Bent-Arm Barbell Pullover

Back · Barbell

How to do it

Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell at shoulder width over your chest with the elbows slightly bent. Keeping that elbow angle fixed, lower the bar in an arc behind your head as you breathe in, until you feel the stretch through ribs and lats; come back by pulling with your back, not your arms. With a bent arm you can load more than the straight-arm version and the lats lead. The classic mistake is bending the elbow further on the way back: change the angle and you end up doing a press from behind your head.

Variants

The drawing shows one way of doing it, and the technique above describes that one. Almost every exercise has variants — standing or seated, the grip, the bench angle — and is still the same exercise: if you do it another way, write it in the exercise note and you will have it every time you train it.

Also works: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

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