Pullover Machine: Muscles Worked and How to Do It

The pullover machine mostly works the muscles around the shoulder joint and the chest, with the lats helping rather than leading.

That surprises many people because the machine is often described as a lat exercise. It still earns a place in an upper-body session, as long as you know what it trains and what to pair it with.

This guide covers the muscles worked, how to do the machine in the GIF below, what the EMG research says and how to program it. If you are building a routine around machines, the upper body machine guide is a good companion.

Pullover Machine Muscles Worked

Almost all the EMG research (muscle activity recorded with surface electrodes) was done on free-weight pullovers. The machine moves your shoulders through a similar overhead-to-front path, but it also has you bend your elbows, so treat the findings as a guide to this exercise and not a measurement of this exact machine. Here is what the research shows:

• Rear shoulder and infraspinatus: across ten muscles and three barbell pullover variations, the posterior deltoid and infraspinatus were the most active, at roughly half of their activity in a maximal repetition (Pezarat-Correia et al., 2020).
• Front shoulder (anterior deltoid): activity was moderate in the standard barbell pullover and strong in the bent-arm version (Bull et al., 2007).
• Chest (pectoralis major): the barbell pullover emphasised the pecs more than the lats (Marchetti and Uchida, 2011). Activity in the upper (clavicular) part of the chest ranged from weak to moderate (Bull et al., 2007).
• Lats (latissimus dorsi): they help pull the upper arm down and back from overhead, with the teres major assisting. A 2026 review of lat EMG across common pulling exercises concluded that the pullover appears to favour the pecs rather than target the lats selectively (Di Fonza et al., 2026).
• Serratus anterior and triceps long head: both were recorded in the same measurements as the rear shoulder, and both were less active than it.

Which Pullover Machine Is This?

The machine in the diagram and GIF is a reclined, plate-loaded design: you hold a curved bar overhead and pull it forward and down to your chest.

Some other pullover machines, often called lever or Nautilus-style pullovers, have pads for the backs of your upper arms, and you drive your elbows down towards your hips instead. The set-up differs between the two, so check the instructions on the machine you are using.

How to Do the Pullover Machine

1. Set the seat so you can sit back against the pad with your feet flat on the floor and reach the bar overhead. Fasten the seat belt if the machine has one.
2. Take the bar with both hands and let it travel back overhead until you feel a stretch through your chest and the sides of your torso. Do not force it.
3. Keeping your back on the pad, pull the bar forward and down in an arc, bending your elbows as it comes towards you.
4. Stop when the bar is in front of your chest. Breathe out as you pull.
5. Pause briefly, then let the bar travel back overhead along the same arc, breathing in, until you feel the stretch again.
6. Repeat for your planned reps, keeping the return slow and controlled.

Video demonstration from Renaissance Periodization:

Form Tips

• Keep your back and hips on the pad. Arching to move the bar further changes the exercise and can strain your lower back.
• Go only as far back as feels comfortable in your shoulders. Shoulder angle changes how much force you can produce and how active each muscle is (Teixeira et al., 2022), so forcing extra range or cutting it short changes what the exercise trains.
• Use a weight you can control through the whole arc. If you need to jerk the bar to start the pull, it is too heavy.
• Keep your shoulders down away from your ears instead of shrugging as you pull.
• Lower under control instead of letting the plates pull your arms back overhead.

Lats or Chest? What the Pullover Machine Really Trains

Pullovers have a reputation as a lat builder, and plenty of gym guides describe the machine that way. The EMG research tells a different story. In the barbell pullover the chest was emphasised over the lats, and the rear shoulder muscles were the most active of the ten muscles recorded. Changing grip width (100% versus 150% of shoulder width) or lying on a Swiss ball instead of a bench did not change those results.

That means grip width is probably not a reliable way to shift the work between your lats and chest on the machine either, so pick the grip that feels comfortable. If lat growth is your main goal, keep pulldowns and rows as your main lat work and treat the pullover machine as an extra for the shoulders and chest that also involves the lats. The lat exercise guide covers the main options.

