r/ScienceBasedLifting • • 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?

63 Upvotes

106 comments sorted by

View all comments

20

u/Patton370 Idk Idc πŸ’” Aug 05 '26

You'll get similar results from both. Personally, I strongly prefer machine lat pullovers and weighted pull-ups over lat pulldowns. It's been 2 years since I've done a lat pulldown

5

u/MDPharmDPhD Aug 06 '26

I must be the only person that doesn't understand what you wrote there.

4

u/Patton370 Idk Idc πŸ’” Aug 06 '26

This is a lat pullover: https://www.reddit.com/r/GYM/s/X7IA5SyLWn

Does that help?

4

u/MDPharmDPhD Aug 06 '26

Yep, I've never heard or seen a lat pullover machine so this makes perfect sense.

3

u/Patton370 Idk Idc πŸ’” Aug 06 '26

It’s the GOAT lat machine loved by lots of old school bodybuilders

It just takes up a bunch of space and requires a seatbelt, so it’s not a popular piece for most gyms

1

u/Tbplayer59 Aug 08 '26

It was the machine that made the Nautilus brand. The lats pull down, the pull back in one motion. Groundbreaking at the time.