Lat pulldowns are one of the best exercises for building a wide, V-shaped back—but they shouldn’t be your only option. What if you don’t have access to a lat pulldown machine? Or maybe you just want to switch things up and challenge your muscles with some new stimulation.
In this article, we’ll break down the anatomy and function of the lats, then dive into 8 powerful alternatives that are either more accessible or target your lats from different angles to maximize growth and variety in your back training.
The Lat Pulldown: Muscles Worked
As you could guess, the lat pulldown exercise will primarily target the lats. Your lats are the most powerful pulling muscle in the upper body.
However, the lat pulldown is actually going to train your entire back to a varying degrees.
- Traps to help stabilize the scapula
- Posterior delts to assist in pulling the arm down
- Biceps to assist in elbow flexion
But let’s be real, the lats are the star and why we use the lat pulldown.
Anatomy And Function Of The Lats
The lats are the largest and strongest muscle in the upper body. They’re also the most superficial muscle in the back, covering everything from the iliac crest up.
Being the widest muscle in the body, the lats are spread across the entirety of your back, and even protrude out when well-developed. This gives them the nick-name “wings”.
- Origins: The lats have 4 different points of origin running down all the way your back down to your iliac crest on your hips.
- Insertion: Despite numerous points of origin, the lats only have one point of insertion on the intertubercular groove of the humerus, aka your arm bone. This allows the lats to manipulate the arm and pull it.
Functions Of The Lats
The last function revolves around pulling the arm back in a range of motion. This is why it’s the primary mover in both vertical pulling (lat pulldowns) and horizontal pulling movement (back row).
In total, the lats perform;
- Shoulder adduction occurs when the arm is brought down to the side of your body. This is seen in lat pulldowns when the elbows are flared out.
- Shoulder extension occurs when the arm comes down in front of the body. This is seen in rowing movements when the elbows are tucked in or even chin-ups when the elbows are tucked in.
- Medial rotation occurs when the shoulder is internally rotated.
In addition, it plays a synergistic effect in extension and lateral flexion of the spine.
8 Best Alternatives to Lat Pulldowns
Whether you want to switch things up to better develop your lats, lat pulldowns aren't really hitting well for you, or you simply don't have access to a lat pulldown machine, here are the best alternatives you can do...
1. Dumbbell Pullovers
This exercise exploded in popularity when Arnold Schwarzenegger outlined them as a staple in his back training routine.
This alternative has both practical and biomechanical benefits.
- Dumbbells are much more easily accessible - making this a great option for anyone unable to get into a gym.
- Pullovers allow you to fully stretch the lats underload
- Dumbbell pullovers tap into the loaded stretch, providing excellent hypertrophic stimulus.
- It’s an isolation exercise, allowing you to add lat volume without overburdening other muscles while developing a better mind-muscle connection.
How to:
- Lie flat on a bench with the crown of your head at the very top of the pad.
- Place both hands on the flat part of the inside of one side of the dumbbell, so the handle goes in between your thumbs and index fingers.
- Start the movement with your arms straight - but elbows not locked - and the weight above your chest.
- Maintain this elbow position, flex the shoulder, reaching back over your head slowly to stretch the lats.
- Flex your shoulder as far as you can safely, pause and bring the dumbbell back to the starting position.
To get the most out of this exercise, keep those elbows in a fixed position. Drive through the elbows, thinking only about flexing and extending the shoulder with your elbows tight to your sides.
2. Cable Straight Arm Lat Pulldown
This has many of the same benefits as the dumbbell pullover, being an isolation exercise and really stressing the lats in that stretched position.
Performed on cables, the straight arm pulldown provides constant tension through the movement - unlike the dumbbell version - and elicits a great contraction.
There is also more chance for modifications, with a variety of grips and handles available to allow you to find your best fit. However, this does have a similar drawback to lat pulldowns, most people don’t have cable machines at home!
With that said, you can set-up a system using a band. As it’s an isolation, you don’t need a significant amount of load as you do with the lat pulldown.
Set up:
Set the cable up to slightly above head height, with a bar, single rope or dual ropes attached. These all provide unique benefits:
- The bar can be a great way to engage your back by thinking about “breaking the bar” upwards as you move.
- The single rope increases your range of motion as you pull the ropes apart as you contract, avoiding the body.
- The dual ropes allow you to do this on a bigger scale, increasing the range further.
How to:
- Grab the handles with both hands, step back and hinge at the hips, so your arms are over your head, your torso is at around 45 degrees, and you’re holding the weights.
