tricep pushdown form question need help

[Venum]

whenever I am doing pushdowns for tri's, I always feel a burn in then rear delt area of my back. I thought maybe I was going too heavy, but I sometimes even feel it when I am going light. Does anyone know what may be the problem here with my form? Also, when doing pushdowns is it better to use a close grip or a far spaced grip.....thanks

[ascendant]

well, if you're feeling it in the rear delt, more likely than not you're not keeping your upper arms in a locked position while doing the movement. make sure to keep those upper arms locked in place for the entire movement. if that's not your problem, then it might be that your rear delts are a lagging bodypart so they're having a hard time keeping your arm stabilized through this movement. only solution to that would be focus more training on your rear delts to help them catch up.

as far as your grip, depending on your form, the bar you use, etc, generally the closer you grip, the more of the outside of the triceps you'll hit and the further in, the more of the inside. reason most people use the v-bars and rope which are both close grip more often than a wider grip is because your triceps get a lot of indirect work from chest, which tends to have a much wider grip on the barbell movements. because of that, i stick pretty much all with close grips for direct work on my tri pulldowns.

[Venum]

when you say keep my upper arms locked in place, you mean my elbows to my sides right? and sometimes its my traps I feel it in, I am def not lagging there...

[Papi93]

It sounds like you "may" be extending your shoulder. Have someone examine your form and give you feedback. What technique do you use, upright torso with cable in front of face or slight lean forward with cable to one side of the head or other.

The closer grip allows for more loading. It does make it more challenging to keep the elbows from drifting out, though. Do it at the computer. Notice when you hands come close together you elbows pop out. Now bring the hands out and watch the elbows come in.

[Venum]

when doing push downs I like to lean forward just a tad with the bar at about mid chest area before pressing

[TADOLFI]

I'd try straight up with no lean and lighten the weight just to see if you feel a difference.
You may also want to try single arm pushdowns to see if you feel a big difference from one side to the other.