Lat pulldown for better form!

Lat pulldowns help work the latissimus dorsi, the biggest muscles that flank your back while also engaging biceps, writes Miten Kakaiya

For anyone who swears by fitness, building a solid back is important for both form and functionality. Training your back doesn’t just build those muscles but also creates a nice foundation for your entire upper body. The lat pulldown ticks both the boxes. It’s a really effective exercise that primarily helps work the latissimus dorsi (the biggest muscles that flank your back), while also engaging biceps, rear delts, rhomboids and traps as secondary muscles.

Like any other exercise, there are multiple benefits to this amazing exercise, but risks attached if your form isn’t perfect and you make mistakes.

The benefits

For starters, lat pulldowns are an excellent substitute for pullups or chinups, especially if you’re someone who hasn’t quite graduated to that level yet. It works on the same muscle groups, and helps you build a solid back. In addition to your latissimus dorsi (lats), it helps build multiple other muscles, strengthening them and ensuring your entire upper body gets worked. There are many variations too, like a close grip, wide grip, behind the neck, v grip, and so on. Just a suggestion... master the first one, and the variations will naturally follow!

The mistakes

Doing a pulldown ‘away’ from the body. When doing the perfect lat pulldown, the goal is to have the bar as close to your chest, and not far away from it. When pulled away from your chest, it works a different group of muscles entirely and becomes a lat pullover. You might get some tension on your back, but you will not be stable and will risk injury.

Leaning too much

This is the opposite of the previous mistake — leaning too much. Either you sit too far forward or are trying to lift too much weight — both of which are direct paths to injury. Leaning too much works the spinal erectors and lower trapezius, which turns it into a row, not a lat pulldown. Which, as you must have figured out already, defeats the purpose of the exercise.

Using your body momentum

This is a mistake that even seasoned gym-goers make, so please beware. This is the equivalent of swinging your weights — where you use the momentum you have and not your muscles to move the weight and do the work. Yes, it helps you lift heavier, but you won’t work your lats!

Perfecting the form

Now that you know what doesn’t work, it’s time to focus on what does! In your mind, visualise keeping your elbows straight and pull down using them, not your hands. Sit in a manner where your chest is directly under the bar.
Remember, squeeze your lats always! Once at the bottom, slowly let the weight back down by opening your lats as your elbows travel back up. Control this movement and feel the burn in your lats.

(The author is a fitness coach.)