You’ve just finished your last set of lat pulldowns. Your lats are burning. Your biceps are pumped to the gills. Adrenaline, sweat, and frustration fill your consciousness as you ask yourself, “Why are lat pulldowns so hard?”
The lat pulldown is a deceptively difficult lift. It is similar to the pull up, except with pull ups you are actually held (relatively) stable by the bar you are gripping. In the lat pulldown, the bar is in motion, so it is more difficult to control. This is why some people find lat pulldowns to be more difficult even than pull ups. Additionally, improper technique can lead to difficulty with pulldowns.
I’m going to go over exactly why the lat pulldown is so difficult, how to perform a lat pulldown properly, and how to become stronger at lat pulldowns. By the end of this article, you will no longer need to ask yourself why lat pulldowns are so hard.
Check out this great video from JP Total Fitness about how to perform a lat pulldown properly:
Three Reasons Why the Lat Pulldown is so Hard
Although there may be more reasons why the lat pulldown is so hard, I’ve narrowed it down to just the three biggest ones:
Plane of Motion of the Lat Pulldown
If you’ve been around strength training circles for any period of time, you’ve probably heard how exercises in which you move your body through a plane of motion are superior to exercises in which your body is static, right?
Just so we’re on the same page, let’s take a look at the pulldown versus the pull up. The pulldown is an example of an exercise in which the body remains static while the weight is moved through a plane of motion.
On the other hand, the pull up is an exercise in which the body is moved through a plane of motion, as opposed to moving a weight.
Moving your body through a plane of motion is said to be more “natural” and more difficult than moving a weight through the same plane of motion. However, the weight on the lat pulldown is actually harder to stabilize and control because there is nothing keeping your body in place.
Think about it. With a pull up, your body is being partially controlled and kept fixed because you are gripping the bar. On a lat pulldown, you must control the weight. This is just one of the reasons why the lat pulldown is so hard for so many people.
Too Much Range of Motion
Usually the problem with most exercises is people are not getting enough range of motion. They are stopping the exercises short of it’s full movement. Not so with the lat pulldown. In fact, this is one of the major reasons people find the exercise so difficult.
A properly performed lat pulldown doesn’t require you to pull all the way down to your chest, unless you have the flexibility to do so.
You want to pull your shoulder blades together, while bringing your elbows in to your sides as much as possible. Keep your body stable with only a slight give at the top, right before bringing the bar down. If you are doing this and the bar is stopping just short of your chest, that is fine.
For a lot of people, though, they are not performing the pulldown this way. They are solely concerned with bringing the bar to their chest, while forgetting to activate their lats.
The important thing is not to touch the chest necessarily, but to make sure the mechanics of proper pulling are in place. Oftentimes, this means you will touch the chest, depending on your body mechanics and structure.
However your lat pulldown looks, it’s important to make sure you are performing reps the same way on every set. This goes for any exercise, really. Try to make each rep a mirror image of each other.
Lack of Vertical Pulling Work
One of the most overlooked reasons for difficulty with the lat pulldown is that it’s the only vertical pulling exercise most people are performing.
Unfortunately, a lot of people skip pull ups and go straight to the lat pulldown machine every time. Although it’s an awesome exercise, pull ups are still the king of vertical pulling exercises. The biggest way to make progress on your pulldowns (outside of doing pulldowns) is to do pull ups.
And not just the standard shoulder width overhand grip pull ups. Do chin ups with an underhand grip. Do wide grip or neutral grip pull ups. The key here is to mix it up.
Another exercise you can add in are straight arm pulldowns. This is one of the few exercises which really targets the lats directly, almost as an isolation exercise. Performing sets of these after your pulldowns and/or pull ups will make the pulldown easier for you.
How to Get Stronger at Lat Pulldowns
Although I’ve already touched on how to remedy some of the difficulties with lat pulldowns above, I’m going to lay out some more ideas here for what you can do:
Do More Rear Delt Exercises
Your rear deltoids are critical in any pulling movement. But, we often only think of them when it comes to rows. However, they are still quite active in pull ups and especially the pulldown. Strengthening them is key to making the lat pulldown easier.
I recommend performing face pulls with bands or cables. You’re going to also want to try band pulls, which burn my rear delts unlike any other exercise.
Check out my two articles dedicated to optimizing your rear delt training:
Best Compound Exercises for Rear Delts
Best Rear Delt Exercises With Bands
Go Lighter
I know, I hate hearing this too. It feels like a broken record to tell people to “use better form” and “go lighter”, but the truth is so many people would benefit from this simple and oft repeated advice.
Going lighter has the obvious advantage of allowing you to focus on proper form and technique, which is undoubtedly what is making people feel the lat pulldown is so hard much of the time.
Don’t Always Do Lat Pulldowns
It’s a bit counterintuitive to tell someone that the way to get better at something is not to do it. But, I’ve found cycling lat pulldowns in and out of my regular routine ensures I’m able to make more progress with them.
Getting a fresh take on an exercise after some time away can be really refreshing. Especially one like the lat pulldown, where you have a mental obstacle in the way.
I remember, I used to have this similar sort of mental hurdle with pull ups. They were so difficult for me that I was literally scared to do them for a while. Ironically, it was pulldowns that helped make my pull up stronger. And less scary!
Closing Thoughts
The lat pulldown is one hell of an exercise once you get to know it a bit. If you try all of the tips in this article and find it’s still challenging for you, that’s okay. It’s a difficult exercise, for some of the reasons I already outlined.
Just keep finding new ways to challenge yourself, and don’t be afraid to switch things up if you are hitting a plateau.
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