Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown

What the reverse grip lat pulldown actually trains

A reverse grip lat pulldown is a vertical pulling movement in which you take an underhand grip on a pulldown bar and draw it to your upper chest while seated.

The latissimus dorsi and the teres major do the majority of the work, bringing the upper arm down and back. The biceps brachii and brachialis flex the elbow, the rhomboids and lower trapezius contribute at the finish, and the posterior deltoid assists.

The question worth answering is what the underhand grip actually changes, because the internet has a lot of opinions about this and most of them are inflated.

Supinating the hands rotates the shoulder externally and tends to bring the elbows closer to the body, which shortens the pull path slightly and puts the biceps in a stronger position. Marcolin and colleagues measured elbow flexor activity across curl variations and found hand position meaningfully changes the contribution of the biceps and the brachioradialis, which is the mechanism behind the familiar observation that you can usually pull more weight underhand.

What it does not do is train a separate part of the latissimus dorsi. Lehman and colleagues measured activation across traditional latissimus dorsi exercises and found grip variations produce far smaller differences than the surrounding folklore claims. The lat has one origin and one insertion; it does not have a lower region you can select with your palms. If you pull with your elbows travelling closer to your sides, the arm path changes a little, and that is the whole story.

The practical summary is that this is a lat pulldown with more biceps and a slightly different elbow path. That is a reason to include it in a rotation, not a reason to believe it is a distinct exercise.

Setting up and executing

Set the thigh pad so your legs are held down firmly. If your body lifts off the seat on heavy sets, the pad is too high.

Take an underhand grip roughly shoulder width apart, sit down, and let the arms straighten fully overhead.

Lean back around twenty degrees and hold that angle for the whole set. Brace the abs and lift the chest.

Let the shoulder blades rise at the top so the lats reach a genuine stretch.

Pull the elbows down and back towards your ribs, bringing the bar to your upper chest. Squeeze for a beat.

Return over two to three seconds until the arms are straight and the shoulder blades have risen again.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Turning it into a curl is the failure mode specific to this variation. With the hands supinated and the biceps in a strong position, it is easy to lead with the forearms and finish with the elbows still in front of you. Think about driving the elbows down towards the floor and letting the hands go along for the ride.

Leaning back progressively through the set is the second, and it is how people quietly add weight without adding stimulus. Twenty degrees at the first rep and forty five at the last is not the same exercise. Pick your angle and hold it.

Gripping too narrow crowds the wrists and elbows and shortens the pull for no gain. Shoulder width is the sensible default.

Cutting the top removes the stretch. Pallares and colleagues found full range training produced better strength and hypertrophy outcomes than partial work, and on a pulldown the fully extended overhead position is the part people abandon first.

And pulling behind the neck is worth naming only to dismiss it. It offers nothing the front version does not and requires unusual shoulder mobility to reach at all.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

Moderate loads and full range, with enough rest to keep the pull line honest.

For muscle gain, three sets of eight to twelve with ninety seconds. For strength, four sets of six to eight with two minutes. In a fat loss phase, three sets of twelve to fifteen with a minute.

Because the biceps contribute more here than on an overhand pulldown, they will often be the tissue that fails first. That is not a fault, but it does mean the lats may finish a set with something left. If the goal is the back specifically, an overhand or neutral grip usually gives you a cleaner signal.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, and this counts towards both back and biceps volume, which is worth remembering when you plan your arm work.

Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable growth to going all the way, and on a pulldown the final grinding rep is usually the one where the torso swings.

Straps are reasonable once grip becomes the limiter.

Where it fits in your split

Early in a pulling session, as the vertical pull or immediately after chin-ups.

On push, pull and legs it belongs on pull day. On a bro split it comes first or second on back day. On an upper and lower split it serves as the vertical pull. On a full body programme it is a solid choice for the day's pulldown.

If you can do chin-ups for reps, do those first and use this afterwards for volume with a controlled load. Doma and colleagues compared chin-ups with lat pulldowns and found the two movements are closely related but not identical, with the free bodyweight version demanding more from the trunk and the shoulder stabilisers.

If you cannot yet do chin-ups, this is the most direct way to build towards them, because the grip and the elbow path match.

Rotating grips across training blocks is more useful than picking one forever. Overhand for a block, underhand for a block, neutral for a block. The differences are small, but the variety spreads the load across elbows and shoulders and keeps the sessions interesting.

Twice a week suits most people.

Variations worth knowing

The wide grip overhand pulldown takes the elbows further from the body and reduces the biceps contribution, which makes it a slightly cleaner back movement.

The neutral grip pulldown, palms facing each other, sits between the two and is often the most comfortable option for cranky elbows.

The chin-up is the bodyweight equivalent of this exercise and a harder one, with a real trunk demand attached.

A single arm pulldown lets the torso rotate slightly, adds range at both ends, and reveals side to side differences that a bar conceals.

The straight arm pulldown removes the elbow flexors entirely, which is useful when you want lat work without more biceps.

And the kneeling cable pulldown is the same movement from a high pulley when the dedicated station is occupied.

What the evidence says

Lehman and colleagues measured muscle activation during traditional latissimus dorsi exercises and found grip and hand position change activation far less than commonly claimed, which is the strongest reason to treat the reverse grip pulldown as a variant rather than a distinct exercise.

Doma and colleagues compared chin-ups with lat pulldowns and found the movements are kinematically and electromyographically related, with meaningful differences arising from the free versus supported nature of the two rather than from the grip alone.

Youdas and colleagues examined muscle activation across pull-up and chin-up variations and found broadly similar latissimus dorsi involvement with the elbow flexors varying more by grip, which matches what you feel here.

Marcolin and colleagues measured elbow flexor activity across curl variations and found hand position substantially alters the balance between the biceps and the brachioradialis, explaining why the underhand grip lets you pull more weight.

Pallares and colleagues found full range training produced better strength and hypertrophy outcomes than partial range work, supporting full arm extension at the top of every rep.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, and this movement contributes to back and biceps volume at once.

Refalo and colleagues found stopping short of failure produces comparable growth, which keeps the pull line clean on the later sets.

Common questions

Does the underhand grip hit the lower lats?

No. The latissimus dorsi does not have a lower portion you can select by rotating your hands. What changes is the elbow path and the biceps contribution. The idea of a lower lat pulldown is folklore rather than anatomy.

Why can I lift more underhand?

Because supinating the hands puts the biceps in a stronger position and brings the elbows closer to the body, which shortens the moment arm. The extra weight is mostly extra arm involvement, not extra back work.

Is this different enough from a normal pulldown to do both?

Barely, and that is fine. Do one as your main vertical pull and rotate the grip every training block. Running both in the same session is redundant unless you simply want the volume.

How far should I lean back?

Around twenty degrees, held constant. A slight lean lines the pull up with the lat fibres and lets the bar clear your face. Increasing the lean as the set gets hard turns the movement into a row and disguises the fatigue.

Should I use straps?

Once the grip fails before the back does, yes. With an underhand grip the forearms are usually not the first thing to give, so this comes up less often here than on rowing, but the principle is the same.