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Exercises

Cable lat exercises: pulldowns, rows and single-arm work

Published October 19, 2026

The best cable lat exercises are the lat pulldown for the overhead stretch, the close-grip seated cable row pulled to your waist, the straight-arm pulldown to isolate the lats without your biceps, and the single-arm lat pulldown for the longest range on each side. Your lats draw the upper arm down and back toward your hips, so on every cable exercise keep your elbows tucked in and finish low, near your waist.

  1. Lat Pulldown Lats
  2. Seated Cable Row Upper Back, Lats
  3. Straight-Arm Pulldown Lats
  4. Single-Arm Lat Pulldown Lats
  5. V-Bar Lat Pulldown Lats
  6. Reverse-Grip Cable Row Lats
  7. Single-Arm Cable Row Upper Back, Lats

Cable pulldowns for lats

Pulldowns move your arm from overhead down to your side, the full range of the lats' strongest action. Use the wide bar as your heavy pull, then rotate the V handle or the underhand bar in as a second variation, so your elbows travel a different path each session.

Lats, wide-bar vertical pull

Lat Pulldown

Lats

The wide-bar pulldown is the cable lat exercise you can load heaviest, and it trains the lats through the overhead stretch that rows never reach. Make it the first exercise of a lat session and the one you track most closely.

How to do it

  1. Lock your thighs under the pads, reach up and grab the long bar a bit outside shoulder width, palms forward.
  2. Sit with straight arms and a small lean back, chest lifted.
  3. Drive your elbows down and slightly back until the bar touches your upper chest.
  4. Let the stack pull your arms back up until they are straight and your shoulders rise, then pull again.

Cues

  • Elbows into your back pockets
  • Bar meets the chest, not the chin
  • Shoulders up at the top

Common mistakes

  • Throwing your torso back to finish the rep: a small lean is fine, a rowing motion is not.
  • Stopping with elbows bent at the top: the stretch overhead is half the reason to do pulldowns.

Swap for: V-Bar Lat Pulldown, Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown, Pull-Up

Build a session with Lat Pulldown

Lats, close neutral-grip pulldown

V-Bar Lat Pulldown

Lats

The V handle puts your palms facing each other and your hands close, so your elbows come down in front of your body instead of out to the sides. That path keeps the lats lengthened longer and lets you pull more weight than the wide bar.

How to do it

  1. Clip the V handle to the high pulley, sit with your thighs locked in, and hold both sides of the handle with arms straight.
  2. Lean back slightly so the cable runs toward your upper chest.
  3. Pull the handle down to just below your collarbones, elbows pointing at the floor and close to your ribs.
  4. Return slowly until your arms are straight overhead.

Cues

  • Elbows close and pointing down
  • Handle to the top of the sternum
  • Slow return

Common mistakes

  • Pulling the handle to your stomach with a big lean: that turns it into a row and takes the lats out of the stretch.
  • Letting the shoulders roll forward at the bottom: keep your chest up to meet the handle.

Swap for: Lat Pulldown, Neutral-Grip Pull-Up, Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

Build a session with V-Bar Lat Pulldown

Lower lats and biceps, underhand pulldown

Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown

Lats

Turning your palms toward you at shoulder width keeps your elbows tight to your sides on the way down, which shifts the pull toward the lower lats near your waist. Your biceps help more, so you can usually handle a heavier stack than on the wide bar.

How to do it

  1. Hold the straight bar with palms facing you, hands about shoulder width, and lock your thighs under the pads.
  2. Start with arms straight and chest tall.
  3. Pull the bar to your upper chest, driving your elbows down along your sides.
  4. Let it rise under control until your arms are fully straight.

Cues

  • Elbows skim your sides
  • Chest up to the bar
  • Full hang at the top

Common mistakes

  • Curling the bar down with your wrists bent: grip the bar like a hook and start every rep from the elbows.
  • Shortening the range as you tire: when the bar stops reaching the chest, the set is done.

Swap for: Chin-Up, V-Bar Lat Pulldown, Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown

Cable rows for lats

A row hits the lats when your elbows stay close and finish near your hips. If your elbows flare up to shoulder height, the work moves to the upper back. Keep the handle low, toward your waist, on every row here.

