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In fact, I’ve actually made videos in the past discussing how to use this exercise for chest or lats so if you want to dive a bit deeper into that subject, you can watch that video below.īut why does the starting position change which muscles are targeted with the exercise? Well, it’s because you are able to dip your hips and extend your lower back a lot more this way, which will allow you to get a better stretch and contraction on the lats. So if you are trying to isolate more LATS, you would want to use the second starting position and also focus on pulling with your elbows, keeping your biceps and grip disengaged as much as you can without dropping the weight. However, the dumbbell pull-over is very unique in that it can be used to target CHEST or BACK and your starting position is going to help in determining this. The first is by lying flat on a bench, and the second is by lying off the side of the bench with just your upper back on the pad. This exercise can be executed in two different laying positions. The teres major is a small muscle that spans from the bottom of your shoulder blade to the side of your arm and helps extend the shoulder and the triceps help bring your arms down aiding your lats. The posterior deltoid is on the back of the shoulder and helps pull your arm down and back during the movement. The lats are responsible for extending and medially rotating the upper arms in toward your body. Now this exercise primarily target the lats, posterior deltoid, teres major and triceps. Also, don’t grab the bar too wide because this will reduce the overall range of motion restricting the effectiveness of the movement. Make sure you’re bracing your abs throughout the entire set, and don’t bend your elbows more than just slightly. Then return to the starting position while controlling the negative and repeat.īut here are some other key notes. Once in place, push the bar towards your hips WITHOUT changing the angle of your elbows and as the bar reaches your thighs continue to stick your chest out and FLEX your back. Next, while maintaining a slight bend in your elbows, bend your knees, keep your chest up and arch your back to create as much of a stretch as possible on your lats.
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You then step a few feet away from the machine so that even in the starting position there’s constant tension on your back. To perform a lat pushdown you need access to a cable machine and a straight bar attachment. So to properly answer that question, we first need to talk about the differences between the two exercises. Essentially, he was asking which exercise would produce the most gains or a bigger and thicker back and now that brings us here. But luckily we both had the same exercise in mind and we trained together and during the sets we started chatting about different back exercises and he asked me if I ever do the dumbbell pull-over. You know, that awkward moment where you both look at each other and say “Oh, sorry man, were you using that?” haha. Fit Expo and met a subscriber who was training BACK and we both arrived at the cable machine at the same time. This topic came up because I was recently training at a 24 hour fitness while at the L.A. Now if you’ve missed any of the videos in this series, I’ll post the link to the entire playlist HERE.
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Lying down lat pullover series#
Today we’re going to continue the VERSUS series by comparing the Lat Pushdown to the Dumbbell Pull-Over.
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