How one can Do the Dumbbell Pullover to Fire Up Your Upper Body

Sure, a bench press can goal your chest and a lat pull-down will fan the flames of your back, but to hit each spots directly, the dumbbell pullover could also be just your ticket.

A weighted exercise that challenges each those areas (plus your shoulders, arms, and rib cage muscles), the pullover is an upper-body smoker that chances are you’ll just wish to slot into your routine time and time again.

Despite its high bang-for-your-buck, the pullover is a move that tends to fall by the wayside—it doesn’t get as much love as other chest or back exercises, so chances are you’ll not see it fairly often in workout plans. Because of this, you would possibly not be as conversant in it as you might be with other upper-body staples, like rows or chest presses.

So here’s a fast rundown: The exercise involves lying in your back on the ground (or on a flat weight bench) and gripping one dumbbell above your chest with each hands. With straight arms, you slowly pull the dumbbell over and back behind your head so far as your shoulder mobility allows. Then, you reverse the move to return to the starting position. If the pullover sounds easy, it’s—but trust us: It really has rather a lot to supply, irrespective of your fitness level.

We tapped certified personal trainer and performance coach Keith Hodges, CPT, founding father of Mind In Muscle Coaching in Los Angeles to learn all of the must-know intel on the dumbbell pullover, including what muscles it really works, if it’s more of a chest move or a back move, the mighty advantages, easy methods to incorporate it into your routine, and—most significantly—easy methods to do it properly.

What muscles does the dumbbell pullover work?

Like we mentioned, the pullover serves double-duty: It targets your chest muscles (pecs), especially your pectoralis major, which spans out of your upper arms to collarbone to sternum, and your broadest back muscles called your latissimus dorsi (lats). Moreover, dumbbell pullovers work your triceps (the muscles on the backsides of your upper arms), deltoids (shoulders), and serratus anterior (a muscle along the rib cage that stabilizes your shoulders), too.

Are pullovers in your chest or back?

This can be a long-standing debate within the fitness word, and we’re here to clear it up for you: The reply is each! Pullovers work your chest and your back muscles, so yes, they may be considered a chest exercise in addition to a back exercise. As for which area you’ll feel this move working more, well, that each one is determined by your anatomy, Hodges tells SELF. In case your back tends to be tight, then you definitely’ll likely feel the pullover really firing up that area more so than your chest. However, in case your chest and shoulders are tense, then you definitely’ll probably feel the exercise targeting those muscle groups more intensely than your backside, Hodges explains.

What are the advantages of dumbbell pullovers?

For the reason that pullover targets your chest, back, arm, and shoulder muscles abruptly, you possibly can get pretty awesome upper-body muscle activation and strengthening with this exercise. That could make the pullover a pleasant complement to more lower body-focused exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts.