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I think I got the right name for them, I a, talking about when you use a ez curl bar and you put it on the ground and then you lay on a bench, reach behind your head with your arms and grab the bar, then lift the bar up over your face to your lower chest.
Is this a good one to do?
I use a dumbell,, much easier IMO. And they work great if you can get a feel for them. What they do is they add thickness to your chest, they expand your rib cage and therefore make your upper body thicker, I do them every other chest workout, but make sure you go as heavy as possible and pull with your chest not your lats or triceps.
Yah, form is everything on these. Way to easy to cheat. I do em with a dumbell too.
Well I just tried them in the gym and I didn't like them. I used a barbell ez curl bar and I felt that it put too much strain on my shoulders. Is this a good mass builder like dips?
I couldnt stand doing them at first, it felt awkward and it didnt really work at all but once i got a feel for them i loved doing them, like i said earlier it gives your chest thickness by expanding yoru rib cage. Try them with a dumbell next time, personally there is no way i could do them with an ez culrl bar it would be just to unccomfortable.
If you can find the old Nautilus pullover or one of the newer HS, Cybex, etc., it makes the exercize a lot safer too. Pullovers are one of the only non-compound movements that I think are worth a ****. The only way to work the back without involving the biceps as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Testsubject
There has never once been any proof that they expand your rib cage.. There have even been studies conducted and no ones rib cage has ever been measured to have expanded because of pullovers... They do serve a purpose and they can help with ROM and help with upper body development.. to say that they expand the chest is only propogating rumor..not science...
it stretches muscles around the rib cage. It helps separate rib from rib I dont know about making it bigger but i see all BBs doing it and there ribs look huge
Quote:
Originally Posted by phreezer
LM go with this reply. Or read Arnies autobiography, Arnie maintains that they can not stretch your ribcage. But he does say that up to the age of 21 they MAY (only may) widen the cartiledge between your ribs. But he does say that he's never seen any evidence of this happening.
Also guys, try doing pullovers on your back day and see what happens ;) used with moderate weight their a fantastic pre-exhaust exercise for your lats. As I'm sure we all know, most people's biceps fail before their much bigger and stronger lats. Its hard to isolate your lats to stop this happening. But pullovers will do it, you can also use a lat pulldown machine for the same exercise, its more concentrated. You stand far enough back from the machine so that you can lean forward from your waste 45% and pull the bar to your waist or quads. If your use too heavy a weight it will start to hit your upper chest and anterior delts, try it in the 15-20 rep range and feel the burn.
Personally i have found them to be quite useful, they seemed to give me a really full look right up past my collarbones. i don't do them now but have done in the past. ( i work 12.5 hr shifts so my workouts are short heavy and intense with mainly only compound exercises)
I always used a dumbell to do them, and i found that with straight arms, and concentrating and breathing they work the chest pretty well, whilst with slightly bent arms they seem to work your lats and a good stretch
The PRIMARY muscle involved in pull overs is the LATS...not PECS.... liek bouncer said good back exercise horrid chest exercise.. if you do them on chest day consider it that you just did a back exercise on chest day..
don't beleive me? next time your at the gym have some one do them (with good form) on the lift phase put your hands on his pecs (or she :D ) , then place your hands on there lats... you will have your answer right there..
I doubt they expand your ribs because your ribs are not anchored enough to stetch any part of them.. and also when you stretch do your arms get longer? no. Arms are made of the same bone and cartilage as yoru ribs.
hope this helps
Pullovers do expand your ribcage, I know from firsthand experience. I did them from age 16 to 23 and my ribcage went from 38" to 50". You have to take in as a deep a breath as you can then hold it until you complete the rep. Also, I know they used to do breathing squats before each set of pullovers to strengthen the diaphram. If you do them right you can just about feel the cartilage stretching when you do pullovers.
Pullovers don't necessarily make your chest much wider, but they will give you a high chest, which is good for powerlifting.
powrlftr...... i have to disagree..... the expansion in your chest from age 16-23 was from growing. Bones grow in witdth and in length during puberty, including the rib cage. You may not be getting any taller, but your chest may still expand in puberty especially towards the end.
by giving a high chest are you suggesting it raises your chest or builds your upper chest?
It can not raise your chest. Muscles are attached to tendons which are attached to bones at a VERY specific location. The ONLY way a tendon can attach to a different location is if it is complelty torn and your lucky and it gets attached to another place on the bone. Therefore the pull over can not raise the muscle anatomically on the body.
And if your saying that pull overs increase the size of the upper chest, I will disagree again. They do not target the chest much and they especially do not target the upper chest.
I am not sure if your saying strengthening your diaphram will expand your rib cage. It will not. The diaphram is located on the bottom of your rib cage just below your lungs. Imagine a cup being your rib cage, then place a sheet of saran wrap over the opening of the cup.. now flip the cup upside down so the mouth with the saran wrap is on the bottm.. The saran wrap would be your diaphram.. so you can see theres no way the diaphram strength would have any connection with expanding your chest.
I do not even think the diaprahm is a mucsle... it has muscles attached to it.. When these muscles contract it pulls your diaphram down which inflates the lungs. So strengthening the muscles attached to the diaphram woudl probably allow you to beath eaiser when exercising hard..
bio lesson for the day!
What I am saying is that by having a stronger diaphram you can inhale more air and thereby stretch your costal cartilage better.
You can disagree with me if you'd like, but how do you explain that during a 3 month period when I was 20 my chest measurement increased by 6 inches?
I only put on about 10 lbs of bodyweight during that time too. You can't tell me that I hit a growth spurt at the same time I was doing pullovers :)
I'm pretty sure the diaphram is muscle.
By saying it gives you a high chest I mean that the cartilage that connects the sternum to the ribs become stretched and it makes your ribcage larger when looked at from the side. You could say your chest sticks out more.