Lats and mid-back, close-grip row

Seated Cable Row

Upper Back, Lats

With the close V handle, your elbows stay tucked as you row, which keeps the lats doing most of the pulling. The cable keeps tension on at full stretch, where a dumbbell row loses it, so you get a long range every rep.

How to do it

  1. Sit with your feet on the platform, knees soft, and take the V handle with arms straight in front of you.
  2. Sit up tall with your lower back flat before the first pull.
  3. Row the handle to your lower stomach, elbows sliding past your ribs.
  4. Let your arms straighten and your shoulder blades slide forward, keeping your torso still.

Cues

  • Handle to the belly button
  • Elbows past your ribs
  • Torso stays upright

Common mistakes

  • Rocking back to start each rep: lock your torso and let your arms and shoulder blades move the weight.
  • Folding forward at the stretch: reach with your shoulders, not your lower back.

Swap for: Single-Arm Cable Row, Reverse-Grip Cable Row, Machine Row

Build a session with Seated Cable Row

Lower lats, underhand row

Reverse-Grip Cable Row

Lats

An underhand grip on a straight bar pins your elbows to your sides and sends them back toward your hips, the exact line the lower lats pull along. Use it as the second row in a session so the lats get a different angle from the close-grip row.

How to do it

  1. Hook a straight bar onto the low pulley, sit on the bench with feet braced, and hold the bar with palms up at shoulder width.
  2. Sit tall with arms straight and knees softly bent.
  3. Pull the bar to your lower stomach, elbows brushing your sides, until they pass your torso.
  4. Return slowly to straight arms without leaning forward.

Cues

  • Palms up, elbows in
  • Bar to your waistband
  • Two seconds forward

Common mistakes

  • Pulling the bar high to your chest: aim lower so the elbows travel to the hips.
  • Leaning back hard at the end: if you need to swing, the stack is too heavy.

Swap for: Seated Cable Row, Underhand Barbell Row, Reverse-Grip Dumbbell Row

Build a session with Reverse-Grip Cable Row

Lats and mid-back, bent-over cable row

Standing Cable Row

Lats, Upper Back

This is a bent-over row with a cable instead of a barbell: you hinge over and pull a straight bar from a low pulley to your waist. The cable pulls forward as well as down, so the stretch at the bottom stays loaded, and it needs nothing but one low pulley.

How to do it

  1. Clip a straight bar onto the low pulley, stand a step back, and hold it with palms down at shoulder width.
  2. Hinge at your hips until your torso is close to parallel with the floor, knees soft, back flat.
  3. Row the bar toward your lower stomach, leading with your elbows.
  4. Let your arms straighten in front of you while keeping the same hinge, then pull again.

Cues

  • Hold the hinge the whole set
  • Bar to your waist
  • Elbows drive back

Common mistakes

  • Standing taller with each rep: once the hinge rises, the row becomes a shrug. End the set there.
  • Letting the stack yank you forward at the stretch: brace your feet and step back further.

Swap for: Seated Cable Row, Barbell Row, Dumbbell Bent-Over Row

Build a session with Standing Cable Row

Single-arm and straight-arm cable lat exercises

Single-arm cables let each lat go through its longest range, and the straight-arm pulldown trains the lats with the biceps switched off. They are the lat exercises you take closest to failure, because a missed rep is harmless and the load never needs to be heavy.

Lats, one-arm vertical pull

Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

Lats

Pulling one handle at a time lets your arm drop lower and further back than any bar allows, so the lat on that side gets a longer contraction and a bigger stretch. It also shows you quickly if one side is weaker.

How to do it

  1. Attach a single handle to the high pulley and sit at the pulldown station, or kneel under a high pulley, with your arm reaching straight up.
  2. Turn your palm forward or in, whichever feels more natural on your shoulder.
  3. Pull your elbow down toward your hip until the handle reaches the side of your shoulder, leaning a little toward the working side.
  4. Let the handle travel back up until the arm is straight and your shoulder blade lifts, then repeat. Finish one side before switching.

