Mentzer Pulldown
oec:mentzer-pulldown
A vertical cable pulldown performed on an incline bench with a close underhand grip to emphasize biceps and latissimus dorsi recruitment.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: Mike Mentzer Pulldown, Close-Grip Underhand Cable Pulldown, Incline Cable Pulldown, Mentzer Lat Pulldown, Mentzer Bicep Pulldown
How to do it
Setup
- Position an adjustable bench set to a steep incline (around 60 to 70 degrees) facing a high cable pulley.
- Attach a straight bar or EZ-curl bar attachment to the high cable.
- Sit on the bench facing the cable stack, plant your feet flat on the floor, and grasp the bar with a shoulder-width or slightly narrower underhand (supinated) grip.
- Allow your arms to fully extend overhead to establish an initial stretch through your lats and biceps.
Movement
- Initiate the pull by drawing your elbows down and in toward your sides while simultaneously curling the bar toward your upper chest or chin.
- Continue pulling smoothly until your elbows are fully bent and the bar reaches upper chest height.
- Pause for a brief moment at the bottom to forcefully contract your biceps and upper back.
- Slowly reverse the motion under control, extending your elbows until you return to the full stretch at the top.
Breathing
Exhale as you pull the bar down to your chest, and inhale as you smoothly return the weight to the top stretch.
Cues
- Drive your elbows down and curl to your chin.
- Keep your wrists firmly supinated throughout.
- Control the eccentric stretch at the top.
Common faults
- Swinging the torso backward to use momentum.
- Keep your chest and torso anchored against the bench pad and pull purely with your arms and back.
- Flaring the elbows outward.
- Track your elbows forward and down in front of your body to maintain peak mechanical tension on the biceps.
- Cutting the eccentric phase short.
- Allow your arms to reach complete extension overhead between repetitions to maximize the stretch-mediated stimulus.
Safety
- Select a load you can control smoothly through full extension without being pulled off the seat.
Muscles
Joints
- Elbow: Flexion
- Shoulder: Extension, Adduction
- Shoulder blade: Depression, Downward rotation, Retraction
Details
- Movement
- Vertical pull
- Modality
- Hypertrophy, Strength
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- pull
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- open
- Level
- intermediate
- Equipment
- Cable machine or Selectorized machine; Adjustable bench or Flat bench
- Record
- Repetitions and Load
- Load
- external, weight stack
Related
- variation of Close-Grip Supinated Lat Pulldown
- variation of Cable Incline Bench Pulldown
- substitute for Close-Grip Supinated Lat Pulldown
- substitute for Cable Reverse-Grip Lat Pulldown
- substitute for Chin-Up
Sources
- wger: Mentzer Pulldown, by Mike Mentzer (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.