Pullovers?

[Regalius]

Wondering what you guys think about Dumbell Pullovers? Are they worth effective and worthwhile?

 

[Noskill]

Every time you think about adding a pullover variation, think you could add a real pull or press instead.

Arthur Jones said they were the upper body squat.
Mentzer said Dips were the upper body squat.
Jones had some great ideas for a HIT guy, but he was wrong on that one.
Personally, pullovers never did anything good for me, except making me sore. Which is cool and all but not exactly what a serious lifter is looking for.

If you want range of motion, do chins.

 

[PariahCarey]

Every time you think about adding a pullover variation, think you could add a real pull or press instead.

Arthur Jones said they were the upper body squat.
Mentzer said Dips were the upper body squat.
Jones had some great ideas for a HIT guy, but he was wrong on that one.
Personally, pullovers never did anything good for me, except making me sore. Which is cool and all but not exactly what a serious lifter is looking for.

If you want range of motion, do chins.

Lol...there is one of those "upper body squat" machines in metrosexual gym I work at...the owner has collected an entire array of old school nautilus machines...I think Jones just called it the upperbody squat cause in the end he didn't know what muscles that contraptrion was working...his claim was that it would isolate the back cause your pulling over with the elbows and somehow this would "create direct resistance to the back." I actually tried it (*hangs head in shame*) and i felt it most in my rear delts and triceps and the motion seemed really awkward...but of course it did its a machine!

 

[Donut62]

They expand your rib cage and give you that V-taper.

/sarcasm

Chins.

 

[GrappleGirl]

great stretch
works the serratus muscles
opens the rib cage

I do it more for the flexibility aspect, but I have done it with heavy weights as well. Make sure to drop your hips so your back is really arched out. Most people do it wit thier back flat & lose a lot of the potential.

 

[ahab]

They expand your rib cage

So how exactly does bone expand again?

V-taper comes from lats, abs & small waist, not from the size of your ungrowing rib cage.

And back to pullovers... Good warmup because they work a lot of muscles through a long ROM. Not a good exercise to be at the core of your program because of all the muscles used at different angles. Some muscles can handle the weight easily, while others are struggling.

Also not very real world applicable. How often are you on your back doing the same sort of motion?

 

[Donut62]

So how exactly does bone expand again?

V-taper comes from lats, abs & small waist, not from the size of your ungrowing rib cage.

Goddamnit, I knew someone wouldn't get my sarcastic reply making light of Weider's shit. I'll change it to make it more obvious.

 

[ahab]

Whew. I was worried there for a moment.

 

[Espo]

After I was in a car accident, I didn't realize how bad my shoulder was messed up and proceed to wreck my shoulder for good. To this day I don't know if my shoulder injury was from the accident, the pullovers, or a combination of both. It wasn't pretty. To me the risk far outweighs the reward.

 

[Noskill]

Lol...there is one of those "upper body squat" machines in metrosexual gym I work at...the owner has collected an entire array of old school nautilus machines...I think Jones just called it the upperbody squat cause in the end he didn't know what muscles that contraptrion was working...his claim was that it would isolate the back cause your pulling over with the elbows and somehow this would "create direct resistance to the back." I actually tried it (*hangs head in shame*) and i felt it most in my rear delts and triceps and the motion seemed really awkward...but of course it did its a machine!

No need for shame or hanging, I actually tried and used regularly a few pullover machines and dumbell/barbell variations because I believed Jones' hype. The old nautilus machines are still believed to be the Holy Ark of weight training by many HIT converts, which leads me to think that just posting the fact that your gym owns an old nautilus pullover machine on Cyberpump or other HIT nests could drastically change the look of your average client. To this day machine pullovers are still my second favorite machine, right after the back extension station (but people need to learn that a single 45 is not proper loading on that, snatch grip on a barbell loaded with 25's and 35's is the way to load these).

But I do neither pullovers nor back extension.

Pullovers make your ribcage grow and free weigths make your balls glow.

 

[JoeU1741]

Dunno if it's true or not, but I read somewhere that there is a chest muscle (I don't think it was the pecs though) which gets worked when you move your arms from straight above your head to straight in front of your body (the pullover motion). It was saying that is why swimmers have large chests (compared to the average schmo not BB's) due to a lot of swimming motions being like that - freestyle is a good example.

Someone with a better anatomy knowledge may be able to confirm/ refute.