- Keep your arms tucked into your sides and pull through the elbow without changing elbow angle. Pull the handles into your hips, keeping your chest up.
- Once you’ve reached full contraction, slowly return to the starting position.
Related: Best Cable Back Exercises
3. Pull-ups
Pull-ups are an obvious lat pulldown alternative as it’s a very similar movement. Studies even show that progressive training on the lat pulldown leads to superior pull-up performance.² However, you need minimal equipment to knock out reps.
Many parks have bars, companies make stand-alone stations as well as door and wall-mounted kits that can fit in just about anyone's home.
One benefit of this movement contrasts with those before. It is an even bigger compound than lat pulldowns. The main difference is the involvement of your core.
If you can perform pull-ups accurately, ensuring your lats are getting the brunt of the work, they can provide even more bang for your buck and be a great way to slap on slabs of muscle.
Set up:
As we discussed previously, grip impacts which muscles support the lats more. Two main pull up variations are underhand close grip, also named chin-ups, or overhand wide grip. For the former, aim for shoulder width apart and the latter, 6-8 inches outside shoulder width.
How to:
- Start both variations in a dead hang, pulling yourself up to the bar and keeping your chest up.
- Focus on driving your elbows into your side and not letting your shoulders round forward.
- Slowly lower yourself back to the starting position.
Related: Best Pull Up Alternatives
4. Single arm low cable row
Unlike some of the previous movements, this one requires some more high-tech kit. Low cable rows really allow you to focus on shortening the lats in a way that can be difficult during lat pulldowns. This variation lets you focus on imbalances and the mind-muscle connection training one arm at a time.
How to:
- Sitting on a cable row machine, place one foot on the footrest and grab the handle with the opposite hand and put the other foot on the floor, and you can rest your non-working hand on your knee for support if you need it. You can also set up on any cable machine, just move a bench in front of the pulley system (as seen in the pic above) - the only difference is you won't get the footrest so you may not be able to pull as much weight.
- Keeping a neutral spine, row the weight into your hip, keeping your shoulder depressed through the movement. This allows you to focus solely on shoulder extension without turning this into a mid or upper back exercise. It can really help to think about dragging the handles down and pulling your elbow into the base of your spine.
- Slowly return to the starting position.
5. Dumbbell Row To Hip
One-arm dumbbell rows are commonplace in training plans across the world, and with good reason.
Not only are they easy access, but they also can be manipulated to smash your lats or upper back depending on how you perform them. Lat dominant variations, like the low cable row, get the lat nice and short while loading them relatively heavy.
When performing dumbbell rows and wanting to target the lats, focus on bringing the elbow back towards your hip with a sweeping motion rather than pulling your elbow up.
How to:
- All you need for this is a dumbbell and somewhere to lean. Grab and dumbbell and lean on a surface about waist height with the non-working hand, torso just above parallel to the ground. One key difference in this is you’re going to have the same foot forward as the arm working. This helps prevent you from rotating away from the dumbbell, which limits upper arm extension as you move the body from the weight.
- Lean into the leg in the front, using the other leg to stabilize yourself along with the non-working arm.
- Row the dumbbell towards your waist, pulling from the elbow, moving the weight in a slight arc from hanging to the hip.
- Just like with the cable rows, keep your elbows tight to your side and think about getting them into the base of your spine.
Again, this can easily turn into a mid and upper back exercise, so make sure the lat is the limiting factor when performing these.
Related: Best Dumbbell Back Exercises
6. Lat-focused barbell rows
Barbells are wonderful pieces of equipment, with many basing their whole programs around barbells with excellent results. Barbell rows can be manipulated and moulded to fit almost any goal or purpose when it comes to back growth.
Lat focused barbell rows let you load the lats heavy, getting them short under a decent load. To do this, focus on three things;
- Use an underhand, close grip
- Keep your elbows tucked into your body
- Focus on bringing your elbows back down to your hips
How to:
- To focus on the lats, you should grip the bar just inside shoulder width. Whether you use an overhand or underhand grip is really a point of preference. Some find an underhand grip makes it easier to keep the elbows close to their sides, adducting the upper arm, others prefer the feeling of an overhand grip.
- Once you’ve decided, lean forward so your torso is just above parallel to the ground and your back is flat, arms hanging down.
- Row the bar into your hips in a slight arc, like the one-arm dumbbell row, pulling from the elbow.
- As the bar comes into the hips, keep the elbows as close to the body as you can.
Related: Best Barbell Back Exercises
7. Meadows Row
Popularized by the late John Meadows, the “Meadows row”, lets you get the lats shorter than most lat pulldown variations. This movement, like the other row variations, lets you get the lats shorter than most lat pulldown variations. One bonus of this version is the stability caused by the landmine.
