Lat pulldowns are the most overrated exercise

By Sean Nalewanyj

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People who do heavy pull ups actually do tend to have better back development than those who've only ever done pulldowns, but it has nothing to do with this. It is true that pullups produce greater overall muscle activation, but that's not surprising since your entire body is hanging in space and so more muscles have to kick in just to keep yourself stable. But muscle activation doesn't equal hypertrophy stimulus, and when it comes specifically to the lats, both pull ups and pulldowns produce the same level of activation when the load is equated. It's the same general movement pattern and your lats have no idea whether you're pulling a bar down toward yourself or pulling yourself up toward a bar. The real reason "pull-up enthusiasts" often have impressive backs is pretty simple. Pull ups are more challenging on the body as a whole, they have a higher barrier to entry, and so the type of person who would gravitate to pulldowns and work all the way up to repping them out with 100 plus po

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