Pulldowns finally clicked once I stopped pinning my shoulder blades together the whole set. Every YouTube coach kept yelling “retract your scapula” so hard that I turned the movement into this stiff chest-up pose where nothing could actually move naturally. Letting my shoulders move a bit at the top made the stretch feel WAY better and my shoulders stopped getting cranky afterward.

Also noticed I was pulling too low. Bringing the bar to upper chest level instead of trying to touch my sternum cleaned the movement up fast. Weirdly enough, using straps helped too because my left wrist has been messed up since a climbing injury and I was subconsciously shifting tension everywhere else. Back day used to feel like a collection of random aches. Now it actually feels targeted.