Front Raise And Pullover
Also works: Lats · Shoulders · Triceps
A barbell taken in one continuous 180-degree arc from your thighs to overhead while lying on a flat bench — a front raise and a straight-arm pullover fused into one rep. It trains the shoulders, lats and serratus through a huge range with a long lever, which means the weight has to stay small.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Load an empty 20 kg bar, or a lighter fixed bar, and treat that as your working weight until the arc is smooth.
- Lie flat with your whole back and head on the bench and both feet flat on the floor.
- Take a palms-down grip roughly 35-40 cm apart — narrower than a bench press grip.
- Rest the bar on your upper thighs with arms straight and only a slight bend at the elbow, locked there for the whole rep.
- Pull your ribs down and brace your abs before the bar leaves your thighs; the overhead half will try to arch your lower back off the bench.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Inhale as the bar rises and travels overhead, exhale as it returns to your thighs. Three seconds each way; there is no fast version of this movement worth doing.
Before you load it
- The bar passes directly over your face. Use a weight you could hold overhead all day, and never do this to failure.
- Stop immediately on any pinching at the front of the shoulder. Overhead with straight arms is a demanding position and the load is not worth forcing it.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Start with an empty bar, and drop to a 10 kg fixed bar or a broomstick if your arms cannot reach parallel overhead without arching. Progress by earning range first: full arc, flat lower back, straight arms. Only then add 2.5 kg at a time, and expect the ceiling here to be far lower than on any press.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Strip it back to an empty bar or a 10 kg fixed bar. A straight-arm 180-degree arc carries roughly three times the joint torque of a bent-arm pullover at the same weight.
Brace your abs and pull the ribcage down before the first rep, and cut the overhead range where the arch begins. Bend the knees and put your feet on the bench if it keeps happening.
Fix the elbow angle at the start and reduce the load until it stays. Film one set from the side — the elbow bend is obvious on video and invisible from underneath.
Program a real press for the chest and use this for shoulder and lat range. Judge it by how far overhead you can go with a flat back, not by how much you moved.
Why bother
The bar travels almost half a circle with your arms locked straight, so the load sits about an arm's length from your shoulder for the whole rep. That lever is why a 20 kg bar can feel brutal here: the resistance arm is the longest of any upper-body movement you own.
Be honest about what it actually trains. It is listed as a chest movement, but the pecs only work near the bottom of the arc; the front delts do the raise, the lats and long head of the triceps take over overhead, and the serratus fights to keep the ribcage down. It is a loaded range-of-motion drill for the shoulder girdle, not a chest builder.
Where it fits
Late in an upper-body session, or as part of a warm-up on a light bar. Two or three sets of 10-15 with the empty bar or less. If you actually want to build chest or lats, press and row heavy first, and use this for the overhead range those lifts never visit.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
Asked and answered
Is this a chest exercise or a lat exercise?
Mostly neither, if you are honest. The pecs contribute near the bottom of the arc and the lats near the top, but neither gets enough tension in its strong range to grow much. The consistent work goes to the front delts and serratus, plus a large loaded stretch through the whole shoulder girdle. Use it for that, and build chest and lats elsewhere.
Why does the empty bar feel so heavy?
Because your arms are straight. The bar sits an arm's length from the shoulder joint, so the torque at your shoulder is several times what the same weight produces on a bench press with bent elbows. That is not weakness — it is leverage, and it is exactly why you should not chase load here.
Can I do this with dumbbells instead?
Yes, and a single dumbbell held with both hands is easier to control through the arc than a barbell. The barbell version keeps both arms in a fixed relationship, which some people find steadier overhead. Either works; the straight-arm rule and the light load rule apply to both.
My lower back comes off the bench near the top. What should I change?
Shorten the range and fix the brace. Put your feet up on the bench with knees bent to flatten the pelvis, breathe out and pull your ribs down before the rep, and go only as far overhead as you can with the lower back still touching. Arching to gain range means the movement has come from the spine, not the shoulder.