Single Arm Wide Grip Machine Lat Pulldown

In SetGrip: Machine Lat Pulldown (Single Arm, Wide Grip)

Secondary muscles
Biceps, Rhomboids, Delts
Body part
Back
Laterality
Unilateral (one arm at a time)
Category
Strength

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Bracing your chest against the pad while one arm pulls a wide handle toward the opposite hip gives you a unilateral pulldown with no balance demand. The machine's fixed arc means all your attention goes to the working lat, which makes it easier to load than the free-cable Single Arm Lat Pulldown.

How to do the Single Arm Wide Grip Machine Lat Pulldown

  1. Adjust the seat height and position yourself on the machine with your chest against the pad and your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Grasp the handle with an overhand grip and fully extend your arm, keeping a slight bend in your elbow.
  3. Pull the handle down and across your body towards your opposite hip, squeezing your lat muscle at the bottom of the movement.
  4. Slowly return the handle to the starting position, fully extending your arm.
  5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, then switch sides.

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

Muscles worked

Primary

Lats · Back

The lats pull the upper arm down and in, and you should feel a stretch at the top of the rep and a squeeze at the bottom along the sides of the back.

Secondary

  • Biceps — The biceps bend the elbow and take a bigger share with an underhand grip; if they tire before the lats, widen the grip or use a neutral handle.
  • Rhomboids
  • Delts

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

Similar exercises

Without machine

Easier and harder

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.

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More exercises

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.

Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.