What is a Lat Pull Down Exercise?
It is often at times heard that working out in the gym with weights may cause muscle imbalances with use of the machines available in the gym and to some extent this saying is true, but not with all the machines that are available in the gym. While most of the machines help very little in strengthening the smaller stabilizing muscles of the body, there are still some machines which if used appropriately are quite beneficial for strengthening the upper body, especially the shoulder, elbow and hand muscles. Lat Pull Down is one such machine exercise. It is also known by the name of cable pull down machine.
Lat Pull Down can be extremely beneficial in building upper body strength and target the upper body muscles, especially the latissimus dorsi, biceps, and deltoids muscles. It is also quite beneficial in keeping the shoulder healthy. A lat pull down exercise not only targets the latissimus dorsi muscles, but also strengthens the lower and middle trapezius, rhomboids, and serratus anterior muscles. The latissimus dorsi muscles are extremely vital for spine stabilization and a sportsman with a weak back will not be able to perform in his or her event to his or her potential. In this article, we will discuss about some of the benefits of lat pull downs.
What are the Benefits of Lat Pull Downs?
Biceps Strengthening: One of the benefits of Lat Pull Downs is that it strengthens the muscles of the shoulders including the biceps. Not only the Lat Pull Down strengthens the biceps muscle, but also strengthens the muscles that support the biceps, which are the biceps brachii and brachioradialis. A strong biceps will allow better arm flexion and elbow rotation which will be quite useful in pulling or lifting, which are quite essential in athletics like shot put and discus. Rowing is yet another sport in which a strong biceps is required.
Shoulder Strengthening: Lat Pull Downs are also very beneficial in strengthening the shoulders. This exercise strengthens several shoulder muscles to include the deltoids, infraspinatus, and teres major which is one of the rotator cuff muscles. If the rotator cuff is strong then it can be said that the shoulder is strong, which makes it easier for an athlete to extend and rotate the arm in all directions meaning that if you are involved in a sport that requires you to throw and swing your hand like baseball then a Lat Pull Down is the exercise to go to for complete performance and reducing the chances of an injury.
Back Strengthening: In addition to strengthening the latissimus dorsi muscles and the muscles of the shoulders, the Lat Pull Downs are also beneficial in strengthening the muscles of the back, both upper and lower back. These muscles include rhomboids and trapezius. The back and the arms work in tandem whenever you are doing some sort of pulling against resistance and an individual having a strong back can compete better, especially in sports like rowing where the back and the arms both need to be strong in order to put up a good performance.
In summary, we can say that the Benefits of Lat Pull Downs are more than that of any exercise machine present in the gym when it comes to strengthening the small stabilizer muscles and the muscles of the arm and back. With just one exercise you are able to involve several muscles in the upper body and make them strong of which the most important is the Latissimus Dorsi muscle, which is quite a vital muscle for the arm as well as the back. Additionally, with a Lat Pull Down you can also strengthen the muscles of the arm like the biceps and deltoids along with rhomboids and trapezius muscles.
Furthermore, to increase the benefits of an exercise you need to constantly increase the weight or resistance of the machine. Compared to other machines in the gym for the same purpose, it is much easier to do in a Lat Pull Down.
Also Read:
