maratoolBarbell Front Raise and Pullover
How to do the barbell front raise and pullover
- Lie on a flat bench and grasp a barbell using a medium grip (about 15” apart).
- Place the barbell on your upper thighs and lock your arms straight with a slight bend in your elbows.
- Draw your abs in and keeping your back flat on the bench, raise your arms up in an arc over and behind your head (as if you were performing a reverse pullover).
- Slowly return the barbell to the starting position on your thighs.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range; the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A barbell locks both hands to one bar, so neither side can drift and the load climbs in plate-sized steps. That makes it the simplest way to add weight and the least forgiving thing to bail out of.
A bench fixes the torso angle and gives you something to drive against, which is what lets the load go up without your position wandering.
Every exercise using:BarbellBench
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Bench Press - With Bandsband
- Bodyweight Flyese-z curl bar
- Bosu Ball Push Upexercise ball
- Butterflymachine
- Cable Chest Presscable
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 63 are listed at beginner level.
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.