Cable Incline Pushdown
Trains the Lats and Teres Major.
- Equipment
- A cable station
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set a rope or straight bar on a high pulley and stand a step back, facing it.
- Take the handle with both hands and step back so the cable is taut with the arms overhead and forward.
- Hinge slightly at the hips with a flat back and the knees soft.
- Keeping the elbows straight but not locked, pull the handle down in a wide arc to your thighs.
- Squeeze briefly where the arms reach the body.
- Let the cable draw the arms back overhead under control.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows bend. The moment the elbow bends this becomes a triceps pushdown, which is the exercise its name suggests and not the one it is — the arms stay straight and the lat does the work.
- Standing bolt upright. Without the forward lean the arc is shorter and the cable line runs past the body rather than through it.
- Going heavy enough to rock the torso. The load travels through a straight arm, which is a long lever, so the weight is far lighter than a pulldown.
- Being misled by the name. With the elbow out of the movement, this is a straight-arm pulldown done at an angle, and it trains the lats rather than the triceps.