What's more effective, doing Pull-Ups or the Lat Pulldown?
If we look at muscle activation research, we see that these exercises are similarly effective for training your lats, which is one of the biggest muscles of your back.
This makes sense because the Lat Pulldown trains a similar movement pattern as a Pull-Up.
But because the Pull-Up requires more stabilization, the same study found that your core muscles are more active during Pull-Ups. So if also training core stability is the goal, opting for Pull-Ups makes sense.
📚 Scientific Reference:
1. Doma, K., Deakin, G. B., & Ness, K. F. (2013). Kinematic and electromyographic comparisons between chin-ups and lat-pull down exercises. Sports biomechanics, 12(3), 302-313.