The machine and its elbow bend make it different from a barbell pullover, so take this split as a reasonable expectation and not a measured result. EMG also shows how active a muscle is during a rep rather than how much it will grow, so use it as a guide and not a guarantee.

Pullover Machine Sets and Reps

The American College of Sports Medicine’s 2026 position stand reviewed the resistance-training research (Currier et al., 2026). For muscle growth it reported:

• At least 10 sets per muscle group per week produced more growth than lower volumes. A meta-regression cited in the position stand showed diminishing returns beyond roughly 18 to 20 weekly sets, and the authors note the exact number cannot be pinned down.
• Growth did not differ between light and heavy loads (30% to 100% of your one-rep max), and training to failure was not necessary.
• With weekly volume equal, training a muscle once a week or more than five times a week gave similar growth.

For the pullover machine, a practical starting point is 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 15 reps, once or twice a week, counted towards your weekly chest and shoulder volume. When you can finish every set at the top of the rep range with a controlled stretch, add a little weight.

Some lifters use the pullover to pre-exhaust their lats before rows. Research on this approach in untrained adults showed it did not increase lat activity during the row, although it did fatigue the rear shoulder more (Fujita et al., 2022). Placing it after your main chest or back exercises is a simpler option. Our chest and back workout and chest and shoulder workout show where it can fit.

Pullover Machine Alternatives

• For the lats: the cable row, one-arm dumbbell row and the other moves in the lat exercise guide.
• For the rear shoulder: rear delt exercises.
• For the chest: inner chest exercises.
• Without a machine: lat exercises at home or resistance band lat exercises.

Pullover Machine FAQ

What muscles does the pullover machine work?

The rear shoulder muscles (posterior deltoid and infraspinatus) and the front shoulder are clearly involved, the chest is emphasised over the lats, and the lats assist the pull. The serratus anterior and triceps long head are also involved.

Does the pullover machine work the lats or the chest?

Both, but in the research on the barbell pullover the chest was favoured over the lats. Use pulldowns and rows as your main lat exercises.

How many sets and reps should I do?

Start with 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 15 reps once or twice a week, and count them towards your weekly chest and shoulder volume.

Is the pullover machine safe for shoulders?

The arms-overhead start position loads the shoulder in a stretched position, so go only as far back as feels comfortable. If you feel pain at the top of the rep, shorten the range or pick another exercise, and see a clinician if it continues.

References

1. Currier BS, D’Souza AC, Singh MAF, et al. American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand. Resistance training prescription for muscle function, hypertrophy, and physical performance in healthy adults: an overview of reviews. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2026;58(4):851-872. PubMed
2. Marchetti PH, Uchida MC. Effects of the pullover exercise on the pectoralis major and latissimus dorsi muscles as evaluated by EMG. J Appl Biomech. 2011;27(4):380-384. PubMed
3. Pezarat-Correia PR, Medeiros PR, Fernandes OJ, Vaz JR, Silva L, Moraes AC. Comparison of shoulder and trunk muscle activation between different pullover exercises. Rev Andal Med Deporte. 2020;13(3):127-133. DOI
4. Bull ML, Ferreira MI, Vitti M. Electromyographic validation of the deltoideus (anterior portion) and pectoralis major (clavicular portion) muscles in pull-over exercises. Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol. 2007;47(7-8):329-335. PubMed
5. Di Fonza D, Di Claudio G, Colantuono G, et al. Electromyographic analysis of latissimus dorsi activation during common resistance training exercises: a narrative review. J Funct Morphol Kinesiol. 2026;11(3):315. PubMed
6. Teixeira LFM, Gomes WA, da Silva JJ, Magalhaes RA, Marchetti PH. Differences between pullover and pulldown exercises on maximal isometric force and myoelectric activity in recreationally trained men. Int J Exerc Sci. 2022;15(4):797-807. PubMed
7. Fujita RA, Silva NRS, Bedo BLS, Gomes MM. The pre-exhaustion method does not increase muscle activity in target muscle during strength training in untrained individuals. J Hum Kinet. 2022;82:17-26. PubMed