increase the muscle’s stimulation to activity and respond more to exercises, so be sure to add this variable to your list.
2- One Arm Kneeling Pulldown
This is another variant that does not require a bench so you do it on one of your knees, and the good thing is that this exercise allows you to train the muscles separately and this allows you to focus more on the lats muscles and squeeze them well.
It is a highly recommended exercise as a good variant of the lat pull-down exercise with a wide grip as it also targets almost the same muscles and helps you build your lats, increase their size and strengthen them well. This is why bodybuilders always put it in their plan.
3- Straight Arm Lat Pulldown
Perhaps this exercise will be one of the best back exercises because the straight arm pulldown is ideal in working to improve the upper part of the body and improve the strength of its muscles, especially at the level of the middle back muscles and the sides of the back and even the muscles of the front and back hands, and this is what makes it a natural medicine for back pain and Maintaining its integrity and protecting it from kinetic stagnation resulting from work and so on.
Why is this exercise effective in targeting the lats muscles? Because it keeps the arm straight and this does not require the integration of the biceps muscles, which means that the exercise is 100% targeting the lats muscles.
Lats training program
Well, as for the ideal exercise for the lats muscles, I do not think that you will find better exercises than the ones that we presented in this post, whether at the level of compound exercises such as the lat pull-down exercise with a wide grip or one of the isolation exercises such as pulling down with a straight arm, your program should be based on these exercises.
You can train the lat muscles two to three times a week, and you can count on one compound exercise per week, because the lat muscles do not require compound exercises so that they can respond more with isolation exercises.
As for the weights, repetitions and sets, you can manipulate them according to your fitness level and according to your goals as well. If you are seeking to gain some muscle mass, you need to add some weights and do fewer repetitions, but with a weight that causes muscle failure at 8 or 9 repetitions, knowing that the goal is 12 repetitions.
This does not mean that you should go with weights that cause you injury or muscle stiffness, especially if you are a beginner, you should start slowly and not exceed 6 repetitions maximum.
For the program, it will be as follows:
- Beginner : 3 Sets / 8 – 10 Reps / 60 sec Rest
- Intermediate : 4 Sets / 10 – 12 Reps / 60 sec Rest
- Advanced : 5 Sets / 12 – 15 Reps / 60 sec Rest
Useful Links
These links may be useful to you if you are a fan of building fitness and strength or gaining muscle at home, these links contain the most powerful CrossFit exercises that you can rely on mainly.
If you are a fan of strength workouts for the upper body, you can rely on these workouts at home, believe me, you may not need anyone to build strong fitness only at home.
Work more on your chest with the best chest exercises
Most chest press exercise at home
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Strengthen your forearm to improve your performance with weightlifting
Also, if you want to focus on the muscles of the lower body, you may find these links very useful, you can rely on them to learn the correct movements and ways to build muscle.
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