For YEARS I've been trying to come up with a good rigged-up analog for the Nautilus Pullover Machine using common gym equipment.
That machine is one of THE gold standards for lat training. I found a gym that had that machine one time 30 years ago and I absolutely LOVED it. It's like finding a unicorn now, though.
This setup I think gets you about 80-90% of the way to a Nautilus Pullover. And while it LOOKS complicated, once you break it down (I'll give you full setup instructions in the second half of the video), it's actually not that bad.
Essentially, you're doing a low pulley decline bench pullover to start (close, overhand grip). This gets you a great stretch on the lats and excellent tension in the first half of the movement.
However, when your upper arms are about 90 degrees and are starting to come over and down, that is where the cable tension drops off substantially.
So I came up with an effective way to get extra tension (and in the right direction!) starting at about that halfway point.
The tension has to increase as you bring the elbows down and it has to come from above and down.
This is the really cool and kind of insane part that took some experimentation...
To do this, I clipped a carabiner onto the cable at the top of the weight stack trolley.
Then I looped a standard thin 42" band in half through that carabiner.
Then I looped the two band ends around a cable handle (either straight or cambered is fine) so they're securely attached. This setup keeps the loading even.
So this means as you're doing the pullover and the cable trolly goes up, the band attachment ALSO goes up and DYNAMICALLY CREATES that downward angle that we need. It also stretches more and more, which nicely matches the strength curve of the pullover.
It's literally awesome.
I show you 3 methods of doing the exercise in the video...
1. Contraction focused
2. Two-phase (straight arm pulldown to pullover)
3. Heavier, with more power.
This setup works If you try it, let me know how it goes!
Another great lat exercise is the Low Pulley Prone Pulldown
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