## 4 Discussion  
The strength training of the upper limbs is essential, both for sports and for the activities of daily life. In this regard, pullovers and straight-arm pulldowns are two frequently used exercises. Additionally, straight-arm pulldown exercises are sometimes performed with different grip distances. However, to date, little scientific evidence has analyzed the muscular activity of these exercises and their variants with a bar grip distance. Therefore, the main purpose of the current study was to evaluate the EMG activity of the pectoralis major (upper, middle, and lower portion), latissimus dorsi, anterior deltoid, triceps brachii, and rectus abdominis muscles during barbell pullover exercises at a 100% biacromial width and straight-arm pulldown exercises at 100% and 150% biacromial widths. The current study found that the barbell pullover exercise, at a 100% biacromial width, presented statistically higher EMG activity than the straight arm pulldown exercise at 100% and 150% biacromial widths in all the evaluated muscles except for the latissimus dorsi and the triceps brachii. Recently, [PERSON] et al. [18] reported that the pectoralis major and the latissimus dorsi muscles showed similar maximal EMG activity in both pullover and pulldown exercises. However, the differences concerning our results could be because these authors recorded the maximum voluntary isometric contractions at different angles and compared them between exercises. By contrast, in our study, the EMG activity was evaluated dynamically at 30% of the participant's body mass in both exercises. Similarly, our findings are consistent with those of [PERSON] and [PERSON] [20], who reported that the pectoralis major presented a higher activation than the latissimus dorsi during all movement cycles of a pullover exercise. However, these authors only analyzed and compared the EMG activity of the pectoralis major in the sternal portion versus the latissimus dorsi. Our results show that in addition to the EMG activity of the sternal portion of the pectoralis major, the EMG activity of the upper and lower portions and the EMG activity of the triceps brachii and rectus abdominis were also significantly higher than that of the latissimus dorsi. Furthermore, it was observed that in the pullover exercise and in the straight arm pulldown at 100% and 150% biacromial widths, the EMG activity was significantly greater in the concentric phase than in the eccentric phase in all the evaluated muscles. These results are in agreement with previous studies [20; 27; 34]. A novel finding of the present study, which has not been reported to date, is that in the pullover exercise, the rectus abdominis presented the highest EMG activity (\(\approx\)18% MVIC) of all the muscles evaluated, although without statistically significant differences compared with the triceps brachii or pectoralis major (in its three portions). The EMG activity of the rectus abdominis could be due to its stabilizing function of the lumbar spine in both the concentric and eccentric phases of the pullover exercise. In the eccentric phase, as the barbell descends, the arm resistance increases [35], and with it, there is an increase in lumbar lordosis. In this case, the rectus abdominis would be activated to fix and stabilize the lumbar curvature to maintain the pelvis in retroversion [36]. In the concentric phase, during the lifting of the barbell, the rectus abdominis acts as an auxiliary muscle, performing a light flexion of the trunk (shrinkage) to overcome the generated torque [23; 37]. However, in the straight arm pulldown at 100% and 150% biacromial widths, as it was performed with the participant in a standing position pulling the load perpendicular to the position of the trunk, the arm resistance was lower, and therefore, the EMG activity of the rectus abdominis was lower.