Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

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Vision
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Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

Post by Vision »

Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?
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Strength athletes who want to develop their lat muscles in their upper back can benefit from the pull-up just as much as the pull-down. But if they also want to train their biceps with the same exercise, the pull-up might be a better choice.

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Study

Kenji Doma, a researcher from James Cook University in Australia, got 9 young men who had been training with weights for at least a year to do 10 reps during a pull-up.
On another occasion, the men did 10 reps on a pull-down.
The load was the same for both exercises.
In both exercises, the men pulled the bar up to the top of the chest. Doma had electrodes taped to the men's skin so that he could see how hard the muscles under the electrodes had to work.

Results

Both exercises activate the upper back muscle or, as bodybuilders prefer to say, the lats. Both pull-downs and pull-ups are equally effective to develop this muscle.
Pull-ups also stimulate the biceps and lower back muscle erector spinae better than pull-downs. In turn, pull-downs stimulate the rectus abdominis washboard muscle better than pull-ups.
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Conclusion
"Chin-ups produced a greater level of muscle activity for the biceps brachii and erector spinae than the lat-pull down exercise which may be due to chin-ups allowing greater degrees of freedom", the researchers write.

"Alternatively, the EMG responses of biceps and latissimi dorsi were greater than those of non-primary movers, suggesting that both chin-ups and lat-pull down exercises may be similarly effective in activating the primary movers."

Source:

Sports Bio 2012 Sep 12 (3):302-13


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HFO3
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Re: Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

Post by HFO3 »

I wouldn’t say one is better than the other one but I prefer pull ups even though I can only do about 12 good ones, lol I like assisted pull ups so I can rep out . I use close grip pulldowns and cable rows with a wide bar and underhand ISO rows

lets here some opinions
Hany-Support
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Re: Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

Post by Hany-Support »

HFO3 wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 1:18 am I wouldn’t say one is better than the other one but I prefer pull ups even though I can only do about 12 good ones, lol I like assisted pull ups so I can rep out . I use close grip pulldowns and cable rows with a wide bar and underhand ISO rows

lets here some opinions
Of course. You're right, there is no perfect exercise.

Depending on your goal of building, if you have a lack of back you should opt for pull-ups.

One way or another, it will not work for everyone, each of us has a different structure, so we should choose exercises in which we feel muscle tension as much as possible.
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Mobster
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Re: Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

Post by Mobster »

I saw this elsewhere. The ab being activated (who knew lol) on Pulldowns will be, of course, cos of bracing under the knee pad.

I wish I was paid to state the obvious... I am!! :) :) :)
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Re: Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

Post by Hany-Support »

Mobster wrote: Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:00 am I saw this elsewhere. The ab being activated (who knew lol) on Pulldowns will be, of course, cos of bracing under the knee pad.

I wish I was paid to state the obvious... I am!! :) :) :)
Haha, what address should I send the money to? :D
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Mobster
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Re: Which exercise is better? The pull-up or the pull-down?

Post by Mobster »

Paypal or CashApp me lol
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