Hey what's up guys, Sean Nalewanyj here, BodyTransformationTruth.com, in today’s video I want to go over the benefits
and the proper form for the standing cable pullover which is a really great exercise
when it comes to isolating your lats.
Now pullovers aren't something that you generally see being performed at the gym very often
these days but they’re actually one of the oldest bodybuilding movements in the book
and they actually used to be referred to as the “upper body squat” back in like the
50’s and 60’s because a lot of lifters considered them to be the best overall upper
body lift out there.
Now I definitely wouldn’t consider pullovers to be the very BEST upper exercise available
but they definitely are a great movement for the lats and they work really well as a finishing
movement to round out your overall lat workout.
Now most lifters (especially beginners) tend to have a really hard time really feeling
it in their lats and activating the muscles effectively when using standard vertical and
horizontal pulling movements, because other muscles tend to take over, such as the biceps
and the shoulders and the other muscles of the mid back, and pullovers help you to directly
isolate your lats through a large range of motion and with minimal involvement of those
other muscle groups.
So the traditional way that pullovers are usually performed is by laying perpendicular
across a bench and then using a single dumbbell.
Now this is still a good exercise but the problem with dumbbell pullovers is that they
don’t give you consistent tension on your lats throughout the entire range of motion
and that's because of the straight-up-and-down direction that gravity is pulling the resistance.
So what happens is that your lats end up being hit really hard in the first half of the range,
but as you pull the dumbbell further and further toward your chest, the stress decreases until
there’s pretty much little to no tension at all on your lats in the finishing position.
So actually the best way to perform this exercise is by using a pullover machine because it
gives you the fullest range of motion possible and it also keeps full tension on your lats
from the very bottom of the movement all the way up to the top.
So if your gym happens to have a pullover machine available then I would suggest using
that, however, most gyms don’t have them available, and in that case, I’d recommend
that you perform the standing cable pullover variation instead.
So here is the proper form for those.
So you’re going to place a straight-bar or an EZ-curl bar attachment as high up on
a cable stand as possible and then you're going to grab the attachment using an overhand
grip, with your hands spaced about shoulder-width apart, and keeping roughly a 30 degree bend
in your elbows.
You want to have a good solid stance with your feet spaced about shoulder width apart,
either directly side by side or with one foot slightly in front of the other.
Keep your lower back slightly arched, keep your chest puffed out and your torso leaning
forward, and then you're just going to pull the cable attachment down in a circular movement
until your arms are at your sides and you feel a good strong contraction in your lats.
Focus on driving the resistance down using your elbows rather than your hands because
that will help you to maximize lat activation.
And from there just raise the bar back up under control until it is directly overhead
and your lats are nice and stretched out, before pulling the weight back down again.
Now keep in mind that because everybody has a different body structure and varying shoulder
flexibility, the exact distance that you stand from the machine and the range of motion that
you use will vary a bit from person to person so you’re going to need to experiment with
the movement to just find the position for yourself that allows you to hit your lats
as effectively as possible and that also feels most comfortable on your shoulders and your
elbows.
My suggestion is to perform these as a finishing movement at the end of your lat workout after
all of your compound vertical and horizontal pulling movements have been completed, you
can do them for 3-4 sets for anywhere from 8-12 controlled reps.
These are a fairly uncommon exercise, but standing cable pullovers allow you to hit
your lats using a different angle than traditional pull ups, pulldowns and rows and they’re
a great way to round out your workout for maximum lat stimulation and growth.
So thanks for watching this video lesson, I hope you found the information useful here
today.
For more simple but highly effective training tips to maximize your muscle building and
your fat burning progress, along with science-based nutrition and supplementation information,
make sure to head over to BodyTransformationTruth.com and grab my complete “Body Transformation
Blueprint” System by clicking the icon at the top of the video or using the link in
the description box below.
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Talk to you again soon.