Lat Pulldown

lat pull video

3-POINT SET-UP:

1. Place your knees underneath the safety strap at the back of the carriage

2. Hinge from you hips, bringing your chest/shoulders forwards towards the floor, slowly pull yourself to the back, grabbing onto the sides of the high bars at the back.

3. Sit and hover hips over heels, keeping your shoulders slightly above hip height.

Body Part • Direction • Action Verb:

• Keeping your shoulders packed (anchored to your lats) and your elbows tucked in (adducted) at approx 45 degree angle, slowly pull your elbows towards your ribcage

Range of Motion:

• Stop before the carriage touches the back platform or you notice excessive scapular depression for your clients (rounded shoulders and a strain on the neck). As you extend your arms, your range of motion ends once you no longer can keep your shoulders packed (avoid scapular elevation and protraction). The goal is to keep tension on the lats the entire time. Maintain a slight flexion of your elbows as you resist carriage and it draws back towards front platform.

 Kinetic Checkpoints:

HEAD:

SAME AS PLANK

SHOULDERS:

❌ hold your elbows at a 90 degree angle (line up with shoulders)

❌ allow your arms to fully extend, elevating scaps and losing lat engagement

❌ pull your elbows in as hard as humanly possible towards ribcage and depress shoulder blades down until they slope downwards

✅ Keep your shoulders packed and anchored into lats throughout range of motion

✅ Keep elbows tucked at 45 degree angle (also a necessity for optimal lat activation)

HIPS:

❌ Flex/round from the spine

✅ Hinge from your hips while keeping your chest/shoulders slightly higher than hip height

Talking Points:

• Two major things to look out for on clients in this move: Clients lining up elbows with shoulders at 90 degree angle. Additionally, Clients allowing arms to fully extend, then forcefully pulling carriage back towards back platform with momentum.

• Stress the importance of keeping your elbows tucked in and reducing rom to keep tension on lats. A good practice exercise is scap pulls to ensure the shoulders stay packed in proper place. Practice “flexing” the armpit and pulling towards ribcage.

• Ensure that clients maintain at least hip width distance between their knees or they will most likely tuck their hips under/ flex their spine.