After all, this exercise puts your body in an awkward pose of your body while moving a heavy weight with fully extended arms over your face. The main argument against pullovers is the fear of shoulder injuries. It’s up to you to choose whose lead to follow. You must admit that this is an impressive list of names of people with enough gravity to make any armchair fitness expert blush.

The heavy pullovers have been part of Ronnie Coleman’s back training, while Frank Zane attributed his serratus muscles development to doing pullovers from young age. On the other hand Dorian Yates and Mike Mentzer worked their lats on the the classic Nautilus pullover machine. On the other hand, this is the complete opposite to the testimonials from legends, who have nothing but praises when it comes to the pullover, and for all the different reasons.Īrnold credits his epic chest to performing dumbbell pullovers. Since then, its reputation has been tarnished by various “exercise scientists” who managed to kill its good name by saying that it was ineffective, and dangerous for the shoulders. As a result, its popularity diminished in the ’90s. However, the greater reliance on machines was also the reason for the drop in popularity of some old-school free weight classics, such as the free-weight pullover. Even the pullovers got their own mechanized variation in the Nautilus pullover machine invented in the early ’70s by Arthur Jones. Having in mind that they considered having thick barrel chest an ideal, the dumbbell pullover fitted perfectly in their plan.īy the 1970s and ’80s, the gyms were better equipped and had greater variety of specialized machines for targeting specific bodyparts. The Road From Favorite to Forgottenĭuring the period of popularization of bodybuilding in the 1950s and ’60s, the dumbbell pullover retained its status of an essential exercise for upper body sculpting. The widespread belief was that it helped in expanding the ribcage, presumably as a result of the intentional deep breathing between reps, which stack up to the deep breathing necessary for performing the squats earlier in the workout.Īlthough the ribcage expanding capabilities of this exercise have been long proven a myth, plenty of lifters reported great results from combining the squats with pullovers, backed up by sturdy amounts of milk. The pullover (or breathing dumbbell pullover, as it was known) was included in this type of training more often than not. Everyone was doing it.īack then the bodybuilding trend was to perform low volume workouts that included one or two upper body exercises. Needless to say, the combo of big lifting and big calories turned this recipe into a success story. In fact, back in the 1920s, the most popular bodybuilding method involved drinking gallons of milk and performing heavy, high-rep squats combined with light, high-rep dumbbell pullovers. It quickly became staple exercise for upper body development. The pullover was first declared the best exercise for developing a deep chest by Alan Calvert, founder of the Milo Barbell Company and Strength magazine, around 1911.

In this article we’re going to try to prove this theory wrong, and reintroduce the dumbbell pullover into your routines in all of its former glory. And although years ago everyone was doing it, nowadays it seems almost forgotten. The only known downside of dumbbell pullovers is that they can overload your shoulders. It can give you that great feeling of pump in your chest, stretches the lats, builds up the serratus, and has even been attributed with the ability to stretch your rib cage. In fact, together with the squats, this exercise is one of the oldest tricks in the book of bodybuilding. Its effectiveness in activating different upper body muscle groups has been known for decades. At the same time, slight adjustments in your pullover technique can shift its target to different body parts. According to most experts it’s one of the most effective chest and back exercises. The dumbbell pullover might be the most controversial exercise in the world of bodybuilding.

Db bench pull over