Hey, what's up guys? I'm Scott from muscularstrength.com and today
I'm gonna be talking about the three golden rules on a how to perform a lat pulldown
Properly a lat pulldown is a great exercise
That's gonna target
Basically the entire back
Mainly focusing on back width and we're also gonna be involving other muscles in the back like your traps and your rhomboids
Your rear delts and we're also going to be activating your biceps to a degree as well and just remember for this video
We're doing the overhand grip version of the exercise will cover the underhand grip in another video
Golden rule number one has to do with elbow
Positioning you want to make sure that you're pulling the weight down properly so that you can not only
Maximize your pulling strength, but place your shoulders in a position where they're not compromised
So you don't have to worry about shoulder impingement issues
so what happens with most people with this movement is they grab the weight and sit down and
While you are supposed to keep your chest up like this
What tends to happen is the weight comes down and the elbows go back and that's not what you want to do
And you're actually not gonna feel as much a lat
Engagement as you would if you were to do with the correct way and the correct way to perform this movement guys is
Keeping your elbows slightly in front of you like this and then in line with your hips as you pull down
This is going to give you more pulling power so more strength to pull more weight, and it's also like I said
It's gonna place your shoulders in a position to where they're not compromised, and you don't have to worry about shoulder impingement
Golden rule number two is that you guys always want to pull the weight down in front of your body and not behind your neck
Pulling the weight down behind your neck is unnecessary and it can also be dangerous for your shoulder joint as well as your cervical spine
So this is what proper form is supposed to look like
Pulling down in front like this what you guys don't want to do is pull like this behind your head
What's going to end up happening is number one?
You won't be able to lift as much weight to overload
Your lats as much as possible and number two we just talked about how in order to maximize engagement
You want those elbows in line with your hips to really feel that
Stretching and tearing in your lats if you're pulling your head forward like that and pulling the bottom
Hi in your head your elbows are once again pulling backwards almost the same position as if they were right here
Which is not optimal for back growth so don't do it
Just do it the regular way and now for the final golden rule
But before we get started with that be sure to click that subscribe button and turn on video notifications
So you never miss a new video upload from me alright
So the third and final golden rule guys is you want to pull down the weight?
Using as little of your biceps as possible and try to keep as much of that
Focus in your last and now if you're a beginner
This is a concept that might seem kind of weird to you because you don't quite have that mind-muscle connection
Developed yet
But there ask some tricks that you can apply to the movement to help develop that mind muscle connection
And for those of you who already have it established pretty well these tips will help you make it even stronger
So what I want you guys to do is the next time you do a lat pulldown
Instead of gripping the BAA with your thumb underneath like that
I want you to put it on top now it might not seem like a big deal
But what happens?
Mentally is that once you let go with your thumb and place it on top of the BA you
Start to kind of visualize your hands more as just hooks that are in place to help you pull the weight down
Versus gripping and pulling as hot as you can with your hand so step one
I want you guys to hook the BA once you do that you're gonna sit down in place and then from here
I want you to visualize
Pulling the weight down with your elbows
And if you're able to do that you'll quickly start to see a difference in how your back is engaged
And if you don't believe me what I want you to do is
Do a regular set squeezing the by as hot as you can with your thumb under the bottle like this
Pull down and you'll feel it more in your biceps bring those thumbs on top focus on pulling down with your elbows
And you'll feel it more in your back
and
I have one more final tip for you guys before I let you go when you start lifting
Really, heavy weight to the point to where the weight stack weighs more than you
Here's something you can do to help you get into place without having to look like a crazy person
Jumping around trying to pull this weight down
What you want to do is set up this pad so that it's it's low enough so to hold you in place when you're down
But it's high enough so that you can grip this ba and then sag your body and then get your knees
Right under the pad like this and try to get your toes
Under your knees so that once you're in place you can push off your
Toes to create a lot of force here to hold your lower body down and then what you can do is utilize that pressure
To push yourself into position without having to pull the weight down just yet, so it's a really simple trick
But man it comes in handy
Just sag yourself as much as possible push your knees underneath, and then you can kind of slide in and start your set
There you guys have it. I hope you enjoyed the video if it helped you
Please leave a comment down in that comment section below and as always guys more good stuff coming soon