Pull up bar and resistence bands for lat exercises

fitforsummer · 09-09-2009, 04:45 PM

I workout at home, and I'm planning to get a pull up bar before I start stage 6. The problem is, I'm really having a hard time doing those dumbell pullovers in place of the lat pulldown. I can't see how they are working my lats as much as they are working my triceps. And, I can only load the dumbell to about 35 lbs. I feel that if I load it any heavier, I risk dropping it on my head, and that would just make a mess on the brand new carpet we put in our office

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So, I want to make sure I'm actually working the muscles that each exercise is intended to work. I read on here that you can use resistence bands on the pull up bar.

How would that work? What resistence bands do you buy? How do you tighten the resistence? Has anyone done it this way?

Thanks!

LisaS · 09-09-2009, 04:50 PM

Most of the time in this context, people are speaking of using resistance bands to assist with pull ups. They are like giant rubber bands. You loop one around the bar and then stretch it and set a foot in it. As it contracts it gives you an assist in doing the pull up. The bands come in different sizes/strengths for different levels of assistance - I guess that's what you mean by "tighten the resistance"?

fitforsummer · 09-09-2009, 06:09 PM

I've heard of the bands assisting in the pull up, but I've also heard of using the bands for a lat pull-down. I'll have to find the thread. I'm sure I found it on this site. There was a small blurb of using the band on a pull-up bar to do lats.

LisaS · 09-09-2009, 07:17 PM

Well, you could certainly anchor a band to a pull up bar or any horizontal surfance and sit beneath it to pull it down like a cable machine - but if I had a pull up bar & bands I'd probably just do pullups instead of pull downs.

realcdn · 09-09-2009, 07:23 PM

It might have been my log. I've been doing Power Training, and I do assisted chin-ups for the bilateral vertical pull. However, when I need to do a unilateral vertical pull I've been using the resistance band and mimicking the movement (since I can't do a two-handed chin-up, there's no point in trying a one-handed version). I'm obviously not worrying at this point about increasing the weight, but I'm tossing the 90 lb resistance bar over the two posts on the bar, and sitting on a stool underneath it.

Of course, I wouldn't follow anything I'm doing.

Doing NROL4W I did do pullovers (which I didn't like) though.