Straight-Arm Dumbbell Pullover
Trains the Pecs.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Lie along a flat bench with a single dumbbell held in both hands, palms pressed flat against the underside of the top plate.
- Start with the dumbbell over your chest, arms straight with only the smallest bend at the elbow.
- Set your ribs down and brace your stomach so the lower back stays against the bench.
- Lower the dumbbell in an arc behind your head, holding that elbow angle fixed, until you feel a stretch through the ribs and the armpit.
- Pull it back over your chest along the same arc.
- Stop the arc over your chest rather than continuing toward your hips, which unloads it.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows bend and straighten through the movement. The fixed arc is the exercise; a bending elbow turns it into an awkward triceps extension and shortens the range at the shoulder.
- Going further back than the shoulders comfortably allow. The end of the range is where the stretch stops being a stretch, and it varies a great deal between people.
- Arching the lower back off the bench to reach further. The extra range comes from the spine rather than the shoulder, which is not what is being trained.
- Expecting it to be clearly a chest exercise or clearly a back exercise. The arm travels through an arc that the pectoralis major, the latissimus dorsi and the teres major all contribute to, and which of them does most depends on where in the arc you are.