Straight-Arm Pulldown

How to perform the Straight-Arm Pulldown

1. Stand facing a high cable pulley with a straight bar attached, feet hip-width apart and a soft hinge at the hips so your torso leans forward slightly.
2. Grip the bar with a pronated grip at shoulder width, arms nearly straight with just a fixed micro-bend at the elbows that never changes during the set.
3. Set the shoulder blades down and start with the bar at roughly forehead height, feeling a stretch across the lats before you move anything.
4. Drive the bar down in a long arc toward your thighs by pulling from the armpits, keeping the elbows locked at that same slight bend the whole way.
5. Finish with the bar against the front of your thighs, ribs down, squeezing the lats without letting the elbows bend to sneak in a triceps pushdown.
6. Let the bar rise back along the same arc under control until the lats are fully lengthened overhead again before starting the next repetition.

Suggested working range: 12–15 reps. Default progression: double progression.

Common mistakes

• •Bending the elbows during the pull so the movement collapses into a triceps pushdown instead of a straight-arm lat exercise.
• •Standing bolt upright with no forward hinge, which cuts the range and takes the stretch off the lats at the top.
• •Using so much weight that the torso rocks and heaves the bar down rather than the lats pulling it through the arc.
• •Letting the shoulders shrug up toward the ears instead of keeping the shoulder blades pulled down throughout.

Variations & alternatives

Swap in a related movement if equipment, recovery, or progression demands it.