Functional Training: Pull Downs

Video Transcript

"This next exercise I'm going to demonstrate is the Pull Down. You'll see I'm in front of this cable cross with the fitness ball, this is also very commonly, common set in the gym with just a very traditional pull down machine. So, the mistakes I'm going to talk about really is just in any traditional pull down movement. So what I'm going to demonstrate is just the functional version of a pull down. Sitting on a fitness ball, activating your stabilizing muscles and then pulling down. Just always note that this sometimes it's a bar, sometimes cable cross like this. Biggest mistakes will be generally, so it would be best from viewed from behind, most people when they pull down, they always think of drawing their shoulders forward and dropping their head down. Very big mistake to let the shoulders roll forward, puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders, it's just asking for shoulder injury. Another biggest mistake would be the reverse pull down or the behind the head pull down. This of course is much more functional with these cables that I have, but, in the gym environment with the bar, never perform the behind the neck pull down, much too much stress on the shoulder joint. So proper movement, draw your body up straight, pull the weights down and in, thinking about lifting the chest, keeping the chest open, the rib cage lifted and squeeze the shoulder blades together down and in. Get a nice stretch as you let the weights come all the way back up, exhale to draw the weights down, shoulder blades drop down and in. Very important, just simple reminder is keep the chest lifted, even look up slightly and think about dropping the shoulders away from the ears, shoulder blades squeezed together. So the same exercise from the side. When you're thinking about your pelvic position, always just draw the lower abdominal muscles in or think about pulling the belly button in. Keep the tension out of your low back, also a very common and very big mistake is to arch your low back to get any weight to pull down. Pull the stomach in, draw the weights down on an exhale, keep your chest lifted and squeeze your shoulder blades down and in. Inhale always at the top as well to get a full stretch without sacrificing your shoulders forward. So, easiest reminder, always keep the shoulders drawing back, avoid rolling forward and avoid causing tension in the upper back and neck."