We go through many modifications to leg exercises, lower back exercises, shoulder exercises, and lat exercises for the sake of user-friendliness. It’s a smart thing to do when considering a lifter’s leverages, anthropometry, or contraindications. If you’re susceptible to injury, it’s worth finding a superior alternative that works for you.
In the case of lat exercises, however, the amount of variety that’s put out there is limited—and truthfully, it doesn’t have to be. The same amount of variations can and should be available for use, and I’m here to help.
Simply put, here’s the problem with typical lat exercises like pulldowns and chins: They’re very contingent upon shoulder mobility. Shoulder mobility, in turn, is very contingent upon thoracic spine health. Without going down a giant rabbit hole regarding training for a healthy shoulder girdle, it’s worth pointing out that plenty of lat exercises rely on a fixed hand and arm position through the whole range of motion.
If you’re immobile, that makes it easier to fall out of position and disengage the lats from doing their job. That’s what happens when you see shoulder glide enter the picture through end ranges of many back exercises.
What is The Decline Pullover?
There are a few reasons why this variation is unique and effective. Firstly, to the points above, it creates an opportunity to use ropes and an ever-changing grip. This can change via rotation and width depending on the part of the set, since there’s no fixed bar to hold. You’ll hit your lats that much harder because of the fact that you get to internally rotate your arms as you go through the movement, and that follows the lats’ muscular action as closely as possible.
Second, placing a lifter on a decline puts shoulder stress on the back burner. Simple as that.
Finally, this makes pullovers actually true to their claims. Talk to many old-school bodybuilding enthusiasts and many of them will use dumbbell pullovers as a their main lat exercises to make their lats bigger and stronger. If you think about the downward force angle that a dumbbell will create when doing this same motion, a smart coach would realize that this would only engage the lats for a portion of the force curve in question.
By the time the weight gets toward forehead or eye level, completely different structures are left to bear the load. With that said, changing the force angle so that loading comes from behind instead of above completely shifts the emphasis to becoming 100% lat dominant. Plus, you can go through a much fuller range of motion because of this. As mentioned above, the cable will also give much less shoulder stress than a dumbbell will (especially at the extended position of deepest shoulder flexion). This is due to the direction of the resistance.
All in all, you’re able to light up your lats and get a supreme pump with virtually no downsides.
How To Perform The Decline Pullover
Set up a slightly declined bench an arm’s length away from any cable pulley system, and set the pulley and ropes at the same level as the low end of that bench. The low end should be closest to the pulley.
Lie back in the decline bench, and reach back for the ropes to create your starting position. Your lats should be in a full stretch with the ropes in hand overhead.
Create space between the bench and the lumbar and thoracic spine. It’s okay and actually preferred to have some arch. That’s going to be imperative for the next step to be possible.
Now, set your shoulders by squeezing them together and depressing them. Think “long neck, high ribcage”. Your arms should still be straight, and your elbows shouldn’t have bent yet.
Next, drag the ropes over the top. Keep long arms and pull the weight to waist level using the biggest arcing pattern available. It’s okay if your hands widen out to do this. As you go through the movement, keep the chest proud.
Slowly and smoothly return to the start position. Focus on sets of 12-15 reps, and chase a pump – don’t try to stack the entire machine.
Regardless of the goal – be it strength or hypertrophy, one underrated truth is that the pulldown is an often underused development tool that people can receive plenty of benefits from. It creates much more isolation toward the lats and gives the body a fighting chance to achieve correct form without compensatory patterns entering the picture.
Truthfully, there’s only one real problem with even well done pull ups and pulldowns as back developers. That is, like dumbbell pullovers, they don’t hit the lats through their FULL range of motion. Due to the hands’ position on the bar, end range is slightly compromised. You can ameliorate the situation by holding the bar with a narrow grip, but that poses the problem of achieving the correct finishing technique and positioning. Usually, the shoulders will lose their set position and shoulder glide will enter the scene.
What is The Cobra Pulldown
The COBRA PULLDOWN done on a cable setup solves this problem. Since you don’t have a bar and are instead responsible for a single handle, it allows you to reach further overhead and slightly across the body. That equals a massive stretch for the lats, and also introduces the fact that you can manipulate your elbow and wrist position while doing this, making it doubly beneficial.
To add to this, setting up on an inclined bench (the way I am in the video) sets the lifter up perfectly to mimic the slanted or angled pattern the lat fibres travel, for better isolation.
How To Perform The Cobra Pulldown Tips
Set up a 45 degree inclined bench about 4-6 feet away from a high cable pulley. Do your best to line it up with your angle of force.
Kneel on the bench with one or both knees. It’s important to keep the body straight. Avoid “sitting down”.
Holding on to the cable pulley in the top arm, reach over the head – not in front of it. If you can see your working arm in your periphery, you’ve let it drift too far forward. It’s okay to wrap the free arm around the back of the bench for bracing and support.
Set the shoulder down and back, and pull with the working arm until you feel you’ve reached absolute maximum lat contraction. It’s okay to turn your wrist to find the right position.
Pause at the position of full contraction for an instant before returning slowly to start position. Focus on sets of 12-15 reps per arm.
