Full Range-Of-Motion Lat Pulldown
Also works: Biceps · Middle Back · Shoulders
Two single stirrup handles on separate high pulleys, taken with the arms crossed over so each cable pulls from the opposite side. The crossover lets the hands travel in a wide arc past the point where a straight bar would hit your chest, giving the lats a longer contracted range than a fixed bar allows.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Attach a single stirrup handle to each of two high pulleys set roughly shoulder-width to a metre apart.
- Take the left handle in your right hand and the right handle in your left, so the cables cross above you and your palms face forward.
- Sit on a high bench or kneel with your hips directly under the crossing point — off-centre and one side does more work than the other.
- Set a light arch in the lower back and lift the chest, with the ribs down rather than flared toward the ceiling.
- Start each set from a full hang with the shoulder blades allowed to rise, not from a pre-shrugged position.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Exhale through the pull, inhale as the arms recross overhead. Two seconds down, one second held at the bottom, three seconds back — the eccentric is the longest phase on purpose.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Each side gets its own stack, so start light — 15-20 kg per side is enough for most people to feel the bottom range immediately. Expect roughly 60-70% of what you use on a normal wide-grip pulldown, because the arc is longer and there is no bar to lean into. Add weight only once you can pause one second with the elbows behind your ribs on every rep.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Anchor your hips and pick a spot on the wall in front of you at eye level. If your gaze rises during the set, the load is winning — drop 5 kg per side.
Pull until each elbow passes your ribs and hold there for a second. The extra 15 cm of travel past where a bar would stop is the reason you set this up.
Sit or kneel dead under the point where the cables cross, and check by letting go of tension at the top: both handles should hang the same distance from your shoulders.
Take three seconds to return and stop while you still control the cables. The stretch should be felt as tension in the lat, not as a pull in the front of the shoulder joint.
Why bother
A straight pulldown bar stops when it touches your collarbone, which is well short of where the humerus can actually finish adducting. Independent handles have nothing to run into, so the arms keep travelling down and across until the elbows are past your ribs. That last stretch of range is exactly the part the lats own outright.
The crossover also fixes the top. Because each cable comes from the far side, the stretched position pulls the arm up and slightly across the body, which lengthens the lat further than a straight overhead hang does. You get more range at both ends of the same rep, which is why the loads feel modest for the work being done.
Where it fits
Use it as your main vertical pull on a hypertrophy-focused pull day, or as the follow-up to weighted chin-ups when you want range rather than load. Eight to twelve reps, two to three times a week at most. It does not stack well with three other pulldown variations in the same session — pick this one or a bar, not both.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
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Asked and answered
Why cross the handles instead of just using two straight cables?
Crossing puts the line of pull on the opposite diagonal, so at the top the arm is drawn up and slightly across the body — a longer lat stretch than a vertical hang. It also gives the arms room to finish low without the cables fouling your shoulders. Uncrossed, you have a two-handle pulldown with a shorter range at both ends.
Do I need a dual cable tower, or will a single pulldown station do?
You need two independent high pulleys — a functional trainer or two adjacent cable columns. A single pulldown station with a bar cannot produce the arc, and clipping two handles to one carabiner just gives you a floppy short bar.
My biceps give out before my lats do. What am I doing wrong?
You are starting the rep with the elbow instead of the shoulder blade. Pull the scapula down first and let the arm bend second — the biceps should be finishing a rep the back started. Grip the handles only hard enough to keep them, and think about driving the elbow past your ribs rather than pulling the hand down. If it still happens, take 5 kg off each side and slow the return to three seconds; a longer eccentric puts the fatigue back where you want it.
Is this actually better than a normal lat pulldown?
For range and stretch, yes. For load and simplicity, no — a bar lets you handle more weight and takes ten seconds to set up. Most people should keep a bar pulldown or chin-up as the heavy vertical pull and run this alongside it for the range a bar cannot give.