Suspension pullover
Lean back on the straps with straight arms overhead, then pull them down to your hips to stand up. Lat work with no bar to hang from.
TrainsLats
NeedsSuspension trainer
The movement
3 stages
Arms overhead
01 Arms overhead
Stand facing away from the anchor and lean forward with arms straight overhead.
02 Hands in front
Keep the arms straight as they travel through the middle of the arc.
03 Hands to the thighs
Keep the elbows locked and pull the hands down to the front of the thighs.
How to do it
Setup
- Set the handles to about chest height.
- Stand facing away from the anchor and take a handle in each hand.
- Walk your feet back and lean forward with your arms straight overhead until your body is one straight line.
Execution
- Keeping your arms straight, pull your hands down in an arc toward the front of your thighs.
- Let the movement bring your body up toward standing.
- Return by letting your arms travel back overhead until you are leaning forward again.
BreathingExhale as you pull your arms down, inhale as they travel back overhead.
Getting it right
Form cues
- Keep elbows locked. Bending them shifts the work away from the lats.
- Squeeze your glutes and brace your core to move as one rigid line.
Common mistakes
- Bending the elbows to make the rep easier, which moves the work to the triceps.
- Letting the hips sag or arching the lower back, which turns the set into a lower-back stressor.
- Walking the feet too far back on the first attempt, which makes the fully extended position impossible to return from.
Worth knowing
- The load comes entirely from how far you lean, and a slip drops you forward. Check the anchor takes your full weight before leaning, and start with your feet far from the anchor so the first sets are easy.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
The lats run from your upper arm down to your lower back, and one of their jobs is pulling a straight arm down from overhead. A pull-up trains that with the elbow bending as well, so the arms and upper back share the work. A pullover takes the elbow out of it, and what is left is close to the lats on their own.
The reason this movement is in the library is availability. The other pullovers need a bench and a dumbbell, and the other straight-arm pulldowns need a band or a cable. A suspension trainer hung from a door or a beam covers the same pattern, and it is the only vertical pull a strap setup can produce, since there is nothing rigid to hang from.
You set the difficulty with your feet. Walking them forward flattens your body, puts more of your weight on the straps and makes the rep much harder. Small changes matter more than they look, so move your feet a few inches at a time and expect the difference to be large. This is also how you progress, because there is no weight to add.
Straight arms are the whole exercise, and they are the first thing to go. Once your elbows bend the movement turns into an inclined row, which is a good exercise but not this one. When you cannot hold the lockout anymore, walk your feet back and finish the set at an easier angle rather than pushing through with bent arms.