Reverse Grip Push Down

Why you should do a Reverse Grip Push Down

What sets this exercise apart from regular Push Downs is how you grip the bar. You should use an underhand grip. When you do this, you rotate and open up your shoulders slightly while an overhand grip rotates them inwards. In this way the inner medial and your longer head gets most of the workload unlike a regular Push Down which targets the lateral head the hardest.

Training Details Reverse Grip Push Down

  • Primary Muscle
    Triceps
  • Secondary Muscle
    Forearms
  • Equipment
    Cable
  • Level
    Easy

Performance

Stand at a cable machine and choose a straight rod/bar. Grab the bar with an underhand grip, your palms should point upwards. Take a small step back and bend your knees slightly to create a small angel on the cable.

Place your elbows close together but right in front of your body, where they should stay during the entire exercise. Lean slightly forward with a straight back. Pinch your shoulder blades together. You are now in the starting position.

Slowly pull the bar down so that your arms are completely straight. If the elbows are slightly in front of the body and if you have a slightly forward-leaning upper body, the bar should not hit your body. Go all the way down and squeeze for a few seconds in the bottom position. Then slowly move the bar upwards until your hands are level with your chest as you slowly turn downwards again.

Load

Feel free to do this fairly simple exercise with a light load and many reps. Your elbows can easily be injured if you use too heavy weight. The exercise is very good to finish off a triceps workout with and getting a great pump.

One-handed grip

The exercise is excellent to do one arm at a time. Just replace the bar with a one-handed grip and lower the weight.

Guide for Reverse Grip Push Down

  • Grab the bar with an underhand grip
  • Slightly lean forward which will make it easier to have a good range of motion
  • Tighten your stomach for stability
  • Make sure your elbows are close together but just in front of your body
  • Perform the exercise slowly
  • Do not use too much weight, work with many reps instead
  • You can vary the distance to the cable machine to attack the muscle from slightly different angles

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Related Exercises

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Seated Leg Curl

Dumbbell Pullovers

The side muscles of the back, your lats, attach to the humerus and are therefore responsible for pulling the arms down towards the body. This exercise is only about pulling down the arms in this way, which makes it a good lats exercise.

Single Arm Landmine Row

It is a fun variant of One-Arm Dumbbell Row, but you do it with a barbell instead of dumbbells. By varying how far from the grip you stand with your feet, the load will be moved between lats or traps, just like between Dumbbell Row and Meadow Rows.