Bar pulldown: don’t pack wide!

Geschatte leestijd: 4 minuten With the lat pulldown, there is often the thought that you should grip it wide; “You have to grip wide to become wide.” The same mindset is often used with pull-ups as well. But, is this true? What contributes to the width of your back and how does gripping wide help with that? Wouldn’t it be better to just grip narrow or neutral?

What contributes to the width of your back?

Below you see a photo of me from 2013 posing with a lat spread. This was during a bodybuilding competition in which I participated only once. Your back consists of many different muscles. But the muscle that makes your back wide is the latissimus dorsi. Also known as your lats, wing muscles, or the wide back muscle. I use these terms interchangeably in this article.

What is needed for muscle growth?

To make a muscle grow, you always have to train the function of the muscle. Sounds very difficult, but it’s not. Your latissimus dorsi attaches to the bottom of your spine to just above the middle and then runs down to the bone of your upper arm, your humerus. Because your wide back muscle is connected to your upper arm, the muscle stretches when you lift your arm. When you engage your lats, you pull your arm down. So how can you make your lats grow? By pulling your arm down. Simple as that. The lat pulldown is therefore a great exercise to train your latissimus dorsi. Simply performing a movement does not give you a wide back. Otherwise, you could spend the whole day at home pulling your arm up and down and get the widest back ever. That obviously doesn’t work. According to the muscle growth expert, Brad Schoenfeld, the most important factor for muscle growth is mechanical muscle tension. Simply put, this means that resistance is needed to make a muscle grow. Duh. Why else would we go to the gym?! Other factors for muscle growth are muscle damage and muscle pump (metabolic stress). The extent to which these two factors play a role is not exactly known yet, but it is certain that tension is the most important. The more weight you move, the better.

Grip width and its influence on maximum muscle tension

The width with which you grip the bar during the lat pulldown ultimately influences the amount of weight you can move. The wider you grip, the less weight you can move, and the less good it is for muscle growth. How can this be? This has to do with a bit of biomechanics. I know, difficult word, but it’s all quite logical. In biomechanics, you look at how movements affect the body. Let’s say you grip the bar very wide. The distance from your hand to your shoulder, viewed horizontally, is then greater than when you grip the bar at shoulder width. See how much larger the blue line is when you grip wide? See the image below. This distance, from your hand to your shoulder, is called the moment arm. What you need to remember is that the greater the moment arm, the more force is exerted. Take for example a bicep curl. In the left image, there is no force on my bicep, there is no moment arm. If I bend my arm halfway (right image), the moment arm is the greatest, the blue line is the longest. That’s also the point where the exercise is the hardest. To translate this back to the lat pulldown for a moment. What you notice when you grip wide is that you feel more pressure on your shoulders. This is due to the moment arm. The wider you grip, the greater the moment arm, the more force is exerted. This force is mainly exerted on your shoulder. This alone brings an increased risk of injury. Furthermore, due to the larger moment arm (think back to the bicep curl), you can move less weight than when you grip the bar at shoulder width. And what was most important for muscle growth again? OH YEAH! Muscle tension. You don’t maximize that when you grip wide.

Grip width and its influence on range of motion

Remember… your latissimus dorsi is connected to your spine and your upper arm. For illustration. Raise your hand in the air above your head, just like you used to when you wanted to ask the teacher something. Feel your lats, they are fully tense. Now pretend to grip the lat pulldown bar with one hand with a very wide grip. You’ll notice that the wider you grip, the less your latissimus dorsi is stretched. What can we conclude from this? The higher you lift your arm above your head, the more tension is put on it. If maximal muscle growth is your goal, you want to fully stretch and fully contract a muscle. It has been proven many times that this leads to the most muscle growth. No half movements! But what do you do when you grip the bar wide during the lat pulldown? Then you’re actually making a half movement because you’re not fully stretching the muscle. What a waste!

Conclusion: Grip wide to stay narrow

The question of this article was whether during the lat pulldown, and during pull-ups, you want to grip the bar wide if maximal muscle growth is your goal. The short answer is: no. Why?

1. Gripping wide allows you to move less weight than when you grip at shoulder width. Which is very important since mechanical muscle tension is the factor for muscle growth.
2. Increased risk of injury to your shoulders due to a larger moment arm.
3. You don’t fully stretch your wide back muscle, resulting in incomplete movements. Which is not optimal for maximal muscle growth.

How should it be done then?

Ideally, you grip the bar about 10 cm wider than shoulder width. This is the optimal width for maximum strength production, maximum range of motion, and minimal stress on your wrists and shoulders. Your elbows may experience more stress though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGcOnF-cZwY