Incline Cable Straight Arm Pulldown

How to do the Incline Cable Straight Arm Pulldown

1. 1Attach a straight bar to a high pulley cable machine.
2. 2Stand facing away from the machine with your feet shoulder-width apart.
3. 3Grasp the bar with an overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
4. 4Lean forward slightly and keep your back straight.
5. 5Pull the bar down towards your thighs by extending your elbows.
6. 6Pause for a moment at the bottom, then slowly return the bar to the starting position.
7. 7Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Tip: Pull the elbows toward your hips, not the bar toward your chin.

Muscles worked

Common mistakes

• Rowing the bar — a slight lean is fine but if the torso swings past 30 degrees you are rowing, not pulling down; sit tall and let the elbows travel straight down.
• Pulling behind the neck by accident — unless you are deliberately training the behind-the-neck version light with good shoulder mobility, bring the bar to the top of the chest and no further.
• Starting with the arms — initiate by pulling the shoulders down away from the ears, then let the elbows follow.
• Stack slamming on the return — control the bar all the way back up until the arms are straight and the lats are stretched.

Where it fits in a workout

Pulldowns go after pull-ups or as the main vertical pull if you cannot do pull-ups yet. Superset with a straight arm pulldown or cable row on the same stack.

How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.

Variations and alternatives

When to talk to someone

• Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
• Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
• Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.

More exercises

• All back exercises
• All lats exercises
• All cable exercises
• Cable lats exercises
• Close Grip Banded Lat Pulldown
• Close Grip Back Supported Banded Lat Pulldown
• Kneeling Single Arm Banded Lat Pulldown
• Underhand Grip Banded Lat Pulldown
• Underhand Grip Back Supported Banded Lat Pulldown
• Rope Cable Curl (High Pulley)

Sources

1. ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
2. ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
3. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
4. CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)

Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.