V-Bar Lat Pulldown

How to do it

1. Clip a V-bar to a lat pulldown machine and set the thigh pads so your legs are held down.
2. Take the handles with your palms facing each other and sit down with your arms straight overhead.
3. Let the shoulders rise at the top, then set them down away from your ears.
4. Lean back slightly from the hips and hold that angle.
5. Pull the handles down to your upper chest, driving the elbows down and toward your ribs.
6. Let the bar rise under control until the arms are straight and the shoulders lift again.

Common mistakes

• Pulling with the arms first. The shoulder blade moves down before the elbow bends; leading with the biceps means the arms fail before the back has been loaded.
• Leaning further back as the set gets hard. The lean is set at the start and held — turning it into a row halfway through changes the exercise mid-set.
• Pulling the handles to the stomach. The V-bar's line is to the upper chest; taking it lower closes the elbow past what the shoulder can follow.
• Expecting the neutral grip to make it a different exercise. Palms facing each other keep the elbows in and are usually the most comfortable grip on a pulldown, but the movement is still the upper arm being pulled down toward the body.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Lats

Secondary

• Biceps
• Rhomboids
• Middle TrapeziusTraps
• Shoulders