Time for this week’s Move of the Week post!
Move of the Week: Dumbbell Pullovers
This exercise works your chest, but the shoulders are also doing a lot of work to stabilize all your muscles throughout.
Step 1
Lie upper back on a stability ball. This can also be done by lying the upper back perpendicular on a bench. Flex your hips slightly. Grasp one dumbbell with both hands and hold it over your chest with your elbows slightly bent.
Step 2
Keeping your elbows slightly bent throughout the movement, lower the dumbbell over and beyond your head. Do this until your upper arms are in line with your torso. Make sure you do not drop the hips down.
*Note: In the above picture my arms are on the way down – I’m almost there! Everyone will have a slightly different range of motion here depending on shoulder flexibility.
Step 3
Squeeze, then pull the dumbbell back up and over your chest. That’s one rep.
Go for 10-12 reps and repeat for 2-3 sets to start, then build from there. Just be careful not to confuse this move with a triceps extension! I see that mistake a lot.
One of my favorite workouts that uses this exercise is one I did on Saturday for upper body work, from BBB. The workout is composed of three different supersets. Each superset consists of one “pre-exhaustion” exercise and one “main strength” exercise. Basically you do the first move in each superset for as long as you can until you are fatigued, then you do 12 reps of the main strength exercise. Then repeat for a total of two times before moving on to the next superset.
Pre-Exhaustion / Main Strength Upper Body Supersets
Superset 1
- Pushups
- Incline Dumbbell Chest Press on Stability Ball
Superset 2
- Inverted Row
- Dumbbell Pullovers
Superset 3
- Pulsing Lateral Raises
- Overhead Shoulder Presses
This workout doesn’t take very long (I would say 20-30 minutes tops), but it’s a good one to pair with cardio on a day you don’t feel like doing a long cardio sesh. I’m always sore after this one too, and it’s a good one to keep in your back pocket for monitoring progress with increasing your weights.
Ever done dumbbell pullovers before?
If not, it’s a different way to switch up your chest exercises! Go try it!