Rocky Pull-Ups/Pulldowns

🎯 Lats🏋️ OtherIntermediateCompoundBiceps (2°)Middle back (2°)Shoulders (2°)

How to do the rocky pull-ups/pulldowns

  1. Grab the pull-up bar with the palms facing forward using a wide grip.
  2. As you have both arms extended in front of you holding the bar at the chosen grip width, bring your torso back around 30 degrees or so while creating a curvature on your lower back and sticking your chest out. This is your starting position.
  3. Pull your torso up until the bar touches your upper chest by drawing the shoulders and the upper arms down and back. Exhale as you perform this portion of the movement. Tip: Concentrate on squeezing the back muscles once you reach the full contracted position. The upper torso should remain stationary as it moves through space and only the arms should move. The forearms should do no other work other than hold the bar.
  4. After a second on the contracted position, start to inhale and slowly lower your torso back to the starting position when your arms are fully extended and the lats are fully stretched.
  5. Now repeat the same movements as described above except this time your torso will remain straight as you go up and the bar will touch the back of the neck instead of the upper chest. Tip: Use the head to lean forward slightly as it will help you properly execute this portion of the exercise.
  6. Once you have lowered yourself back down to the starting position, repeat the exercise for the prescribed amount of repetitions in your program.

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 mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.

Every exercise for:LatsBicepsMiddle backShoulders

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:

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.

Related exercises

Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.