Use an overhand grip on the bar with your hands spaced shoulder width apart.
Pull the bar towards the middle of your chest by bringing your elbows towards your hips.
Ensure that you are activating the lats to pull down the weights.
Common Mistakes
Leaning back to make the exercise easier.
Pulling the bar towards your face instead of middle chest.
Using the momentum of the weights on the way back up.
Where you should 'feel it':
Primary Muscles:
Lats
Secondary Muscles
Biceps, Traps
(0:00) Adjust the padding so that when you are seated it is pushing firmly on the top of your quads, approximately in the middle of the thigh.Stand to grab the bar with an overhand grip and space your hands at roughly shoulder width apart.
(0:14) Holding the bar, lower youself into the seat then pull the bar towards your middle chest region, think of it like bringing your elbows towards the back of your hips.
(0:28) Once the bar has been lowered to a point just before your chest, slowly return the bar to the starting position. Try to maintain a slight and steady lean backwards throughout the whole exercise.
(0:42) When your at the top or start of the movement your arms are extended out but still remain partially bent. Repeat for the desired amount of repetitions then gently finish the exercise.
(0:55) The pull and retreat motion should be conducted in a controlled manner, a small amount of momentum is okay but ensure that you're not relying on this to perform the exercise.