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It could be argued that the three most popular pieces of gym equipment are in no particular order are the flat benches, standing cable machines and the lat pulldown machine.
Take a look around your gym, while the adductor machines remains empty. Often you will find lifters milling around these pieces, particularly the lat pulldown machine. One of the reasons for its popularity is its accessibility—everyone is capable of performing a lat pulldown—as well as its versatility, which is highlighted by the multitude of different attachments and accessories you can hook up to the device.
Lat pulldowns benefit all fitness levels, from beginners to advanced lifters. It works almost every upper body pulling muscle—it’s an excellent accessory exercise for chinups, it helps gives you wings, helps you builds strength. And whatever your goal, there’s an attachment that can help get you there, from long bars to triangle bars.
Here we’ll cover six lat pulldown attachments to up your lat pulldown gains. If you need to get reacquainted with this great exercise, here is how to do it.
Here are the primary pulling muscles the lat pulldown trains.
But the real money is made by training the lats, the most prominent and widest muscle in the upper body. The standard lat pulldown bar is straight or curved, is 48 inches long, and weighs around 12 pounds. You can grip over or underhand and go wide or narrow to train your lats from various angles.
But with the lats spanning the lumbar and lower thoracic regions and having four distant areas, it pays to change up your grip, body position, and the attachments you use for better lat development.
Some of these you may know about, and some you may not. But changing your grip and attachments prevents boredom and overuse injuries and trains your lats from various angles for better wing development. Here are six lat pulldown attachments to consider for your next lat pulldown session.
I have never seen or heard of this attachment before, but this lat pulldown attachment sold by Rogue is one of a kind. It looks and sounds like something brutal, but it hits your lats like no other. The attachment, which looks like an upside-down saw, includes incremental 1-inch rungs ( 9 on each side) for attaching cable handles gripped with a neutral, overhand, or underhand grip.
And you can easily switch between close to wide grip and everything in between without changing equipment. You’ll focus on the upper lats and back and tax your grip strength when you go wider and the upper back and lower lats when using a close grip.
What it’s good for: Training your biceps, upper back, and lats from all angles and grip positions.
The lat bar pro is less versatile than the Lat Saw but less expensive, which is a consideration if you’re looking for an attachment for your home gym. The strong and comfortable knurling on the inner bar is great for over and underhanded close grip pulldown. So far, we have discussed a close neutral grip but not an overhand grip.
Going overhand, whether you go wide or close, flares out the elbows more and focuses less on the biceps and more on the forearm flexors and the upper back. The neutral wider grips on the lat bat pro are angled down slightly to help keep your wrists neutral, which helps hit your upper lats more.
What it’s good for: Provides a comfortable neutral grip which allows you to focus on your upper back and lats.
This lat pulldown attachment has four neutral grip positions spaced almost five inches apart, so you can comfortably grip each without scraping your knuckles. Not as versatile as the lat saw, but the neutral grip, our strongest grip, allows you to go wide and close grip comfortably. This will enable you to train your upper back for thickness, and when you go wide, hit the hard-to-reach lower lats.
The only knock on this attachment is that it weighs almost 23 pounds, making it hard to get into position.
What it’s good for: This attachment is great for going close and wide in a neutral grip, allowing you to go heavier and hopefully for more reps.
Triangle bar lat pulldowns are similar to the rope attachment because it’s a close grip pulldown with a neutral grip. This grip lets you go hard and heavy on the biceps, upper back, and lower lats. The knurling on the triangle attachment makes this attachment easier to grip than the rope, probably allowing you to eke out a few more reps, which is essential if improved size is your goal.
What it’s good for: As the triangle attachment is easier to grip, it’s a great tool to add thickness to your upper back and lower lats.
The V-bar attachment is excellent for thinner guys like me because it allows you to do neutral close grip and wider grip lat pulldowns to target your lats, upper back, and biceps which thinner guys find difficult with longer lat bars. What makes this attachment unique is the grip. Here, you’ll use a neutral grip, using only your fingers.
The hook grip you’ll use means less grip strength which drives more muscle activation to your lats and upper back. The shape of the V-bar attachment allows you to stretch your lats more than a standard lat pulldown bar, increasing your range of motion for better potential gains.
What it’s good for: If you’re a thinner guy and need to work on your grip strength or both, this lat pull-down bar is for you.
The rope attachment is for more than triceps pushdowns; it is also an effective tool for training your upper back and lats. When using a rope for lat pulldowns, it is a close-grip pulldown with a neutral grip, and this has a couple of benefits. A neutral grip is easier on the upper body joints, and it is also our strongest grip.
What does this mean for you? It means more reps and the possibility of lifting more weight for juicy back gains. The close neutral grip means more biceps due to increased elbow flexion and more focus on the upper back and the hard-to-reach lower lats.
What it’s good for: Increasing your upper back’s thickness and training the lower lats.
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