Lat pulldown muscles worked

Every role here is for this technique: seated with the thighs under the pads, wide overhand grip, bar pulled down in front to the upper chest.

What muscles does the lat pulldown work?

The prime movers of the lat pulldown are latissimus dorsi, teres major, biceps brachii and brachialis. They produce shoulder adduction and elbow flexion. Six synergists assist, among them brachioradialis, the rhomboids, the middle trapezius and the lower trapezius. Three stabilizers hold joints and segments still: the wrist and finger flexors, rectus abdominis, and the erector spinae.

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Joint actions and their prime movers

The joint actions of the lat pulldown and the prime movers that produce each
Joint action	Prime movers
Shoulder adduction	Latissimus dorsi and teres major
Elbow flexion	Biceps brachii and brachialis

Every muscle by role

A prime mover produces the lift’s main joint action against the load; a synergist assists that action, or adds a secondary action the lift needs; a stabilizer contracts mostly isometrically to hold a joint or a segment still. A role describes what the muscle does in the technique above, not how hard it works or how much it grows.

Prime movers 4

Prime movers in the lat pulldown, with what each does
Muscle	What it does here
Latissimus dorsi	Pulling the upper arms down to the sides A wide overhand grip to the front works it at least as well as other grips (Signorile et al. 2002; Lusk et al. 2010).
Teres major	Shoulder adduction
Biceps brachii	Elbow flexion
Brachialis	Elbow flexion

Synergists 6

Synergists in the lat pulldown, with what each does
Muscle	What it does here
Brachioradialis	Elbow flexion with the forearm turned down
Rhomboids	Drawing the shoulder blades in and down
Middle trapezius	Drawing the shoulder blades in
Lower trapezius	Pulling the shoulder blades down
Posterior deltoid	Pulling the upper arm back
Pectoralis major, sternal part	Pulling the upper arm down from overhead

Stabilizers 3

Stabilizers in the lat pulldown, with what each does
Muscle	What it does here
Wrist and finger flexors	Gripping the bar
Rectus abdominis	Holding the trunk still against the pull
Erector spinae	Holding the slight lean back

Lowering and lifting

What the prime movers of the lat pulldown do in each half of a rep
Phase	What the prime movers do
Releasing	Latissimus dorsi and the elbow flexors lengthen as the bar rises
Pulling	They shorten to bring the bar to the chest

Where these prime movers also work

Latissimus dorsi: prime mover in the bent-over barbell row, pull-up and chin-up; synergist in the parallel-bar dip.
Teres major: a prime mover in no other lift here; synergist in the bent-over barbell row, pull-up and chin-up.
Biceps brachii: prime mover in the bent-over barbell row, pull-up, chin-up and barbell biceps curl.
Brachialis: prime mover in the bent-over barbell row, pull-up, chin-up and barbell biceps curl.

Compared with the other vertical pull lifts

Pull-up: prime movers in both, latissimus dorsi, brachialis and biceps brachii; prime movers only here, teres major.
Chin-up: prime movers in both, latissimus dorsi, biceps brachii and brachialis; prime movers only here, teres major.

Sources

Signorile et al. (2002), J Strength Cond Res 16(4):539
Lusk et al. (2010), J Strength Cond Res 24(7):1895
NSCA, Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, 4th ed. (2016)

The cited studies that measured muscle activity used electromyography, and a larger signal need not mean more force or more growth (Vigotsky et al. (2018), Front Physiol 8:985). The roles draw on those studies for which muscles a lift involves and how two lifts differ, never to rank one muscle against another.

See these muscles in 3D

Visualiser · Biology Muscles Worked by Exercise 3D Explorer Choose a lift and a real body lights its prime movers, synergists and stabilisers, front and back, with the same muscles in 3D. Visualiser · Biology Muscle Origin, Insertion and Action Explorer Paint a muscle’s origin and insertion on real 3D bones, or click a bone to see what attaches to it.