Lat pull downs

[muscelove]

I read that they should be performed while on your knees because your glutes are somehow involved and when you perform the exercise seated you dont get the full effect.

 

[blut wump]

If you want the full effect then do pullups rather than pull-downs.

Aside from that, I like to have my legs secured so that I can pull to maximum effect with my lats. Doing them from the floor would lift me off the floor. Don't like that idea.

 

[Dial_tone]

If you want the full effect then do pullups rather than pull-downs.

Aside from that, I like to have my legs secured so that I can pull to maximum effect with my lats. Doing them from the floor would lift me off the floor. Don't like that idea.

I would not do pullups unless you're strong enough to get in 3 sets of at least 6 reps. Otherwise do seated pulldowns to the front.

 

[Tadow]

If you want the full effect then do pullups rather than pull-downs.

Aside from that, I like to have my legs secured so that I can pull to maximum effect with my lats. Doing them from the floor would lift me off the floor. Don't like that idea.

Yup - pullups all the way. Even if you can't do very many. One of the few good things that I took from Arnold's Encyclopedia was to pick a total target number of pullups, and do as many sets as you need to do to hit that number. Your lats will thank you.

 

[JKurz1]

what does your back rotuine look like?

 

[blut wump]

I'm with Dial Tone on this. I like to do pullups but I'm not strong enough to do many at my weight so I finish off on the pulldown which probably does more for me. If I'm short of time or energy, I'll just stick to seated pulldowns since they give me a lot more to play with.

 

[rbtrout]

With shoulder problems, I have trouble doing pullups, unless underhand grip, so I'm really using more biceps. I've been doing them on the 5X5 and getting a bit better, but it still hurts the shoulder. I typically prefer doing pull downs with a butt-load of weight. I have to secure myself under the machine (some have leg supports) so I can pull a lot more than my body weight.

 

[e6er]

When grasping the bar, should you use a wide grip, narrow grip, or both?

 

[Jim Ouini]

My wife currently wants to do 10 pullups; she can do about 5 on her own and then for awhile she was using that assisted pullup machine which I don't care for.

So now she's doing pullups but I looped a mini band around the bar and she had her knee in there to assist - she said it felt a lot more natural and really only helps her at the bottom.

 

[Guinness5.0]

When grasping the bar, should you use a wide grip, narrow grip, or both?

A personal trainer at my gym whom I respect greatly told me to do them with a grip that keeps your forearms perpendicular to the ground through as much of the movement as possible for the sake of shoulder health.

 

[musketeer]

I read that they should be performed while on your knees because your glutes are somehow involved and when you perform the exercise seated you dont get the full effect.

Hmm... I suppose that if you are using a fair ammount of weight compared to your own bodyweight, when you do the pulldown, you need to brace your knees under the foot support and then you run the risk of losing your arch in your lower back because you are concentrating on your legs.

You just need to be consious of you body position, not change the exercise. That sounds a bit like 90's Men's Health advice, where they tell you to put your feet on the bench when bench pressing to (protect your back) or they get you to do laterals against the wall...

I used to my lat pulldowns kneeling, bu then I had no chice - my home gym required that you remove the seat and get down there to do it! As soon as I got strong enough to lift my own bodyweight, it wasnt an issue because I put a bar between two rafters (I was working out in the garage for the first three years) and did sets of chins.

To get really good at doing bodyweight chins, you do not need to be able to do any more than 3 in one set. This system allows you to do a relatively large amount of reps without fatiguing. Suppose that your max is 6-7 chins:

Set Reps
1---------1
2---------2
3---------3
4---------4
5---------5
6---------1
7---------2
8---------3
9---------4
10--------5
11--------1
12--------2
13--------3
14--------4
15--------5 (actually failed on 5 for the first time!)

OK so that's 15 sets but you require very little rest between each set, and in the space of less than 20mins (max) a relative novice "chinner" has done 45 good chinups! If you could only max at 4 then do (1 + 2 + 3) x 4 so 24 chinups per workout. You never really get to failure until the final time when you can't do what would normally be an easy set...