This allows you to focus on the mind-muscle connection and training your lats to their fullest. This is a wonderful hybrid between a free-weight and machine-like movement. These can be done at home! All you need is a bar and a corner you don’t mind messing up a little!
How to:
- Put the bar in the land mind attachment and grip the free end of the bar closest to the sleeve.
- As there isn’t somewhere to lean, use a staggered stance to increase stability.
- Lean forward so your torso is just above parallel to the ground.
- Row the weight into your hip, and focus on keeping your elbows tight to your body like with the other rowing variations.
You can manipulate which part of the back works by changing foot positions, shuffling forward will hit the lats while backward will hit the upper back. The main thing to remember is the weight should be coming into the hip crease.
8. Feet-Supported Pull-ups
The exercise can be performed easily at home with a minimal kit, making them a great alternative to lat pulldowns. All you need is a straight bar - which can be a barbell in a rack or a pull-up bar - and somewhere to put your feet.
Despite the name, the stability added from the foot support means these resemble pulldowns more closely than pull-ups, making them a great weapon in the home training arsenal.
Not only this, but they are easier than pull-ups, lowering the exercises barrier for entry, and easy to load as you can just pop a plate on your lap.
How to:
- Start sitting on the floor under the bar, legs extended in front of you, heels on a surface about knee height.
- When you have a full grip of the bar, in whatever grip you decide to use, your bum needs to be off the floor so you can get the greatest range possible.
- From here, it is just like a pull-up, and the grip changes have the same impact.
- Keep your chest up, drive your elbows into your side and don’t allow your shoulders to round forward.
It looks like this...
Hand Grips For Lat Pulldown
All versions of lat pulldowns will hit the lats, but some might lean more towards one function over another.¹
- Wide grip lat pulldowns favor adduction with the arms out to the side. A wider grip tends to isolate the lats to a higher degree. In addition, the lower traps may see more activation.
- Underhand close grip pulldowns focus more on the extension of the shoulder. This tends to see more activation in the upper traps and biceps.
Why are lat pulldowns good?
Lat pulldowns allow a lifter to use a significant amount of weight while targeting the lat. They’re also highly versatile and easily manipulated to add variation in your training.
This tends to allow some lifters to create a greater mind-muscle connection to build a bigger back.
Downsides of Lat Pulldowns:
The primary downside of lat pulldowns is that you need a lat pulldown machine!
Lat Programming Guidelines:
Consider the following when selecting from the exercises above...
A) Vertical Pulls
Vertical pulls are the closest to lat pulldowns in terms of movement pattern and have great lat development.
These can be used as a direct replacement for lat pull downs, whether you’re training at home or in a gym, and are the easiest like for like substitution out of this list.
However, it is important to recognize how difficult these can be. If you need, you can use variations such as assisted pull-ups.
B) Horizontal Rows
Lat focused horizontal rows include the compound movements- dumbbell, barbell, landmine, plate loaded and cable.
These are amazing at shortening the lats but don’t allow for full lat stretch. This just means you should be sure to pair them with pull-overs if you can’t perform vertical pulls.
C) Isolations
The isolations in this list are the cable and dumbbell pullovers. They take out the biceps and other back muscles to focus solely on the lats.
If you’re looking to add some lat volume - without added stress to supporting muscles - these are both great options. However, you shoulds still combine them with other lat exercises, for great loads.
Author: Tom MacCormick (BSc in Sports Science and Coaching, MSc in Strength and Conditioning)
For more great lat training content, check out the 10 Best Lat Exercises.
If you have any questions about lat pulldowns or alternative exercises, please feel free to leave a comment below, and we will reply as soon as we can…
References
- Andersen, Vidar1; Fimland, Marius S.2,3; Wiik, Espen1; Skoglund, Anders1; Saeterbakken, Atle H.1. Effects of Grip Width on Muscle Strength and Activation in the Lat Pull-Down. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 28(4):p 1135-1142, April 2014. | DOI: 10.1097/JSC.0000000000000232 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27102172/
-
Li Q, Yan J, Qiao M, Quan J, Chen Y, Gong M, Niu W, Wang L. Eight-week lat pull-down resistance training with joint instability leads to superior pull-up endurance performance and reduced antagonist coactivation in recreationally active male college students. Eur J Sport Sci. 2025 Jan;25(1):e12243. doi: 10.1002/ejsc.12243. PMID: 39716392; PMCID: PMC11667758. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39716392/
Tom MacCormick
Author