What is the Rope Incline Bench Lat Pulldown?
The Rope Incline Bench Lat Pulldown is a vertical pull where you lie chest-down on an incline bench and pull a rope down from a high cable. It mainly trains the lats. The bench holds your torso still, so you can’t use momentum.
Quick facts
- Level: Intermediate
- Equipment: Cable machine, rope attachment, adjustable bench
- Movement pattern: Vertical pull
- Force: Pull
- Type: Compound
- Sides: Both arms together
Muscles worked
Primary muscles
- Latissimus dorsi (lats)
Secondary muscles
- Middle trapezius and rhomboids
- Rear deltoids
- Biceps and brachialis
Teres major, a small muscle beside the lats, also helps pull your arms down.
How to do the Rope Incline Bench Lat Pulldown
- Setup: Set an adjustable bench to an incline of about 30 to 45 degrees, facing a high cable pulley. Attach a rope.
- Setup: Lie chest-down on the bench. Reach up and hold one end of the rope in each hand.
- Start: Let your arms stretch overhead toward the pulley. Brace your core and keep your neck in line with your spine.
- Move: Pull the rope down toward your upper chest. Drive your elbows down and back toward your hips.
- Move: Squeeze your lats for a moment at the bottom. Keep your chest on the pad.
- Return: Let your arms rise slowly until they are straight overhead again.
Coaching cues
- Drive your elbows toward your hips.
- Keep your chest on the pad.
- Reach long at the top.
Common mistakes
- Lifting the chest off the bench. Keep your chest on the pad the whole time. Lower the weight if you have to rise up to finish.
- Pulling with the hands. Think about moving your elbows down. Your hands just hold the rope.
- Shrugging toward your ears. Start each rep by drawing your shoulders down, then pull.
- Short range at the top. Let your arms straighten fully overhead between reps.
Easier and harder options
- Easier: Lighter load, or the seated lat pulldown. Use a lighter weight while you learn the pull. A seated lat pulldown with your thighs under a pad is another simpler option.
Training focus and energy demand
This pulldown is mainly used to build lat strength and muscle size. The chest support makes it easier to keep good form late in a set.
Your body draws on several energy systems together. The mix shifts with load, speed, set length and rest. Short, heavy sets rely more on fast energy stored in the muscle. Longer sets with short breaks draw more on aerobic energy. Hard efforts that last from several seconds to a few minutes also rely heavily on energy your muscles make quickly from carbohydrate.
FAQs
Why use an incline bench?
Lying on the bench stops your body from leaning or swinging. That keeps the work in your back instead of momentum.
How is this different from a normal lat pulldown?
In a seated pulldown, your thighs are locked under a pad and you sit upright. Here your chest rests on an incline bench, so the angle of the pull is different.