How to Do Dumbbell Pullovers (Form & Muscles Worked)

The dumbbell pullover is a highly effective resistance exercise that is commonly used to strengthen the chest muscles, including the pectoralis major. It also targets other muscles in the upper body, such as the latissimus dorsi, triceps, and core muscles.

Incorporating this exercise into your upper body routine can yield great results. It is recommended to begin with lighter weights and gradually increase resistance as you build strength.

This article will cover the muscles targeted by dumbbell pullovers, provide step-by-step instructions for performing the exercise correctly, and explain the various benefits. Additionally, we'll offer valuable exercise tips and highlight common mistakes to avoid for safety purposes.

Muscles Targeted by the Dumbbell Pullover

The dumbbell pullover is an exercise that targets both the chest and back muscles simultaneously.

Let's take a closer look at the primary muscles worked during this exercise:

1. The serratus anterior, located on the upper rib cage, is one of the main muscles targeted during the dumbbell pullover. It helps stabilize your shoulders during heavy pulls, carries, squats, and presses.

2. Your latissimus dorsi muscles span the entire length of your back and are the primary movers during the dumbbell pullover. They pull your arms back to the starting point and are also worked during the lowering phase of the exercise.

3. Your triceps are under load throughout the dumbbell pullover due to the slight elbow bend. Although they are not the main movers during this exercise, they still get worked.

4. During the lifting phase of the dumbbell pullover, your pectorals or chest muscles are used. This is why the dumbbell pullover is often programmed on chest days. However, you can include it in your training program on most days.

Steps to Perform Dumbbell Pullovers

Although serious bodybuilders use a barbell, this exercise is done with a dumbbell. To perform a dumbbell pullover, you’ll need a bench and a dumbbell. It’s recommended you use a lighter dumbbell, to begin with, to learn the movement and test your range of motion. Also, never disregard the importance of doing warm-up and cool-down stretches.

This video demonstrates the best warm-up stretches and how to dumbbell pullovers targeting the lats and also the chest.

Starting Position:

Lie down on a flat bench with your head at one end and your feet flat on the floor.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Hold a dumbbell with both hands over your chest using an overhand grip (palms facing up) and keep your arms fully extended.

2. Keep a slight bend in your elbows and make sure your shoulders are stabilized against the bench during the exercise.

3. Slowly lower the dumbbell behind your head until you feel a comfortable stretch in your chest and lats.

4. At the bottom position, focus on feeling a stretch in your chest while maintaining stability in your shoulders and core.

5. Exhale and push the dumbbell back up and over your chest to the starting position.

6. Keep your arms slightly bent throughout the ascent.

7. Repeat the exercise for the desired number of repetitions, ensuring proper form and control throughout.

It's crucial to choose a weight that lets you execute the exercise with proper form and ease. If you're a beginner at dumbbell pullovers, it's best to begin with lighter weights and gradually up the weight as you become more experienced and self-assured with the technique.

Exercise Tips

To perform a pullover exercise safely and effectively, it's important to select the right weight. Make sure you can comfortably extend your arms behind your head and bring the weight back up.

1. To further reduce the risk of injury, position your head as far up on the bench as possible. This will help prevent the bench from getting in the way of your shoulder movement.

2. Before lifting the dumbbell over your face, ensure you have a secure grip on it.

3. Position the handle between the base of your thumbs and the body of your hands, then overlap your fingers in front and thumbs behind the handle to create a closed grasp.

4. To perform the exercise correctly, maintain a slight bend in your arms without allowing too much elbow flexion. This will prevent the exercise from turning into a triceps workout.

5. During each repetition, ensure that your arm bend remains consistent. If your elbows are bending and straightening, it means that you're not targeting your chest and back muscles properly, and instead, putting more stress on your triceps.

6. It's important to keep your core muscles activated throughout the exercise and proceed with caution if you have any shoulder mobility restrictions or previous shoulder injuries.

7. When performing this exercise, it's important to ensure that you achieve a comfortable stretch in your shoulders when you reach the bottom position. The objective is to execute the entire overhead movement range, rather than just touching the weight to the ground.

8. During the eccentric phase of the pullover, when your arms go back overhead, your body position allows your rib cage to expand laterally. To ensure maximum benefit from the movement, it is recommended to take deep breaths.

9. Make sure you pay attention to your range of motion. If you notice your lower or mid-back is curving too much while lifting your arms up, try moving your shoulders more instead of adjusting your posture by expanding your rib cage.

10. Select a specific exercise focus to build muscles by adjusting the angle of your elbows. You can angle them outward for greater emphasis on the pecs or inward for increased involvement of the lats.

Recommended Sets and Reps

The number of sets and reps you do depends on your goal.

When you perform the dumbbell pullover, you'll be lifting a substantial weight over your face. It's important to avoid reaching muscle failure while training for this exercise. Striking a balance between weight and repetition in your workout can help you achieve your fitness goals while reducing the likelihood of injuries.

Endurance:  Aim for 2 or 3 sets of 12 to 15 reps, moving slowly and deliberately with each rep.

Muscle Mass: Perform 3 or 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps, while ensuring that you stop 2 or 3 reps before reaching your limit.

Strength: To increase your strength, attempt 3 sets of 6 to 8 repetitions. Use a weight that you are confident you can handle, leaving three additional repetitions in reserve.

Benefits of Dumbbell Pullovers

To perform this workout, it's essential to have unrestricted shoulder movement. If your shoulder joint has limited mobility due to injury or other physical limitations, you may need to opt for an alternative exercise to work on your chest muscles.

