Lat exercises: pull-ups, pulldowns, rows and the straight-arm pulldown, sorted

The lats, or latissimus dorsi, are the large muscles down the sides of your back. They pull your arm down and back toward your hip. That one job shows up in three ways in the gym, and each has a family of exercises. This page sorts the lat exercises that already have a full guide on this site, says what the muscle-activity studies measured in each, and puts one from every family into a session. The studies measured activity in a single session, not growth over weeks.

The whole back, including the muscles between the shoulder blades and the hinge, is the back workout. Training the lats for width is the V taper page.

Family 1: pull-ups and pulldowns

The arm starts overhead and moves down. In 25 people doing a pull-up, a chin-up and a third bar exercise, the lats were the most active muscles measured, at 117 to 130% of a maximal test contraction, followed by the biceps at 78 to 96%.¹ In a second study that compared chin-ups with lat pulldowns, the lats and biceps were more active than the chest on the way up in the chin-up.² In a 2004 study of men holding four pulls still (two pulldowns and two seated rows), the abstract reports the highest lat-to-biceps ratio during the wide-grip pulldown and the seated row; the full text says the seated row did not differ from the wide-grip pulldown on that ratio.³ The setups have their own guides: the pull-up, the lat pulldown, and the two compared.

Does grip width matter? Less than people think. In 15 men, lat activity was similar with grips one, one and a half and two times shoulder width over the whole movement, though greater with the wide than the narrow grip in the lowering phase.⁴ In 40 men with at least five years of training, seven pulldown versions that differed in grip, width and torso angle produced no significant difference in lat activity.⁵ The 2026 review sums the width findings up as inconsistent, and says an anterior bar path was the setup most consistently associated with greater lat amplitude.⁶

Family 2: rows

The arm starts in front and moves back. In the same 12 men, the seated row also produced the most activity in the muscles between the shoulder blades of the four pulls.³ In the 2026 review, a narrower grip and a lower shoulder-abduction angle, which means elbows kept lower and closer to the body, were each linked with higher lat activity on the seated row, in separate studies.⁶

Body-weight rows count too. In 13 men and 13 women, the lats reached very high activity, above 61% of a maximal contraction, in all four versions of the inverted row they did,⁷ and in seven men comparing three rows, the inverted row produced the highest lat activity of the three.⁸ The guides: seated cable row, dumbbell row, single-arm cable row, T-bar row and inverted row.

Family 3: the straight-arm pulldown

The elbows stay straight, so the biceps do less and the shoulder does the moving. Three studies of lat activity in shoulder extension, the same arc, found it came out highest there: in 17 men, shoulder extension produced more lat activity than pulling the arm in to the side or turning it inward;⁹ in 20 adults, it produced more than adduction, internal rotation or bending the trunk sideways;¹⁰ and in 15 men, chest-supported and prone versions produced more than the other exercises tested, the lat pulldown included.¹¹ Those were lab strength tests, not sets on a cable. The straight-arm pulldown page has the cable version, and the dumbbell pullover is the same arc lying on a bench.

A lat session (practical)

This is a practical layout, not a protocol from a study. Pick one from each family:

Stop each set with a rep or two left. (How to judge reps left.) The 2026 American College of Sports Medicine stand found muscle growth was enhanced by ten or more sets per muscle group a week,¹² so spread those three slots over two back days and count the sets across the week. Keep one grip and one angle long enough to add weight to it.

Common questions

Do pull-ups work the lats?

Yes. In the 25-person study the lats were the most active muscles measured on the pull-up and chin-up,¹ and in the second study they were more active than the chest on the way up in the chin-up.²

Does a wide grip work the lats more?

In two studies of men, lat activity was similar across grip widths overall,^4,5 though in the first, lat activity was greater with the wide grip than the narrow grip in the lowering phase.⁴ The 2026 review calls the findings inconsistent.⁶ Pick the grip you can pull through the whole range with.

Do rows work the lats or just the middle back?

Both. The lats were active on rows in the studies above,^3,7 and the seated row also produced the highest activity of the four pulls in the muscles between the shoulder blades.³

How many lat sets a week?

Muscle growth was enhanced by ten or more sets per muscle group a week in the 2026 stand.¹² Rows and pulldowns each count.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

Three slots are easy to write down; fitting them around your chest work, your arms and the days you can really train is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: pick one exercise from each family for your next back day.