Activate Your Lats When Doing Pulldowns 

A lat pulldown mistake is flaring the elbows to the sides. This happens when you focus on pulling towards your neck rather than your chest. When you do pulldowns like this it minimizes the activation of the lats and shifts the emphasis towards biceps and upper back. What you want to do instead is tuck in your elbows and focus on pulling towards the upper chest to get the maximal amount of lat activation.