Wide Grip Front Pulldowns

Primary Muscles Worked:	Description:
Latissimus Dorsi (Lats)	The largest muscles of the back.

Secondary Muscles Worked:	Description:
Rhomboids, Teres Major, Trapezius	Upper back muscles that move the arm backwards.
Biceps Brachii	Flexing muscles of the upper arm.

How To Do It

Tricks

Common Errors

The Wide Grip Pulldown is one of the most widely known back exercises though few people actually do it properly. The mechanics of the movement are very similar to the Close Grip Pulldown, with the only major difference being the wider, overhand grip.

Take a wide grip with your palms facing forward.
Don't grip excessively wide, though. About 4 to 6 inches outside shoulder width is fine (too close will involve the biceps too much while too wide will reduce the amount of weight you are able to use).
Start with your torso vertical and your arms overhead.
As you begin to pull down, lean back slightly, arching your lower back and puffing your chest out to meet the bar. This isolates the lats better.

Pull the bar down to your mid-pecs, concentrating on pulling with your back muscles rather than pulling with the biceps.
When you get to the bottom of the movement, try to squeeze your shoulder blades behind your back for a second then slowly let the bar go back up.

1. Drop the shoulder girdle

This movement should be done as a two-part movement to work your back best. Try this little exercise to get a feel for the movement:

Start by sitting in the pulldown machine grasping the bar with your arms fully extended overhead.
Allow your shoulders to shrug up, letting the weight stretch your shoulders.
Now try dropping your shoulder girdle. This is the opposite movement of when you shrug your shoulders; it is the down part. The arms should not bend in this part of the movement. Your shoulders should just drop down a few inches.
Practice this short movement a few times.
Once you have the feel for that, add this to the pulldown movement by first shrugging down, then pulling the bar down the rest of the way.
You should feel a difference in your back immediately as this technique will lock your lats into activation.
Repeat this technique at the start of every rep.

2. Keep some bend in the elbows

Do not let the elbows go completely straight at the top of the movement. Keep some bend in the elbows and some tension in the biceps. This allows the stretch to occur in the back where you want it rather than in the arms and shoulders.

3. Using a thumbless grip

Try using a thumbless grip to decrease biceps involvement.

Instead of wrapping your thumbs around the bar, place the fingerprints of your thumbs on the underside of the bar as though making a "thumbs up".
As you pull down, push with your thumbs against the bar.
This pushing will activate the triceps slightly and reduce biceps activation.

The errors include those mentioned with Close Grip Pulldowns. Some specific ones for this exercise include:

1. Pulling down behind the neck

This is also known as the Behind-the-Neck Pulldown exercise.

It is not a good exercise and can lead to shoulder problems in the long term.
The position of the arms in the shoulder sockets is a sensitive one.
Even with enough flexibility to do the exercise properly (which few people have) there is still a large risk of injury.
The shoulders are just not designed to work with resistance in that position.

2. Taking too wide or too narrow a grip

If you find your biceps are more fatigued than your back, your grip is too narrow.

If you have a very small range of motion, your grip is probably too wide.
The grip you should be taking is at or near the point where the bar starts to bend down.
The longer your arms are, the further down the bent part you can safely grip.
The shorter your arms are, the closer in your hands will need to grip.