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arab910
10-18-08, 7:12 pm
Primarily a chest or back exercise? I have read articles on the internet as well as threads on this forvm that claim both.

Whoever swears by the cross-bench db pullover- what's your opinion? what day (back or chest) do you traditionally complete this exercise on?

shizz702
10-18-08, 7:18 pm
The pullover is an excellent exercise and will really help develop your upper body. It targets both the chest and lats, and supposedly can even expand your rib cage.

The old timers used to superset a 20 rep set of pullovers after high rep squats, and the whole point of it was rib cage expansion and developing the chest. To this day the 20 rep squat program still incorporates pullovers supersetted with the 20 rep squat set.

It's hard to say which day to do it on, since it works both so well. Me personally, I always do it either after squatting or benching, my way of training is more full body oriented so I'll usually consider it my back/pulling movement for that session.

Here's a good read on it:http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/anatomyofapullover.php

Dedicated2Liftin
10-18-08, 7:19 pm
Man, it's about time someone harks back to an old classic. As far as your question is concerned, it's mainly a function of how deep you go. In my expereince, the further back you bring the dumbell, the more you're going to be hitting your lats (although your chest is going still going to be heavily involved in the positive portion of the rep). Ideally, the pullover is meant to strengthen the serratus anterior (the muscle located on the rib cage between the pec and the lat); consequently, that's why you have overlap of the aforementioned muscles. In regards to my own workout, I like to go pretty heavy with these, so I do them on back day rather than chest day; I feel I've got more power to bring the dumbell overhead if my chest isn't fried. Regardless, ya gotta find what works for you; however, I'd definitely incorprate these somewhere in your workout.

Elite
10-18-08, 7:23 pm
Bit of both really, depends how far back and down you extend the db and how much you contract your chest and lats. I personally do the seated upright pullover machine to work the chest this way. I dont go further back than 45 degrees and keep continuous contraction on my chest and really squeeze all the way down.

I guess you can never really solely isolate either lats or chest on db pullovers, unless someone else can chime in and give us an example of how, would be cool.

pmug0000
10-18-08, 8:48 pm
Bit of both really, depends how far back and down you extend the db and how much you contract your chest and lats. I personally do the seated upright pullover machine to work the chest this way. I dont go further back than 45 degrees and keep continuous contraction on my chest and really squeeze all the way down.

I guess you can never really solely isolate either lats or chest on db pullovers, unless someone else can chime in and give us an example of how, would be cool.

I do DB pullovers for my back, and I can come pretty damn close to taking my chest completely out of it. What I do is go to a decline bench (for situps or whatever) and reach as far back as I can on the lowering motion, and then raise it up until it's over my face, but no farther. I squeeze my lats hard and concentrate on just using them and no chest. It works for me.

Cstlfx
10-18-08, 9:20 pm
I use it for chest, I try as much as possible to take my back out of the equation. I put it at the end of my workout, as a finisher, most times.

It all depends on when you do it. Put it on back day, make sure to pull with your lats. Put it on chest day, pull with the chest.

npeezy
10-19-08, 12:50 am
i love this movement...

if i do db pullovers ill do them at the end of a chest workout...

if i do STRAIGHT BAR CABLE pullovers ill do them at the end of a back workout...

sanga
10-19-08, 3:32 am
IMO a better back exercise but you can use it for the chest in my experience, one way has already been mentioned and I`ve done it and thats 20 rep breathing squats with 20 rep along the bench breathing pullovers, another way is just doing straight sets along the bench and sucking in the ribcage (vaccum) whilst allowing the dumbell to go over your head.

Now for back Ilay across the bench with just my shoulder blades on the bench, hips as low as I can get them throughout the exercise, most people allow their hips to rise which makes the exercise less effective, to hit the lats you need to keep the hips as low as possible the entire time, also most people use too much weight and so their hips rise.

A great exercise to do for pre-exhaust before hitting chins or rows.