Wide Grip Decline Barbell Pullover
How to do the wide grip decline barbell pullover
- Lie on a decline bench with your feet higher than your head and your feet firmly on the ground.
- Grasp the barbell with an extra wide grip (your hands near the plates) and starting at you’re your upper thighs raise the barbell in an arc over your head towards the floor.
- Slowly return the barbell to starting position on your thighs.
- Repeat.
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 deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range; the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement.
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 bench fixes the torso angle and gives you something to drive against, which is what lets the load go up without your position wandering.
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.
Every exercise using:BenchBarbell
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Alternating Floor Presskettlebell
- Around The Worldsdumbbell
- Bench Press - With Bandsband
- Bodyweight Flyese-z curl bar
- Bosu Ball Push Upexercise ball
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 22 are listed at intermediate 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.