maratoolLondon Bridges
How to do the london bridges
- Attach a climbing rope to a high beam or cross member. Below it, ensure that the smith machine bar is locked in place with the safeties and cannot move. Alternatively, a secure box could also be utilized.
- Stand on the bar, using the rope to balance yourself. This will be your starting position.
- Keeping your body straight, lean back and lower your body by slowly going hand over hand with the rope. Continue until you are perpendicular to the ground.
- Keeping your body straight, reverse the motion, going hand over hand back to the starting position.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the latissimus dorsi, which pulls the upper arm down and back toward the ribcage.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from.
Every exercise for:LatsBicepsForearmsMiddle back
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
These train the lats too, using equipment this one does not:
- Narrow Parallel Grip Chin-upsbarbell + body only
- One Arm Lat Pulldowncable
- Overhead Slammedicine ball
- Pullupsbody only
- Latissimus Dorsi-SMRfoam roll
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 45 lats exercises in this database, 14 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.