Cues

  • Elbow to the hip
  • Reach high between reps
  • Torso stays square

Common mistakes

  • Twisting your whole torso to pull the handle down: keep your chest facing forward and let the arm do the moving.
  • Pulling the handle behind your head: it should finish beside your shoulder.

Swap for: Lat Pulldown, Single-Arm Cable Row, Straight-Arm Pulldown

Build a session with Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

Lats, standing one-arm row

Single-Arm Cable Row

Upper Back, Lats

Standing at a mid pulley and rowing one handle lets you rotate slightly into the stretch and drive the elbow far behind you, a longer range than any two-handed row. It needs only one cable column, so it works in a crowded gym or with a home cable unit.

How to do it

  1. Set a single handle at about chest height, stand facing the column in a staggered stance, and take the handle with one hand.
  2. Push your hips back a little and let the arm reach fully forward.
  3. Row the handle to the side of your waist, elbow tucked in, until your elbow passes your back.
  4. Let it travel forward to a full reach, then repeat. Finish all reps before switching arms.

Cues

  • Reach long, pull to the hip
  • Hips square to the column
  • Elbow stays tight

Common mistakes

  • Spinning your hips away from the column to finish: keep them facing forward and stop where the elbow passes your back.
  • Shrugging the shoulder up as you pull: draw it down and back first.

Swap for: One-Arm Dumbbell Row, Seated Cable Row, Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Single-Arm Cable Row

Lats, straight-arm isolation

Straight-Arm Pulldown

Lats

This is the one cable lat exercise where your biceps do nothing, because the elbows stay fixed. It is a good first exercise to switch the lats on before heavy pulls, and an even better last one when your arms are tired but your lats are not.

How to do it

  1. Put a straight bar or rope on a high pulley, step back so the cable is tight, and hold it at head height with your arms nearly straight.
  2. Hinge forward a few degrees with soft knees and your back flat.
  3. Sweep the bar down in a wide arc to the front of your thighs, keeping the elbow angle fixed.
  4. Let it float back up to head height, feeling the stretch under your armpits.

Cues

  • Arms like levers
  • Bar ends at your thighs
  • Ribs down, no arching

Common mistakes

  • Pushing the bar down with bent elbows like a triceps pushdown: lock the elbows and drop the weight.
  • Arching your lower back to finish: stay hinged at the same angle the whole set.

Swap for: Dumbbell Lat Pullover, Kettlebell Pullover, Lat Pulldown

Build a session with Straight-Arm Pulldown

Put them together: example sessions

Each session below picks from the exercises above for one situation, with the sets, reps, rest and RIR filled in. Open one in the session builder to change a pick, price it from a recent set, and add it to RIRLift.

Session 1

A gym with a pulldown, seated row and cable column

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets20 a week
  • Per workout~30 min
  • EquipmentLat Pulldown, Cable Row

Your gym has the usual cable equipment and you want two lat-focused pulling days a week built only on cables.

Each session starts with a heavy pulldown and follows it with a row, so the lats get both the overhead stretch and the pull to the hip. A single-arm or straight-arm exercise finishes each day, taken to 0 reps in reserve because cables are safe to fail on. Session A leads with the wide bar and session B with the underhand bar, so the main pull changes angle. Each session is 10 working sets; the main pulls stay at 1 to 2 reps in reserve so you can keep adding weight.

Lat A
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Lat Pulldown1 warm-up set firstBar to the upper chest. 4 × 6–10 2 2:30 min
Seated Cable RowV handle. Elbows past the ribs. 3 × 8–12 1 2 min
Straight-Arm PulldownArms locked. Bar to the thighs. 3 × 12–20 0 1 min

Open Lat A in the session builder

Lat B
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown1 warm-up set firstPalms toward you. Elbows tight. 4 × 8–12 1 2 min
Single-Arm Cable RowPer arm. Reach long. 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
Single-Arm Lat PulldownPer arm. Elbow to the hip. 3 × 12–15 0 1 min

Open Lat B in the session builder

How to run it
Run Lat A and Lat B once each per week with at least two days between. Add a set of biceps curls at the end if this is your whole pull day.
How to progress
Double progression: when every set of an exercise hits the top of its rep range at the target reps in reserve, move the pin one plate down and work back up. On single-arm work, add reps on the weaker side first.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

One adjustable cable column, no pulldown seat

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets24 a week
  • Per workout~30 min
  • EquipmentLat Pulldown, Cable Row

You train on a single cable column at a busy gym or a home cable unit, with no seat for pulldowns.

