Dr. Squat - Dr. Fred Hatfield

When you do pulldowns for your lats using a conventional bar (tapered at each end), your hands are what? Three feet apart? What does that do to 1) your range of motion, 2) your flexibility, 3) your lats (the biceps are the weak link in the pulldown), and 4) your sports specificity? ZILCH! Or nearly so. The same holds true for doing low rows (sometimes called seated long cable pulls).
Do pulldowns this way one time, and you’ll be convinced forever: Grasp the right handle with your left hand and the left handle with your right hand. That’s called a crossover grip. Now, with arms only slightly bending at the elbow (to avoid any unnecessary connective tissue stress), pull laterally downward ... or to the front ... or somewhere in between. Perfect lat isolation over twice the range of movement (which in this instance equals twice the strength and much greater flexibility), through a far more natural movement pattern, and NO biceps involvement reducing the stress received by your lats.