Settle an argument for me, Lat pulldowns working triceps?

[gorillahung]

OK, I had a spirited debate at the gym with a guy. The lat pulldown station has one of those charts showing which muscles are used on the exercise. The chart says that the triceps are worked. I think that's incorrect. The tricep doesn't pull the arm towards the body, that's the bicep that does the pulling. The tricep pushes the arm away from the body like on any pressing exercise. Anyway, I've never felt a damned thing in my tricep while doing lat pulldowns. What do you guys think?

 

[stevesmi]

pulling exercises would work the biceps and back. the triceps may be worked indirectly which is partially true.

however the most important thing to remember when doing lat pulldowns is proper form. most guys do them with shit form! it is a great way to destroy your rotator cuff and build imbalances when doing shitty form. It is actually a very common way to get injured doing these.

ego is a big thing i see. they use their shoulders and biceps too much. this is wrong. you want to engage your back and let it do the work.

 

[gorillahung]

I definitely agree with you about form! Using bad form will cause you to lose any benefit to your lats. I see guys swinging with their lower back and just jerking the weight around. I do mine slow and controlled. Over the years I've really become skilled at almost isolating my lats. I just have to really concentrate on contracting the lats. My biceps obviously do some work but it's very minimal. When I was younger I did them pulling the bar down behind my neck. I think this contributed to my shoulder problems. I only do them in front now. I rarely see guys now doing behind the neck pulldowns or shoulder presses. I guess young lifters saw lifters like myself doing behind the neck exercises and ending up with shoulder problems. Back in the late 1980's when I first started training behind the neck exercises were very common and now they are almost extinct. At least the young guys seemed to have learned from the mistakes of my generation of lifters. I'm saying this after having surgeries 11 years ago to repair rotator cuffs on both shoulders. Despite the surgeries and a 10 year complete training break, I still have inflammation in both shoulders. I've said before that I would probably be able to bench 350 today if it weren't for my shoulder problems. Instead, 285 is about all I can do. I wish I could go back in time and change some of my old training ways but at least I can say that I once benched 405 while weighing 190 lbs.

 

[muskate]

The chart is wrong. The muscles in your body work in pulling/pushing oppositions.

The back/biceps pull where as the chest/shoulder/triceps push.

The quads push where as the hamstrings pull.

To train the triceps, you need to perform a pushing movement like pressing, extensions etc.

 

[MasonicBodybuilder]

Triceps would only be involved indirectly. It would only be the tension on the tricep as the cable is going back up. Definitely not enough to say it is "working" the triceps.

 

[Jay Scott]

OK, I had a spirited debate at the gym with a guy. The lat pulldown station has one of those charts showing which muscles are used on the exercise. The chart says that the triceps are worked. I think that's incorrect. The tricep doesn't pull the arm towards the body, that's the bicep that does the pulling. The tricep pushes the arm away from the body like on any pressing exercise. Anyway, I've never felt a damned thing in my tricep while doing lat pulldowns. What do you guys think?

You are completely right, triceps are not being trained on it

 

[allaboutdemgains]

No biceps and lats, that's crazy. Lat pull down set my biceps on fire. Push-tricep, pull-bicep

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[mostly_a_lurker]

I mean if they wanted to they could highlight your abs and quads as well. But we all know they main muscles targeted are in the back.