The Most Under-Appreciated Exercise/Machine
In 1971, Arthur Jones invented the first Nautilus exercise machine, the Pullover, and sold it to an attorney in Tallahassee. Nicknamed, “The upper body squat” (the squat was viewed as the most valuable lower body exercise, and the pullover was about to become the most valuable upper body exercise), the Pullover represented a breakthrough in thinking. The Pullover, designed to train the muscles of the upper back (the latissimus dorsi) improved on the limitation of conventional upper back exercises. Traditionally, to train our upper back muscles, we performed pulling movements such as seated rows, pull-downs, and chin-ups. These are effective exercises, but they all possess a common limitation: you are targeting the upper back muscles but the weaker muscles of your biceps and forearms serve as a weak link. This meant, when you reached muscle failure, you were truly at failure because of your forearms and your biceps, not your powerful upper back muscles.
Jones brilliantly designed the pullover to place the resistance on the back of your upper arm. The trainee drives the elbows down on a pad and thus, the biceps and forearms are uninvolved and the upper back receives the direct work. The Nautilus Pullover was and is a game changer. It represented the first real effort to connect biomechanics (the physics of human movement) to our exercise. The upper back muscles are large and have the greatest ability to increase in size. Just as important, because they are large, when we stress them with direct exercise, we burn more calories, receive a greater cardio-metabolic benefit, and utilize more glycogen (a great way to combat Type 2 Diabetes). For almost any benefit of strength training, the Pullover delivers. Pullovers were commonplace in every YMCA, gym, and health club since the early 1970s. When I was a strength and conditioning coach in the NFL, we had two different pullovers that every player trained on.
To be clear, the Pullover is the king or queen of upper body exercises. But it sure isn’t very popular today. Over the past five years, I’ve visited over 100 health clubs and gyms on five continents, and I rarely see a pullover (and if I do, it’s a gym operated by a close colleague who shares our affinity for the Pullover). Exercise and fitness clubs are largely fad-driven, and apparently, the Pullover has fallen out of fashion.
Today, we have Pullovers in all of our locations (and we always will). Some are Nautilus (designed by Arthur Jones), some are MedX (Also designed by Arthur Jones), and others are Imagine Strength (designed by the lead engineer who worked for Arthur Jones for over 30 years).
At Discover Strength, we like to say that there really are no magical exercises or magical machines. “It’s not the tool, but how the tool is used.” And this is true. But the Pullover is the closest thing to a magical machine that I’ve ever seen.
Take home message: Get excited about your next set on the Pullover.