Without a seat or a row bench, every exercise here is done standing or kneeling at one column, and you only move the pulley between high, middle and low. Kneeling single-arm pulldowns stand in for the bar, standing one-arm rows for the seated row, and the bent-over cable row gives you a two-handed pull from the low setting. Twelve working sets, with the two-handed row at 1 to 2 reps in reserve and the one-arm work at 0 to 1, since you can stop a one-arm set at any point.

Single-Column Lats
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Single-Arm Lat PulldownPer arm. Kneel under the high pulley. 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
Straight-Arm PulldownHigh pulley. Rope or bar. 3 × 12–20 0 1 min
Single-Arm Cable RowPer arm. Pulley at chest height. 3 × 10–15 1 1 min
Standing Cable Row1 warm-up set firstLow pulley. Hold the hinge. 3 × 8–12 2 90 s
How to run it
Do this session twice a week. Set the pulley high first and work down so you only move it twice.
How to progress
Add reps until you reach the top of every range, then go up one weight step. If your column's steps are big, stay at a weight longer and add a two-second pause at the end of each rep before moving up.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Lat finisher after pull-ups or barbell rows

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts1× a week
  • Working sets6 a week
  • Per workout~10 min
  • EquipmentLat Pulldown, Cable Row

Your back day already has pull-ups and a barbell row, and you want a short cable block for the lats at the end.

Pull-ups and barbell rows are heavy and hard to push to failure safely, and they leave your biceps and grip tired. This block picks the two cable lat moves that rely least on either: the straight-arm pulldown and the underhand cable row with the elbows tight, done as a superset. Six sets at 0 to 1 reps in reserve finish the lats without adding much fatigue elsewhere.

Cable Lat Finisher
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
A1 Straight-Arm PulldownSuperset with the row. 3 × 12–15 0 30 s
A2 Reverse-Grip Cable RowBar to the waistband. 3 × 8–12 1 90 s
How to run it
Do it once a week after your last heavy pull. Alternate the two exercises with about 30 seconds between, and rest 90 seconds after each pair.
How to progress
Keep the load until you reach 15 reps on every straight-arm set and 12 on every row set, then go one step heavier on that exercise.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

What are the best cable exercises for lats?

The wide-bar lat pulldown, the close-grip seated cable row, the straight-arm pulldown and the single-arm lat pulldown. Pick one pulldown, one row, and one single-arm or straight-arm move per session, and you have trained the lats through their full range.

Which cable row is best for lats?

A close-grip or underhand row where you pull the handle to your waist with your elbows tight to your sides. That path follows the lats down and back. Rows with a wide grip and elbows up at shoulder height train the upper back more than the lats.

Are lats the hardest muscle to grow?

They are hard to feel, which makes them seem hard to grow. Most people pull with their arms and never take the lats near failure. Use straight-arm pulldowns to learn the feeling, keep your elbows close on rows, and log reps in reserve so you know each set was hard enough.

Is the lat pulldown or the seated cable row better for lats?

Do both. The pulldown loads the lats in their overhead stretch, and the row works them from in front of your body to behind it. Training only one leaves part of the range untrained.

How many sets of cable lat exercises per week?

Around 10 to 20 hard sets per week for the back, split over two sessions. The full-station plan here gives the lats 20 sets a week, and the one-column plan gives 24 when you run it twice.

Can you build lats with only cables?

Yes. Cables let you load the lats in every direction they pull, they keep tension through the whole range, and you can take every set close to failure safely. The pulldown and the cable row cover what pull-ups and barbell rows would.

What weight should I use on the lat pulldown?

A weight you can pull for 6 to 10 controlled reps with 1 to 2 reps left, without leaning far back. Pick the first weight by feel, then let the reps you had left decide whether to move the pin next time.