Lateral pulldown dumbbell alternative

Updated On: March 08,

Are there Lat Pulldown alternatives with dumbbells? It is a compound exercise, meaning it targets several joints and muscles at once. It targets a range of muscles through your upper back, to your biceps, forearms and core. But it is best known for its ability to assist in developing your latissimus dorsi. Hello, width! Learn more about your lats here!

Lateral pulldown dumbbell alternative

Please note that we may earn a commission if you buy through any of the links in our article at no additional cost to you. For more, see our disclosures page. And thanks for supporting our team! However, if you have had them in your program for a while, your program may be stalling. Or it may just be getting boring. Whether you are no longer making progress at a gym without a lat pulldown or are stuck training at home, there are many great lat pulldown substitutes for you. Each alternative to the lat pulldown exercise comes from various machines, dumbbells, cables, bands, and at-home variations. In this article, I will discuss what makes a good lat pulldown alternative, how to perform each of these movements, and share some tips on how to make them more effective in your program. Lat pulldowns are one of the most effective exercises for building muscle and strength in your upper back. It's a compound exercise that activates and strengthens the lat muscles, traps, rear delts, and rhomboids all at once. It also targets your biceps and grip strength due to the pulling action required to pull the bar down. The biggest drawback to the lat pulldown is needing the bulky piece of equipment. They are expensive to purchase and take up a lot of space in the gym.

Origins: The lats have 4 different points of origin. Drive your elbows down towards the side of your hips and slowly return the weight back up.

One of the most common questions we get is how to do lat pulldowns without a lat pulldown machine. We need to replace it with a similar exercise, not an identical one. Lat pulldowns are often programmed in moderate rep ranges of 8—15 reps, but it takes quite a lot of upper-body strength to bust out that many pull-ups, especially when trying to use a full range of motion, bringing our chests all the way up to the bar. Plus, lat pulldowns are often programmed after heavy sets of chin-ups and pull-ups. There are a couple of different ways of doing lat pulldowns.

The lat pulldown is one of the most staple back exercises most people have in their workout routines. The lat pulldown can increase muscular strength or hypertrophy in the biceps, lats and rear delts , true enough — but there are much better lat pulldown alternatives out there that can hit the lats in a better or different way. With versatility in mind, here are the 10 best lat pulldown alternatives that you can try out instead. The chest-supported pulldown is a better variation to the traditional lat pulldown. You will need to use the combination of a lat pulldown or cable machine as well as a weight bench that can be set up to an upright position. You should use the chest-supported pulldown if you are someone who either cheats in the lat pulldown by swinging your torso, if you overextend your lower back , or even if you have trouble establishing a mind-muscle connection with your upper back. Set an adjustable bench to an upright position and move it in front of a cable attachment, with the column handle fixed just above the height of the top of your bench. Pull the handles down and back until your elbows are aligned with your torso.

Lateral pulldown dumbbell alternative

One of the most common questions we get is how to do lat pulldowns without a lat pulldown machine. We need to replace it with a similar exercise, not an identical one. Lat pulldowns are often programmed in moderate rep ranges of 8—15 reps, but it takes quite a lot of upper-body strength to bust out that many pull-ups, especially when trying to use a full range of motion, bringing our chests all the way up to the bar. Plus, lat pulldowns are often programmed after heavy sets of chin-ups and pull-ups. There are a couple of different ways of doing lat pulldowns. The more popular way of doing lat pulldowns is with a wider, overhand grip, though. When you use an overhand grip, it prevents your biceps from fully engaging, and when you use a wider grip, it emphasizes your lats over your other upper-back muscles. It will even work the long head of your triceps a little bit, since they help to pull your elbows closer to your body.

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Due to their shared machine-based nature and the fact that they recruit the same muscle groups for the same biomechanics, substituting the lat pulldown with the high row machine requires little to no additional change in the training program, allowing the lifter to simply switch from one to the other as they wish. This particular substitute to the lat pulldown excels in developing size and strength along the middle back, greatly improving the wideness of the entire back and significantly improving vertical pulling strength. The lat pulldown is one of the most staple back exercises most people have in their workout routines. Inspire US allows Deb to share information related to training, lifting, biomechanics, and more. They target the muscles in the upper back and biceps just like the lat pulldown, enabling you to get a deep stretch in your lats during each rep. Attach a single-handle cable attachment to the top of a lat pulldown machine. As we discussed previously, grip impacts which muscles support the lats more. It also targets your biceps and grip strength due to the pulling action required to pull the bar down. The pull-up is super similar to the lat pulldown. If you want to isolate the latter function, you can turn to a movement like the straight-arm pulldown, as long as you have access to a cable station. Start holding the dumbbell on an extended arm, hanging in a neutral position, and row in a straight line from there towards your rib cage. Technique is extra important with this Lat Pulldown alternative exercise, so be sure to check out the video above on how to perform it safely. The lat pulldown is a good exercise for working our entire upper backs, and it even gives our biceps, triceps, and forearms a bit of stimulation.

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Pull the handles down and back until your elbows are aligned with your torso. The single-arm cable pulldown is a great variation that trains one side of your back at a time. Updated On: March 08, Try out one of these alternatives and reap the benefits that follow. They also improve your grip strength. There is really no reason for your lats to miss out at home when you have this range of exercises designed just for them. Secondly, the exercise allows you to fully stretch the lats underload, which is difficult during lat pulldowns without significant modification. For the most similar kind of training stimulus, it is best to look to machine-based exercises for a lat pulldown alternative. You can let your elbows bend a bit, and that might make the lift a bit easier on your triceps, but it will work both your triceps and your lats either way. The barbell row is one of the best lat pulldown alternatives that you can do in the gym or at home. This exercise can be done on a flat bench, decline bench or even an incline bench. As the bar comes into the hips, keep the elbows as close to the body as you can. This means lat pulldowns are only really doable at a gym. You should look to combine this with other lat exercises, like lat focused rows or machine work, that stress the lat in shorter ranges.