London Bridges

What it is

This exercise is a challenging bodyweight pull that requires you to lean back from a standing position and descend hand-over-hand down a rope. It primarily targets your latissimus dorsi (lats), with significant engagement from your biceps, forearms, and middle back. Considered a compound pull movement, it demands good core stability and upper body strength.

Technique tips

• Ensure your base (bar or box) is completely stable before starting.
• Use the rope primarily for balance in the starting position.
• Maintain a rigid, straight body line throughout the entire movement.
• Lower yourself slowly, one hand after the other, with control.
• Descend until your body is nearly parallel to the floor.
• Exhale as you pull yourself back up to the starting position.

How to track your progress

Log the weight and reps of each set. Straddly turns every set into an estimated one-rep max, so a heavier single and a strong set of eight both count as progress, and it flags a personal record the moment you beat your best.