Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

How to do it

1. Set a single handle on a high pulley and choose a load you can control through the full range.
2. Kneel or sit facing the stack with the working shoulder lined up under the cable.
3. Reach up and let the shoulder blade rise, keeping your ribs down and your abs braced.
4. Depress the shoulder blade first, then drive the elbow down and back toward your hip.
5. Pause where the lat is fully shortened and hold the torso square to the stack.
6. Return slowly to a full overhead stretch, finish the reps, then switch sides.

Common mistakes

• Leaning away from the stack to finish the rep, which turns the pull into a body swing and unloads the lat.
• Starting with the arm rather than the shoulder blade, which hands the work to the biceps.
• Cutting the return short, so the lat never reaches the stretched position that the single handle allows.
• Twisting the trunk toward the cable, which hides the side-to-side difference this variation exists to expose.