Muscles worked
The band pullover trains your lats by sweeping your arms in an arc from head height down towards your hips. The teres major, the back of your shoulders and the long head of your triceps, which crosses the shoulder joint, help out. With your elbows fixed, your biceps do very little, and many people feel their lats more clearly here than in a row. The band is heaviest when your hands reach your hips, the position in which your lats are most contracted.
Common mistakes
- Hinging at the hips to get your hands down. It is tempting to bend forward when the band gets heavy. Set your lean before you start and hold it, so only your arms move.
- Your ribs flare when your arms are up. At the top, your lower back wants to arch to buy your shoulders more range. Brace your abs, keep your ribs down and start the pull from where your shoulders reach on their own.
- Your hands travel behind your hips. The last bit past your hips adds little for your lats, and your shoulders tend to roll forward there. Turn at your hips.
Variations and alternatives
- The straight arm pulldown gives the same movement on a cable, with even resistance through the whole arc.
- The dumbbell pullover is done lying on a bench and loads your lats most in the stretched position overhead, where the band is at its lightest.
- The band lat pulldown lets your elbows bend, so your biceps join in and you can handle a stiffer band.
Sets and reps
As an isolation exercise, the band pullover suits high reps, and 12 to 20 reps over 2 to 3 sets works for most people. It works first in a back session, to wake your lats up before rows, or last, when your arms are tired but your back is not. The guide to sets and reps helps if you are unsure how to plan it.
Pause for a second with your hands at your hips and let the band take two or three seconds to return. When that gets easy, take a step back from the anchor or switch to a stiffer band. That is progressive overload, even if you rarely know exactly how heavy the band is.