How to do the Straight-Arm Pulldown
Step by step
- Stand facing a high pulley and grab a straight bar with arms extended in front.
- Hinge slightly forward with a soft bend in your elbows locked in place.
- Push the bar down in an arc toward your thighs using your lats.
- Control the bar back up to shoulder height, feeling the lat stretch.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your elbows fixed with a soft bend the whole time - if they bend and straighten, it becomes a triceps move instead of a lat exercise.
Coaching cue
Keep your chest still; do not lean down over the bar to help it move.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Use a lighter weight and a shorter arc.
- Harder: Pause two seconds with the bar at your thighs.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Lats
- Secondary: Core
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.