We’ve all been told about the downsides of sitting down all day, unfortunately it’s taken up a huge part of modern day living. With it comes poor posture, achy joints and weakened muscles, especially in the posterior chain. Many people suffer with limited back muscles as a result of sitting down often, fortunately there are things you can do in the gym to reverse this.

If there were two exercises that you could choose to maximise back strength and muscle growth it would be the lat pulldown and row. Both are essential exercises in almost every training programme. With two new lat pulldown machines available at Mirafit, we wanted to give you a breakdown of the products and help you choose which to include in your gym.

Plate Loaded Lat Pulldown

The Plate Loaded Lat Pulldown holds up to 350kg of weight and with attachments at the bottom and top it can be used for other exercises such as rowing, tricep pulldowns and bicep curls. The pulleys are made of a durable nylon to make them long-lasting and the cable tautness can be adjusted by using the chain and carabiner connection.

To increase and decrease the weight, you load and unload plates on the side of the cables. A variety of plates can be used to load the machine, including Olympic plates. Because this is a cable machine, there is constant resistance on the muscles and therefore this will challenge joint stability as well as muscle strength.

Selectorised Lat Pulldown

A Selectorised Lat Pulldown machine is what you will often see at a commercial gym and has been exclusively designed for lat pulldown and seated row. To change the weight of the machine you simply insert a pin into the required square weight plate. The machine is loaded up to 300lbs (136kg) and can be adjusted in 10lb increments. 

Our selectorised lat pulldown is commercial grade equipment, everything that you would get out of a gym workout can be replicated in your home gym. It also comes with integrated resistance band pegs, which can increase the intensity of the exercise. Including resistance bands is an ideal way to make the exercise more difficult without increasing the weight. Our lat pulldown with weight stack also has aluminium pulleys which are more durable and adjustment bolts so that you can make micro adjustments to the cable tautness. 

What is the Difference?

Another key difference is the weight loading. The plate loaded pulldown’s weight is adjusted by adding and removing weights to the machine. The selectorised machine is loaded via a pin that is inserted into blocks of weight, making it quick and easy to change the load.

Which Lat Pulldown Machine Should I Choose?

How much space do you have available? When building a home gym, space is one of the most important things to consider. You may need to be smart when choosing your equipment to make sure you have enough room. If space saving is a concern, then the plate loaded machine might be more suitable. It takes up less room and can be used for other exercises, so you don’t have to purchase more equipment.

An additional reason for choosing the plate loaded machine is that it gives you much more control over the weight. The plate selector machine only allows weight to be added or taken away in 10lbs increments up to a maximum of 300lbs, whereas with the use of fractional plates the plate loaded machine gives you the ability to add exactly the weight you want.  Alternatively, if you have more room to play with then the selectorised machine might be the better option. It’s quick and easy to adjust the weight by simply switching the pin to a different weight. This can save a lot of time during a workout that can be taken up by loading and deloading a machine. Because of this, your workouts will be more efficient and you can maximise the amount of time you have in the gym.

The Bottom Line - Both the plate loaded and selectorised machines come with their advantages. When it comes to choosing one, it all comes down to the space you have available and what you want to get out of the machine. Regardless, both will be seamlessly effective at levelling up your home gym and making back workouts easier.

Written by guest author Eryn Barber.

For more content, follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and on our official Mirafit Facebook page.

Tags: Exercise Type > Strength ; Misc > Gym Planning