How to Do a Single-Arm Lat Pulldown
A single-arm lat pulldown, or one-arm lat pulldown, is a cable pulldown done one side at a time with a D handle. Drive your elbow down to your side without leaning toward the cable. It trains the lats and teres major, with the biceps and obliques helping. Most lifters do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps per arm.
- 1Start. High pulley, single D handle, sitting tall facing the stack. Let the arm go fully straight overhead so the lat stretches.
- 2Pull. Pull the shoulder down, then drive the elbow to your side until your hand reaches your upper chest. Keep your torso square.
Watch 3 video demonstrations
Find more video demonstrations in the Gravitus app
How to do a single-arm lat pulldown
- Clip a single D handle to the high pulley of a lat pulldown station. Set the thigh pad so it locks your legs down.
- Grab the handle with one hand, palm facing in or forward. Sit tall facing the stack with the cable running straight up from your hand, and rest your free hand on your thigh.
- Start with the arm straight overhead. Let the shoulder rise a little so the lat gets a full stretch.
- Pull your shoulder down first, then drive your elbow down to your side until your hand reaches your upper chest. Your chest keeps facing the stack.
- Let the handle rise over 2 to 3 seconds until the arm is straight. Finish every rep on one arm, then switch.
Seated, cross-body or half-kneeling?
No study has compared these setups. What changes is the path of the arm and how much the seat holds you still. Pick the one where you feel a full stretch at the top and can keep your torso from leaning or turning, and log each setup as its own lift, since the weights will not match.
How much weight should you use for single-arm lat pulldowns?
On Gravitus, the median man lifts 80 lb (35 kg) for 10 reps on the single-arm lat pulldown, and the median woman 40 lb (19 kg).
- Most lift
- 60 to 110 lb
- Top 10% lift
- 150 lb or more
- Starting out
- under 60 lb
- Most lift
- 30 to 60 lb
- Top 10% lift
- 80 lb or more
- Starting out
- under 30 lb
- Most lift
- 25 to 50 kg
- Top 10% lift
- 67.5 kg or more
- Starting out
- under 25 kg
- Most lift
- 14 to 27.5 kg
- Top 10% lift
- 35 kg or more
- Starting out
- under 14 kg
One arm or two: what the research says
Expect to pull more than half your two-arm weight with each arm. Most people produce less force with both limbs together than the sum of each limb alone, the bilateral deficit. It shows up more in dynamic lifts than in static tests (Škarabot 2016), and a study in older women found it in the lat pulldown (Janzen 2006). Start near half your two-arm lat pulldown on the same machine and add weight from there.
Three common claims the research does not back:
- Use less than half your two-arm weight. The bilateral deficit points the other way. Each arm alone usually handles more than half.
- It works the lower lats. No study has compared upper and lower lat activity in one-arm and two-arm pulldowns. Driving the elbow to your side trains the whole lat.
- It isolates the lats better than a two-arm pulldown. No study has compared lat activity between them. What does change is your core: in rows, two-arm sets drew only 37 to 41% of the external oblique activity of one-arm sets (Saeterbakken 2015).
Muscles worked
Single-arm pulldown vs lat pulldown vs one-arm cable row
| Attribute | Single-arm pulldown | Lat pulldown | One-arm cable row |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pull | Overhead, down to your side | Overhead, down to your chest | In front, back to your hip |
| Load | More than half your two-arm weight, per arm | Heaviest, both arms together | More than half your two-arm row, per arm |
| Works most | Lats, with the obliques holding you square | Lats, biceps, mid back | Lats, mid traps, rhomboids, rear delts |
| Best for | Each side alone, a full overhead stretch | Loading the lats heaviest | Mid back, one side at a time |
Use both pulldowns. Make the two-arm lat pulldown your heavy vertical pull and the single-arm version your side-by-side check or second lat exercise. No study has compared them for growth. Over 10 weeks, untrained women who trained one arm at a time and those who trained both arms together gained seated row strength with no difference between groups (Saeterbakken 2026).
Sets, reps and progression
Do single-arm pulldowns after your heavier pulldowns or pull-ups. Start with your weaker arm and give the stronger arm the same reps, so it does not pull further ahead. Stop each set 0 to 2 reps short of failure. Sets taken close to failure build muscle across a wide range of reps (Schoenfeld 2021).
Add reps before weight. When both arms reach 12 on every set with your torso square, move up one pin and drop back to 8.
Common mistakes
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Leaning or twisting toward the cableYour torso pulls the handle, not your lat. Go lighter until your chest keeps facing the stack.
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Pulling before the shoulder dropsThe shoulder stays shrugged and the biceps take over. Pull the shoulder down first, then bend the elbow.
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Pulling with your handThink about driving your elbow to your side. In beginners, a lat-focused cue raised lat activity in the pulldown (Snyder 2009).
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Cutting the stretch shortLet the arm go fully straight overhead every rep, with the shoulder rising a little.
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Dropping the weightLet the handle rise over 2 to 3 seconds without letting the plates touch.
Single-arm lat pulldown variations
Questions people ask
What does single arm pulldown work?
The lats and teres major most, with the biceps, brachialis, rhomboids, lower traps and rear delts helping. Your obliques work to stop the torso leaning or turning toward the cable.
Is single arm lat pulldown better?
Not better, different. No study has compared it with the two-arm pulldown for growth. It trains each side alone, gives a full overhead stretch and works your core harder. The two-arm pulldown loads more weight, so most programs use both.
Is single arm lat pulldown same as lat pulldown?
It is the same movement with one arm. You use a D handle instead of a bar, your hand finishes at your upper chest on the working side, and your core has to stop you leaning toward the cable.
Does single arm lat pulldown work lower lats?
No study shows that. No study has compared upper and lower lat activity in one-arm and two-arm pulldowns. Driving the elbow to your side trains the whole lat.
Should I sit sideways or kneel for a single arm lat pulldown?
Either works, and no study has compared them. Sit facing the stack on a pulldown station for the steadiest, heaviest sets. Half-kneel under a cable column if you have no pulldown station, with less weight. Sit side-on and pull with the far arm for a longer arc across the body.
How much weight should I use for single arm lat pulldown?
For 10 reps, the median on Gravitus is 80 lb (35 kg) for men and 40 lb (19 kg) for women. The strongest quarter lifts 110 lb (50 kg) and 60 lb (27.5 kg) or more.
Log every set and see your percentile on every lift, single-arm lat pulldown included.
Get GravitusRelated exercises
- Janzen, Chilibeck and Davison 2006. Eur J Appl Physiol 97(3):253-260.
- Škarabot et al. 2016. Eur J Appl Physiol 116(11-12):2057-2084.
- Saeterbakken et al. 2015. Int J Sports Med 36(11):900-905.
- Saeterbakken et al. 2026. J Funct Morphol Kinesiol 11(2):232.
- Buonsenso et al. 2025. J Funct Morphol Kinesiol 10(3):345.
- Snyder and Leech 2009. J Strength Cond Res 23(8):2204-2209.
- Schoenfeld et al. 2021. Sports 9(2):32.