Today’s obligatory fitness post is on close-grip pull downs. They’re for the back. If you do them once in a while your back will be happy. Tonight for example, I did them (with a few other back exercises and some tricep stuff) and my back said to me “Hey Turtle …thanks for doing those! I haven’t felt a good pump like that for a while. Let’s do them again next time …huh?!” I didn’t reply back to my back however, as I didn’t want to draw too much attention in the gym. Gym guys are usually pretty tolerant to people doing weird things while working out, but carrying on a conversation with yourself (and not having a bluetooth earpiece attached) is grounds for some awkward glances, and I don’t need awkward glances. Or not any more than usual that is.
More to the point though, close-grip pull downs (the shapefit.com guys call them v-bar pull downs) target the mid-back area, and using a closer grip means working more of the inner muscles. Wider grip targets the outer muscles (the guy in the gif is using an even wider v-bar than I was). It’s good to go somewhat heavy with these too, and when bringing the bar down try to bring it right to the chest. The amount of time needed to bring it down should be the same on the return, and doing these somewhat slower with good control is key. Also, try not to let your arms do too much of the work. They do some work of course, but if you concentrate on pulling from your mid-back then you’ll actually use that area in the movement. But of course you’re thinking when doing all your exercises anyway, right :)
Image from shapefit.com
