overhead tricep pulls cable illustration

Now, keep your arms straight and pull the bar down - pulling with your lats!.

With the core engaged and shoulders down and back, set feet shoulder width apart and hinge forward slightly.

From here, grab the handle with an overhand grip (about shoulder-width apart) and take a step or two back away from the machine.

Face a cable machine with a straight bar attachment slightly higher than head height (for most, this will have the cable pulley at the top of the machine).Ok, so now that we've made that clear, here is how to do a standing cable pullover: However, and again, both the dumbbell pullover and all forms of cable pullovers that we are going to cover involve the same motion against resistance, which is shoulder extension. To be clear, the dumbbell pullover involves the same biomechanics, which is shoulder extension, but since you are laying on your back and moving your arms from behind you and up overhead, the name pullover makes sense. The first and main version of the cable pullover that we are going to teach you doesn't actually involve you pulling anything over your head from behind, you are simply pulling down from overhead while keeping your arms straight. The term “pullover” can be deceiving as well, especially when it comes to a cable machine. How to do a Standing Cable PulloverĪ cable pullover can be a confusing exercise if you google it, you might find all sorts of images with people performing various types of pullovers. But for now, we are going to stick with the standard standing cable pullover using a straight bar. While the above is the most common way to do a cable pullover, there are other ways that you can do it which we will teach you. In a nutshell, the cable pullover is done by standing facing a cable machine pulley (with a straight bar or rope handle attachment), putting yourself in a slight forward hinge, and then bringing your arms straight down toward your thighs while engaging the lats, pausing in this bottom position for a moment, then slowly returning your arms back up overhead. It is an isolation exercise, being that movement only acts on the shoulder joint, which targets the back, particularly the lats. In this post, we are going to break down how to do a cable pullover correctly (as well as pullovers with various pieces of equipment, if you don’t have access to a cable machine), common mistakes made while performing a cable pullover, benefits and muscles worked, alternatives to the cable pullover, and the training variables that you can aim for when including the pullovers into your lifting routine.Ī cable pullover is a movement based on shoulder extension (which means bring your arms straight down) using a cable machine.

One perfect example of this is the Cable Pullover. A cable machine can provide access to a plethora of exercises – essentially allowing you to hit each muscle group while only using one machine. If the thought of using a cable machine for anything other than chest flyes or some bicep curls and tricep pushdowns intimidates you (or you think is pointless), let this put your mind at ease – there are so many different ways to effectively utilize a cable machine for strength & hypertrophy.

Overhead tricep pulls cable illustration