Pull-up or pull down?

[D1cko]

Good info, I am going to start back on the pulldowns, as I work 9 & 5 and cannot access a chinup bar in that time, and I can't do sets of 6 yet.

 

[RyanF]

I think pull downs are the better exercise for bodybuilding purposes in most instances. Achieving good form on a pull down is relatively easy. Achieving good form on a pull up is a bigger challenge. It's easy for me to do pull down's and pull with my lats while keeping my chest up and properly retracting my scapulae. With pull ups, focusing on muscles is much more difficult -- I'm just trying to get up to the top of the bar in the first place.

In saying that I do very little other than pull ups at the moment. I'm thinking next year (when I no longer feel a mortal need to do pull ups for the sake of the 1,000,000 pull ups thread over at bb.com) I might just do lat pull downs and cable rows for a few months and reap the rewards.

 

[dave]

I think pull downs are the better exercise for bodybuilding purposes in most instances. Achieving good form on a pull down is relatively easy, yet rarely seen. Achieving good form on a pull up is a bigger challenge. It's easy for me to do pull down's and pull with my lats while keeping my chest up and properly retracting my scapulae. With pull ups, focusing on muscles is much more difficult -- I'm just trying to get up to the top of the bar in the first place.

Fixed that for you.

 

[RyanF]

HAHA, thankyou for that important edit! Ever so true.

 

[jamesyboi]

I am currently too weak for chins.

Prefer assisted chins over pulldowns though.