Cable Straight-Arm Pulldown
The cable straight-arm pulldown is a lat isolation exercise where you sweep a bar or rope from overhead down to your thighs with nearly straight arms. Because the elbows barely bend, the biceps stay out of it and the lats do the work. Use it as a pre-exhaust or finisher when pulldowns light up your arms first.
Muscles worked
The cable straight-arm pulldown trains the lats.
Primary
Weekly sets for lats
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for lats, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the cable straight-arm pulldown
- 01Set the pulley at the top position and attach a straight bar or rope.
- 02Grab the attachment at shoulder width, step back two steps and hinge forward slightly at the hips.
- 03Start with your arms extended up and forward, elbows soft, feeling a stretch along your sides.
- 04Sweep your arms down in an arc until the bar or rope reaches your upper thighs.
- 05Squeeze your lats for a beat, then let your arms rise back up slowly to the stretch.
Coaching cues
- Push the bar down with your armpits
- Arms stay long, elbows barely bent
- Ribs down, hips back
Common mistakes
- Bending the elbows as the bar comes down turns it into a triceps pushdown, so hold the elbow angle fixed.
- Rounding your back and crunching down uses your abs to move the load, so keep a neutral spine and a fixed hip hinge.
- Cutting the top short skips the lat stretch, so let your arms travel up until you feel your sides lengthen.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers isolation work toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Cable Straight-Arm Pulldown alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your cable straight-arm pulldown free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.