The lat prayer is a straight-arm cable pulldown with a hip hinge. You face a high pulley with a rope or bar, arms almost straight, fold forward at the hips as the arms travel back overhead, and pull the attachment to your thighs as you come upright.
Menno Henselmans named it. In his June 2021 article he writes that “I called this exercise lat prayers, because the movement resembles a prayer”, and defines it as a straight-arm cable pullover with body movement added to match the cable’s resistance to where the lats are strong. Brolic lists it as Straight-Arm Pulldown (Cable), with “Lat Prayer”, “Lat Prayers” and “Rope Lat Prayer” as aliases: in Brolic’s catalog the lat prayer is the rope straight-arm pulldown performed with a hip hinge, so the two share one entry and one history, logged as an ordinary two-arm exercise in reps.
Muscles worked
Brolic tags the latissimus dorsi as the primary muscle, with the posterior deltoids and triceps as secondary. Henselmans’ list is the same: the lats, the posterior deltoids and the long head of the triceps. Michael Israetel, Jared Feather and Christle Guevarra’s Bodybuilding Anatomy adds the teres major.
Henselmans’ case for the exercise is the hinge: bending forward loads the lats at a long length and standing up gives the contraction, where an upright pullover gives one or the other. No study tests that: a PubMed search on October 7, 2026 for “lat prayer” and “straight-arm pulldown” returned nothing, and the nearest work, Teixeira and colleagues’ 2022 comparison of isometric pullovers and pulldowns, used neither a cable nor a hinge.
Set the pulley and attachment
Use a high pulley. Henselmans works from a high cable pulley, kneeling or standing, and says that above about two thirds of your bodyweight you generally need to kneel. Ryan Treadaway sets it at about eye level, backs up a couple of steps and kneels, hips back and torso leaning forward as if praying. Mario Tomic pushes the pulley as high as it goes for the longest range, and puts a mat or towel under his knees. Israetel, Feather and Guevarra stand with the cable at about collarbone height and lean forward at the hips until the arms are outstretched.
Choose a rope, a V- or W-handle, or a bar. Henselmans lists a V-grip, W-grip or rope. Treadaway finds a rope gives a slightly longer range and a harder squeeze at the bottom; two single handles do the same job if grip gives out first.
Keep a slight elbow bend. Henselmans has the arms almost but not fully straight, 120 to 170° at the elbow; Treadaway and Tomic keep the same small bend.
Pray
Fold forward as the arms go back. Henselmans has you bend over as the attachment travels back toward the pulley, where the stretch is, then lean back as you pull it into your lap, in one rhythmic motion.
Pull with the lats, not the arms. Treadaway drives the arms straight down and back while the back straightens, and squeezes the lats for a second once the handle touches the legs. Tomic pulls the rope as he pushes his hips forward, and warns against turning the lift into a triceps pushdown. Israetel, Feather and Guevarra finish with the attachment at the thighs or just outside them; Henselmans wants the elbows in line with the trunk and no further back.
Return slowly, and be gentle at the turn. Israetel, Feather and Guevarra ask for a gentle reversal from lowering to pulling, because the lats are at their longest there.
If the elbows close as you pull, the weight is too heavy. Treadaway names a changing elbow angle as the common mistake, because bending the arm shortens the path. Reduce the load; he keeps the exercise to moderate weights in the 8 to 20 rep range, and Tomic stays at 12 to 15 because heavy cable work is hard to keep in form.
Versus the straight-arm pulldown and the pullover
| Straight-arm pulldown | Lat prayer | Dumbbell pullover | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body | Standing, torso held still | Hips fold forward and back with the arms | Lying on a bench |
| Where the stretch happens | Arms overhead, torso upright | Arms overhead with the torso folded | Arms behind the head |
| Finish | Thighs | Thighs or lap, elbows beside the torso | Over the chest |
Treadaway’s comparison is that the straight-arm pulldown covers about half the range of the lat prayer; Henselmans finds the lying pullover variations impractical. Neither claim has been tested; the table separates three set-ups, it does not rank them.
Logging
Brolic logs Straight-Arm Pulldown (Cable) in reps, both arms together. Enter the weight on the stack. Note the attachment, kneeling or standing, and whether you hinged, because the hinge adds range and lowers the load; an upright straight-bar set and a kneeling rope lat prayer are not the same set. The free workout log has room for it, and the weekly set tally shows how these sets add to your lat work.
Common questions
Kneeling or standing? Both are taught: Henselmans allows either and kneels once the weight is heavy, Treadaway and Tomic kneel, and Israetel, Feather and Guevarra stand. Pick one for a block and record it.
Rope or bar? Treadaway prefers a rope for the extra range, and Tomic uses one too. A straight bar is what Brolic’s catalog name describes; none of the sources claims one grows more muscle.
How heavy? Treadaway keeps it moderate, 8 to 20 reps, Tomic 12 to 15, and a closing elbow is the signal to lighten. If the lower back or a shoulder hurts at the stretch, shorten the range or stop; pain is not a cue.
Sources and method
- Menno Henselmans: Lat prayers, the perfect exercise for the lats (2021) — name, definition, attachments, elbow range, kneeling rule and muscles; read through a reader proxy, as the site refuses direct fetches.
- Menno Henselmans: Lat Prayer with Menno Henselmans — the stretch-and-contraction reasoning; automatic captions.
- Mario Tomic: Best Back Isolation Exercises - The Lat Prayer — pulley height, knee mat, the pull with the hips, the pushdown mistake, elbow bend and rep range; automatic captions.
- Ryan Treadaway: Lat Prayer — set-up, pull, rope note, elbow mistake and rep range; automatic captions.
- Human Kinetics excerpt from Bodybuilding Anatomy by Michael Israetel, Jared Feather and Christle Guevarra — standing set-up, arc, finish and the gentle reversal.
- Teixeira et al. (2022) — lat activity in isometric pullovers and pulldowns, not in the lat prayer.
- Brolic catalog — name, aliases (added October 6, 2026), logging mode and muscle tags.
Pulley heights, elbow angles, the kneeling rule and the rep ranges are coaching starting points, not optima from a trial; no growth claim is made against the pulldown, the pullover or any row.
