Barbell Pullover
lats
What moves the load, and what it costs
3.5MET
Lats is the prime mover, with the chest, triceps assisting. Allows more load than a dumbbell but with less freedom at the shoulder. Keep it light and treat the stretch as the point of the exercise.
Cue: Use an EZ or straight bar with a shoulder-width grip and stop the moment the lower back wants to arch.
మూలం·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·FILED UNDER WEIGHTS, 8–15 REPS·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
SHARED AXIS · SEVEN VALUES FROM ONE TABLE · HIGHLIGHTED ROW IS THIS MOVEMENT
The compendium files barbell pullover under a category, not a lift. Read the ladder as position, not precision: this is heavier work than sitting quietly by a factor of 3.5, and middling for conditioning work.
Turning that MET value into a real energy cost
- Map the movement to a published category. The compendium measures categories of conditioning work, never individual lifts, so barbell pullover is filed under Resistance training (weight lifting), multiple exercises, 8–15 repetitions at varied resistance.
- Take the category's MET value — 3.5. One MET is the cost of sitting quietly, so this is 3.5 times resting metabolism.
- Multiply by 3.5 to get millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute, the unit the MET is actually defined in.
- Multiply by your bodyweight in kilograms and divide by 200. The result is kilocalories per minute of work.
- Count working minutes only. Under load, not under the roof — a set of eight is about 25 seconds of the hour you were there.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × body mass (kg) ÷ 200 Barbell Pullover: 3.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 4.29 kcal/min
మూలం·ACSM metabolic equation + 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REFERENCE BODY MASS 70 KG·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
What is actually doing the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| Latsలాటిసిమస్ డోర్సి | Prime mover | పైచేతిని కిందికి, వెనక్కి పక్కటెముకల వైపు లాగుతుంది (భుజం ఎక్స్టెన్షన్ మరియు అడక్షన్) మరియు దానిని లోపలివైపు తిప్పుతుంది. ప్రతి పుల్-అప్ మరియు పుల్డౌన్లో ఇదే ప్రధాన కండరం. |
| ChestPectoralis major | Synergist / stabiliser | Brings the upper arm across the body and forward (shoulder horizontal adduction and flexion). The clavicular head contributes more when the arm travels up and in; the sternal head when it travels down and in. |
| TricepsTriceps brachii | Synergist / stabiliser | Straightens the elbow. The long head also crosses the shoulder, so it is stretched and loaded hardest with the arm overhead. |
The prime mover produces the movement against the resistance; synergists assist and stabilisers hold a joint still without moving it. An exercise trains the whole muscle it loads — there is no way to work only part of a muscle, and no exercise removes fat from the area around it.
Set up, then earn the rep
Barbell, Bench. Every rep should look like the first one. The moment it stops looking like the first one, the set is finished.
PATTERN · ISOLATION
- Take the bar with straight or slightly bent arms directly over your chest.
- Brace the trunk hard and keep the ribs pulled down — this is where the movement goes wrong.
- Use an EZ or straight bar with a shoulder-width grip and stop the moment the lower back wants to arch.
- Let the arms travel back over your head in an arc until you feel a stretch through the lats and along the ribs.
- Pull back to the start using the lats, not the arms, keeping the same elbow angle throughout.
- Keep the lower back flat on the bench for every rep.
Where this one breaks down
Not theory. These are the faults you correct on a gym floor, and the correction that actually works.
Arching the lower back as the arms go overhead.
The range you gain comes from the spine, not the shoulder. Ribs down, and stop where the position stops.
Turning it into a triceps extension.
If the elbows bend and straighten, you are training the arms. Fix the elbow angle.
Chasing depth with heavy weight.
The stretched position is where the shoulder is least stable. Light and controlled beats deep and loaded.
Regress it, or progress it
Regress — earn it first
Progress — the next demand
This sits at the top of its progression here. Add load, add range, slow the tempo or go single-limb before you go looking for a new exercise.
Prescription: load, reps, rest
Read off the goal, then hold the technique constant as the load climbs. Derived from the movement's mechanics, not invented for this page: a single-joint movement does its best work in moderate to high reps — very low reps load the joint before the muscle.
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–4 | 6–10 | 2 min | Single-joint work responds poorly to very low reps — the joint gets the load before the muscle does. |
| Muscle size | 3–4 | 10–15 | 60–90 sec | This is where isolation work earns its place: cheap volume for one muscle, little systemic fatigue. |
| Endurance / fat loss | 2–3 | 15–25 | 30–45 sec | High reps here are genuinely useful — the load is small enough that form survives the fatigue. |
| First month | 2 | 12–15 | 60 సెక | Light. Isolation work is for adding volume later, not for building a base. |
Time under load, in kilocalories
Read these as minutes of work, not minutes in the building. A set of eight takes about twenty-five seconds; the rest of the hour is rest, chalk and queueing.
Mapped category: Resistance training (weight lifting), multiple exercises, 8–15 repetitions at varied resistance — 3.5 MET. That is the published category this movement is filed under, not a measurement of this specific lift.
Worked at 3.5 MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 = 4.29 kcal per working minute for a 70 kg adult. Scale it by your own bodyweight; the equation is linear. The full activity dataset lives at BurnLab.
మూలం·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·CATEGORY VALUE, NOT A PER-EXERCISE MEASUREMENT·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
If the rack is taken
Substitutes train the same prime mover through the same pattern with different kit. Computed from the muscle and pattern data on this card, not hand-picked to fill a grid.
Where it sits in a week
One movement is not a programme. The twelve templates put these in order, including 6 that need no gym at all.
The questions that come up on the floor
What muscles does the barbell pullover work?
Barbell Pullover is a single-joint isolation movement in which the lats is the prime mover, assisted by the chest, triceps. Pulls the upper arm down and back towards the ribs (shoulder extension and adduction) and rotates it inwards. It is the prime mover in every pull-up and pulldown.
Is the barbell pullover good for beginners?
Not on day one, but it is reachable within a few weeks. It rates 3 out of 5 for technical demand. Work up through the easier versions listed on this page first, starting with the machine pullover.
What can I do instead of the barbell pullover at home?
The dumbbell pullover is the nearest home-friendly version. Where a bodyweight substitute does not exist, progress by slowing the tempo and using single-limb versions instead of adding load.
How many sets and reps of the barbell pullover should I do?
For muscle size, 3–4 sets of 10–15 with 60–90 sec rest. For strength, 3–4 sets of 6–10 with 2 min rest. In your first month, 2 sets of 12–15, stopping well short of failure. Total weekly hard sets per muscle group matters more than the exact rep number in any of these ranges.
Does the barbell pullover burn fat from the lats?
No. No exercise removes fat from the area it trains — spot reduction has been tested repeatedly and does not happen. Training the lats builds the muscle underneath; where body fat is lost from is decided by an overall calorie deficit and by your genetics, not by which exercise you chose.
Muscle roles follow standard kinesiology references and are described by joint action rather than by gym convention — see how this site is built. Energy figures are derived from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Every reference is named and dated on the sources page. General information only — not medical or coaching advice. Load, form and progression should be adjusted to your own experience and any injury history. When in doubt, get coached in person.
మూలం·Published exercise references·MUSCLE ROLES ASSIGNED BY JOINT ACTION·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
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