This 61-Year-Old Is in the Shape of His Life – and Credits This Exercise with Transforming His Chest

A stronger chest isn't built through endless bench pressing and cable flys alone. Sometimes, adding a less obvious movement to your routine can provide a completely different stimulus.

At 61, Ricky Dietrich claims he's in the best shape of his life, and one exercise he credits with helping build his chest is the incline cable pullover.

'This is one of the only exercises I owe my lower chest growth to,' he says. 'It keeps constant tension through the entire rep, lets me push close to failure safely, and has been one of the biggest contributors to building a fuller lower chest.'

While Dietrich describes it as a lower-chest exercise, pullovers aren't quite that simple. Depending on your setup and technique, both your chest and lats can contribute to the movement, with small adjustments changing where you feel the exercise most.

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The incline cable pullover is a variation of the classic dumbbell pullover, a movement famously championed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Golden Era contemporaries.

Dietrich's version swaps the dumbbell for a cable machine and performs the movement on an incline bench. The cable keeps tension on the working muscles throughout more of the range of motion, rather than allowing the resistance to drop away at certain points.

Technique matters, particularly if you want to bias the chest rather than allowing your lats to dominate.

Dietrich recommends beginning with your arms overhead, keeping them relatively close together and maintaining a proud chest as you pull the cable forwards. Rather than continuing until your hands reach your hips, stop while your arms are still roughly 45 degrees from your torso, squeezing your pecs hard.

Allowing your elbows to flare and driving them further towards your sides can shift more of the work towards your lats. Using a lighter load should also make it easier to control the movement and concentrate on the muscles you're trying to target.

Think of the incline cable pullover as an accessory rather than a replacement for your presses and flys. But if your chest training has become stale, it could provide a useful new angle.

• Set a bench to an incline of around 30-45 degrees and position it in front of a cable machine, facing away from the stack.
• Set the pulley to its highest position and attach a cable strap or suitable handle. Reach overhead and take hold of the attachment with both hands.
• Keep your arms relatively close together and your chest lifted.
• With a slight bend in your elbows, pull the cable forwards in an arc, focusing on squeezing your pecs as your arms move towards your torso.
• Stop before your hands reach your hips, keeping tension through your chest rather than allowing your elbows to flare out.
• Slowly reverse the movement until your arms are overhead and you feel a comfortable stretch through your chest, then repeat.

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