Machine Pullover
The machine pullover is a seated movement where you press padded arms down in an arc from overhead to your hips. It isolates the lats through shoulder extension, with some chest help. Use it to train the lats without your biceps or grip giving out first, which pulldowns can't avoid.
Muscles worked
The machine pullover trains the lats, with chest helping.
Weekly sets for lats
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for lats, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the machine pullover
- 01Set the seat so your shoulder joints line up with the machine's pivot point.
- 02Fasten the seatbelt if there is one and sit with your back flat on the pad.
- 03Place your elbows or upper arms against the pads with your hands resting lightly on the bar.
- 04Drive your elbows down in an arc until the bar reaches your stomach or hips.
- 05Return slowly overhead until your lats are fully stretched, then repeat.
Coaching cues
- Push with the elbows, relax the hands
- Big arc, shoulders down
- Feel the stretch under your armpits
Common mistakes
- Misaligning your shoulders with the pivot makes the arc feel jammed, so adjust the seat until both line up.
- Gripping hard and pulling with the hands drags the biceps in, so keep your hands loose and push with your elbows.
- Arching your lower back at the top fakes extra range, so keep your ribs down and back flat.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers isolation work toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Machine Pullover alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your machine pullover free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.