Low Ceiling Lat Pulldown Solution for $20

If you have low ceilings in your home gym, this is the PERFECT lat pulldown solution. Plus, it requires just $20 and absolutely no labor whatsoever.

Yes, you can sit on the floor for lat pulldowns on a pulley tower. But I've been wishing I could just plop my bench right in front of my cable pulley, sit down, and perform lat pulldowns with full extension. Now I can do exactly that.

Setting this up (and taking it apart) takes about 1 minute, and the real beauty is that the wheel does not get in the way of the adjustable pulleys, so it can stay right up there at all times.

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Links to everything I talk about in the video:

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Other videos of mine that may be helpful:

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Quick Notes:
- I am 5'10" and this solution will work well for anyone under 6'
- Depending on your pulley tower, you may be able to buy a seat & leg holder attachment as some companies sell them. It could give you some additional height to play with.
- My ceilings are roughly 82" for reference
- I didn't mention it in the video, but one of my favorite parts about this solution is that when you change the weight, the pulldown attachment doesn't fall and hit you in the head like other lat pulldown machines.

[Praanna]

Bells of steel now includes that T- adaptor now with the cable tower. Great hack. I am going to use this. Thank you

[janetscookbook]

Do I have a home gym? No. Did I watch the whole video? Yes 😂 love seeing more YouTube content! Hope to see more!

[timk]

Very clever solution! I have two of these towers as well and I DIY’d a pulldown setup with a titan crossmember that just barely fits with my ceiling clearance. I had to buy special thin nuts and a thin wrench just to bolt it in place, lol. It gets the pulley about 4-5” higher than this and I sit on a 12” box so the ROM is more than enough for me at 5’11”, even with some long attachments. However, this is way, way easier and much cheaper as well. I might actually do this on the other tower just to have the option.

[happyman]

This is brilliant! I've DIY'ed a few things in my home gym and wondered why the manufacturers don't make things like this. Dialed Motion offers a pully like this, but its on the end of an arm so that you're able to do your lat pulls straight down. The pully sits in their without being bolted so for lat pulls you quickly take the pully out, thread the cable through and good to go. BoS should sell something like this as an add on. Of course they'll cut you in for the idea (Ha!).

[Tumujun]

my solution is an incline bench. I lean my chest on like doing the chest supported row. then pull the pulley. benefit is that it prevents your body from leaning backward when doing lat pulldown. I feel the most contraction of my lat.

[robhowe]

Just wanted to chime in and say THANK YOU!! This idea has came in so clutch for pull downs and Tricep pressdowns on my tower

[stewbrew]

Matt just did this to my BOS cable tower. It’s a game changer. Went with the 55” cable with a ball stopper. Works perfect. Thanks for the diy project.

[andrewreid]

Awesome vid! I just bought this stuff and added it to my cable tower, so now it's perfect for lat pull downs and tricep extensions. Just looking for an update if this DIY held up over time or if you encountered any issues with the single M10 supporting the full stack? Thanks!!

[silentangel]

please post more of your workouts whenever you have time. Love your hacks!

[VillainCollector]

I'm definitely going to build that leg holder. I have the same lever arm pieces sitting around. Thank you for the tip.

[dmar]

For the red pulley you bought..it came with a eye bolt attached. Did you remove that? Or did that fit in the hole that housed that bolt? The actual how is missing in this video lol. Another great video though

[williams.]

This is awesome. I just wish the arms on the pulley bracket were longer, to get a more overhead position. I guess there are ways to do it without having extra long bracket arms like securing a long piece of wood to the top and then suspending it over or something.

[steverapos]

To get lower, you can also sit on a step stoll - they can be small, foldable and pretty cheap too - mine is adjustable from about 6 or 7 inches high to about 9 or 10 inches high - so it is lower than your typical workout bench.

[AntoineLeclair]

It does look good, and makes us wonder why BoS didn't put a pulley there. However, it feels like the direction of the force on the bolt could make it break over time. It's not the biggest bolt and it was probably not meant to support that much shear force. Thanks for sharing!

[Ajay-Gainz]

I make so much of my own stuff... I love seeing others doing the same.

[johnbadia]

Great video! Can you make one with all the excecises you can do with the lever arms and cable tower combined? Maybe another video with the cable tower and the seal row attachment?

[Combattours]

Home Depot has cable wire. Cut to your desired length. Use clamps(hardware isle). Custom length cable.

[neilpollack]

Do you prefer to have your lat pulldown straight above your head instead of in front? Did you consider attaching a bracket to your cieling joist to move the pulley several inches forward, so it would be over your head?

[shawnm]

thanks you saved me a lot of money. A company makes a lat pulldown attachment that cost a lot more than 50 for this tower.

[sund]

Amazing video!
I like the thought process. You might just be an engineer :-D
I have the abilica multipower / BodyCraft X-Press Pro machine. - Same problem. looking for a solution. - Think I need to lower the seat.

Anyways thanks for the video. - Gave me a couble of ideas:-)