Improve Range of Motion

One significant advantage of performing dumbbell pullovers is that they can greatly improve your flexibility and range of motion, particularly in your chest and shoulder area. This can enhance your agility and contribute to the improvement of your other weight-lifting exercises.

Improves Shoulder Mobility

To reach behind your head with your hands close together, you need good shoulder stability. Adding this exercise to your workout routine will enhance your shoulder movement in the eccentric position.

Muscle Hypertrophy

The dumbbell pullover exercise puts both your chest and lat muscles in a stretched position when the weight is lowered behind your head. By contracting your muscles from that position to bring the weight up again, you can gain excellent muscle growth.

Scapular and Trunk Stability

To perform this exercise correctly, you must use your core muscles to stabilize your trunk because of the body position. This is essential, particularly when lifting heavier weights. Scapular stability is also crucial to avoid overextending the shoulders and to ensure the ball and socket joint works efficiently, just like any other chest or back exercise.

Improved Neural Pathways

Practicing this particular exercise can enhance your mind-muscle coordination and increase your overall efficiency. Since it focuses on two major muscle groups, you need to establish a stronger connection between your mind and the muscles being used compared to simpler exercises.

Increased Strength

If you find the exercise difficult, it means you are building strength. To keep progressing, you should increase the weight or repetitions within a strength-building range, which typically involves fewer than 10 reps.

Bonus Benefit

Regularly incorporating dumbbell pullover workouts into your fitness routine comes with an added bonus – they serve as an effective weight loss exercise that not only helps tone your body but also aids in preventing health issues related to obesity.

Common Dumbbell Pullover Mistakes to Avoid

Optimize the benefits of dumbbell pullovers by avoiding these mistakes.

Dropping the Glutes

Some weightlifters do dumbbell pullovers with their lower body in a squat-like position for a deeper muscle stretch. However, this technique also puts more pressure on the lower back, so it is not recommended.

To avoid back pain and maximize muscle and strength gains, it is suggested to keep your glutes tight during the exercise. This also provides an added benefit of working out your glutes.

Rushing the Movement

When it comes to performing dumbbell pullovers, it's crucial that you avoid just going through the motions and letting momentum take over. Take the time to move slowly, with a focus on activating the specific muscle group you're targeting, and maintaining proper form.

Rushing through this exercise can actually reduce muscle activation and increase your risk of injury. To get the most out of your workout, aim to move through the motion slowly, taking around 3 to 4 seconds to lower the weight, and 2 seconds to bring it back up. Your body will thank you for putting in the extra effort.

Core not Engaged

When performing this exercise, engaging your core muscles will assist in maintaining proper posture, prevent any awkward movements that may result in injury, and enhance the stretch in your chest and back muscles.

Although it is possible to solely rely on your glutes to support your weight, it will not be as effective and may lead to early fatigue. Combining the activation of your glutes and core is the optimal way to stabilize yourself during this exercise.

Unequal Extension

You might notice that one arm extends further over your head or moves faster than the other if you have greater flexibility or strength on one side of your body. It's better to focus on moving both arms at the same time.

Too Tight Grip of the Dumbbell

There's no need to grip the dumbbell tightly. It's common to hold on to the dumbbell tightly and prevent it from hanging as you lower it. However, doing so can activate your wrist flexors unnecessarily and lead to pain, restricted movement, and increased fatigue.

Instead, let the dumbbell hang from your hands while bringing it down. It should be almost resting on your hands, rather than you actually grasping it. If the dumbbell is tilting during the exercise, it means you're gripping it too tightly.

Flaring or Bending the Elbows

When performing dumbbell pullovers, it's important to keep straight arms. While it's not necessary to completely lock out your elbows, avoid bending or flaring them as much as possible.

Using a Too-Heavy Dumbbell

One of the most common mistakes people make while weightlifting is using a weight that is too heavy for them. This mistake is almost as bad as having an incorrect form. It is highly recommended to start with a lighter weight than you believe you can handle.

The reason behind this is simple. If you lift a weight that is too heavy, it can lead to serious consequences. Firstly, you risk losing control of the weight, which can be dangerous if you're holding it above your face.

Secondly, you might struggle to lift the weight from an extended position without compromising your form. This could cause you to arch your back or drop your glutes, which can result in an injury. The weight could cause you to move out of a normal range of motion and wrench your shoulder joints. It can lead to serious shoulder injuries that may even require surgery to fix.

In addition, if you don't lift the weight correctly, you won't get the full muscle-working effect of the movement.

Wrist Flexion or Rotation

Make sure to keep your palms facing each other throughout the entire movement and keep your wrists strong but your hands relaxed. If you notice your wrists starting to flop and your palms facing up, it could mean the weight you're using is too heavy. Try decreasing the weight so that your lower arm stays aligned.

Conclusion

Dumbbell pullovers are an excellent exercise to add to your strength training workout routine. Done with the proper form, dumbbell pullovers, as with deadlifts, pull-ups, lat pulldowns, bench presses, and other pullover variations, can be a great addition to any fitness plan. They can be used as part of a full-body workout, as an isolated chest exercise, back workout, or to target the upper arms and shoulder muscles.

The benefits of dumbbell pullovers are numerous, including improved upper back and shoulder strength, increased flexibility, and better posture. Take the time to learn the correct form and reap the rewards of this great exercise.