Dorian Yates is a six-time Mr. Olympia, so when he speaks, the bodybuilding community listens and in a recent Instagram post, ‘The Shadow’ brought us some of his trademark no nonsense advice, sharing his preferred pulldown variation.
“So, yeah, why am I doing this, and I’m not doing this,” Yates asked his 1.7+ million Instagram followers, as he demonstrated a preference for underhand pulldowns rather than overhand. “Because this is a very short range of motion,” he explained, referring to a wide overhand grip. “Also, I’m putting the biceps in a weaker position.” Instead, Yates says that he would implement a narrower overhand grip. “Much bigger range of motion, biceps in a better position. You don’t ever, ever need to do this f**** exercise. Waste of time,” admonished Yates.
Since the wider grip is associated with lat pulldowns, some IG followers were surprised at this tip, but Yates explained in the caption that the overhand, narrow grip pulldowns were a staple of his back routine and he’d implement them as his second exercise. “The hand placement is just closer than shoulder width and pull with your elbows, drive them into your lats and hold for a second with a slow negative.”
How to perform Dorian Yates Underhand Close-Grip Pulldown
This compound exercise will build your biceps and middle back
- Grip the bar “just closer” than shoulder width apart, advises Yates
- Pull the bar down
- Squeeze biceps and back at the bottom of the pull
- Slowly control the ascent of the bar, keeping your chin up
- Repeat
While some followers were divided on this advice, Yate’s explained that he’s putting his biceps in a stronger position to take heavier loads while providing for a greater range of motion and a longer over all rep. “Pros and cons with each variation. All these are dependent on what you want to target,” wrote one IG user. “I love when ppl try arguing with @thedorianyates about building muscle,” joked another follower. As the consecutive Mr Olympia winner from 1992 to 1997, our ears are always open, Sir!
