Lat Pull Down Exercise Program to Strengthen the Back

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m personal trainer Mike Coangelo. I’m here at Fit for Life Training Studio in Glassboro, New Jersey. In this clip, we’re going to go over how to do a lat pull down properly. What you want to do is approach the bar, and about an inch away from the bar put your hands evenly, an over hand grip. Step up to the seat, pull the bar down on the position, and put your feet in front of you. What you do is you want to be looking up straight up at the bar. Okay, then you want to bring your back at a very slight angle, allowing the bar to come up to your upper chest. Bring your elbows down to your sides and squeeze. Bare bar needs to touch your upper chest, return slowly stretching the scapula out. Return, squeeze, exhale. Controlled movements as always. We’re going to come down, 2 seconds on the positive, 3-4 on the negative. What you don’t want to do is rock back because you’re doing too much weight. If you have to do that to get it down , it’s too much weight. You want to keep your back at this angle; fixed, come down, squeeze the scapula together, exhale, and come up slow. We also don’t want to do this. The fast speed doesn’t really help up nearly as much as the controlled movements. You’re looking up at the bar, come down, squeeze the upper chest, back slowly. As you’re going through the motion, you want to try to hit fatigue at 12-15 repetitions for our beginners. If you don’t reach fatigue at 12-15 you need to move the weight up. If you’re reaching fatigue at 5 you need to move the weight down. That’s what a rep range is. You want to make sure that you fatigue at a certain rep range, we’re going to go for 12-15. It’s a nice, safe rep range, and it gives you results. Okay, our last 3. 1, 2, and 3. That’s the proper way to do lat pull down. "