Grip Width on Lat Pulldowns Doesn't Matter for Lat Growth
New EMG study reveals all grip variations activate your lats equally, so stop overthinking it.
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I remember in the early days, before the internet, when our main source of training info was bodybuilding magazines. We were always told that changing your grip on lat pulldowns is the secret to targeting your lats differently. But what if grip variation doesn’t matter nearly as much as we were led to believe?
This study challenges one of the most widely accepted training assumptions by examining whether different grips, widths, and body positions actually change how your back muscles fire during the lat pulldown.
Study Aim
The study aimed to evaluate electromyographic activity of major back muscles—including the latissimus dorsi, middle trapezius, lower trapezius, posterior deltoid, infraspinatus, and biceps brachii—across seven different lat pulldown exercise variants differing in grip type (pronated, supinated, or neutral), grip width (narrow or wide), and trunk inclination (upright or 30° inclined angle).
Methods
Forty physically active male participants (average age 23.88 years) with at least five years of resistance training experience and specific familiarity with lat pulldowns were recruited.
Participants first performed maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) tests for each muscle group to establish baseline activation levels.
In subsequent sessions, participants performed seven lat pulldown variants in randomised order: wide pronated grip (WPG), narrow pronated grip (NPG), supinated grip (SG), wide pronated grip with 30° trunk inclination (WPG30°), narrow neutral grip (NNG), wide neutral grip with 30° trunk inclination (WNG30°), and wide neutral grip (WNG).
Each variant consisted of five consecutive repetitions at 70% of one-repetition maximum, with standardised tempo (2 seconds concentric, 2 seconds eccentric) and 3-minute rest between variants.
Surface electromyography recorded muscle activation throughout the full movement and separately for concentric and eccentric phases, with data normalised to MVC values (NrmsEMG).
