Summary: Learn exercise tips on how to strengthen the back using the hammer strength wide grip pull-down technique in this free workout video lesson on strength exercises for your back.
Mike Colangelo is a personal trainer with over 9 years of experience. After his term as fitness director at the YMCA, Mike became a fitness consultant to the Medford Wild and Pottstown...read more
" Hi! I’m personal trainer Mike Coangelo. I’m here at Fit for Life Training Studio in Glassboro, New Jersey. Today, we’re going to go over how to do a wide grip lap pull down on the Hammer Strength machine. Hammer Strengths are plate loaded. So, what you need to do is get your weight, put it on the machine like so. Of course, you want to have a plate on each side. Come to the front of the machine. Grab your weights properly; wide grip. In this case, you’re going to have a seat. Put your feet in front of you. Make sure that your chest is firmly against your chest pad, you want to move it away from there. This helps isolate the lat muscle properly, and insures the maximum result for minimum amount of effort with your machine. So, from here, what we do is we pull down, squeeze the shoulder blades together, exhale, come back up slowly, squeeze it, and come back up slowly. Again, our repetitions need to be 2 seconds on the positive, roughly 3-4 seconds on the negative, and you want to control the range of motion. Discussed that in your injury risks, and increases your results. Okay, what we don’t want to see it this kind of thing; it’s too fast. Gravity and momentum take part of the workout away from you. We also don’t want to see this. This puts your lower back at risk. You want to keep your chest against the pad. Okay, come down slow. Make sure at the bottom, that you give a nice squeeze to the back; squeezing your shoulder blades together. Twelve to fifteen repetitions. You have to find the weight to put on the machine to get you to fatigue at that rep range. Okay, we’re going to work at a nice, safe rep range; 12-15 repetitions. Alright, now, we’re going to work on our last 3 contractions. Nice squeeze, nice squeeze, and one more, nice squeeze. That is the proper way to do a Hammer Strength wide grip pull down. "
eHow Article: Hammer Strength Wide Grip Pull Down Back Exercise