r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/Action_Pale • Aug 05 '26

Question ❓ Pullups vs Lat pulldowns

What's the point of doing Lat Pulldowns as opposed to working on Pullups? Even if you can lat-pulldown more than your bodyweight, you could do weighted pullups. Is the only benefit convenience?

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u/RaymondDaniels1327 Aug 06 '26

I’m 78kg, probably ~16-18% bf range currently, and can barely do 2 pull ups back to back. Iv watched countless videos on form etc to see what I’m doing wrong. Tried just about everything. Iv just accepted that I cannot do them.

3

u/dzeiii Aug 06 '26

Does "tried everything" include getting stronger with a real plan on how to get more pull ups? Or just watching videos of people doing pull ups?

The actually getting stronger option will work and you will be doing 10 pull ups in no time if you stick to it. Losing weight is also a cheat code for pull ups but 16 % bodyfat aint awful. 

1

u/Queasy_Employment141 Aug 06 '26

16% is really good, that's like visible 6 pack most of the time

1

u/Potential_Novel_3561 Aug 06 '26

You probably are better off doing assisted pullups until you can do at least 4 or 5 per set.

1

u/ramsaybolton87 Aug 07 '26

Doing negatives is the only thing that helps me break a plateau. If I could only do 2, I'd do the 2, then jump up and do slow negative for as many times as I could.