[Vickie]

The science of exercise is changing all the time. The behind the neck pull down is mostly contraindicated because it raises your exposure to potential injury and simply isn't as effective as many other exercises for the latisimus dorsi muscle. It took a lot of years and a lot of high level injuries for the fitness industry to finally say enough is enough. I still use it in about 2% of my client cases and for very specific purposes. But it isn't a part of my training routine nor the final and permanent make up of any protocol I would recommend. Make your work easy and effective for your body and your time and go with the best science you can find.

The problem with a behind the neck pulldown is that it forces the trapezoid muscle (a large muscle that makes up the part of the upper back most often called the neck the neck, attaches to your shoulder and then to the first lumbar vertebrae) to over-work to allow the lats to do the job you are requesting. If you will hold the lat bar and just engage your lats, without resisting with your shoulders, you will see that the elbows will slightly drop making a path for the bar to be drawn directly into your upper pec muscle, this is your rotator cuff family working at their best. The natural and most advatageous use of the lat will simply not pull the bar back and over your head forcing the neck to fall forward and out of the way. The best use of exercise in an isolation mode is to reacquaint your mind and your muscle with the safe and effecient motion that is natural to the muslce connections.


With any pull downs make sure only use weight that allows you to keep your shoulders stationary, your seat on the seat and the front of your shoulders open, never rounding. It is better to have complete and deliberate control of the bar at all times. Feel your muscle through the range of each repetition and you will get much safer and more continuously progressive results.

The best answer to choosing 'in front and opposed to in back' is because it's easier and in this case that makes it better.

Vickie