Band Pull Apart

How to do it

1. Hold a resistance band with both hands, arms straight out in front of you at shoulder height.
2. Set your hands about shoulder-width apart so the band is lightly taut.
3. Stand tall with your shoulders down and your stomach braced.
4. Pull your hands apart until the band touches your chest and the arms are out to the sides.
5. Squeeze where the shoulder blades come together, then hold briefly.
6. Return under control, resisting the band rather than letting it snap the hands together.

Common mistakes

• Letting the arms drop below shoulder height. The path is horizontal at shoulder level; dropping it turns the movement into a band pull-down.
• Shrugging as the band opens. The shoulders start down and stay down; riding up hands the work to the upper trapezius.
• Bending the elbows to get further. Straight arms are what keep this at the shoulder; bending turns it into a row.
• Choosing a band you can barely open. This is usually a high-repetition movement for the rear shoulder and the middle back, and a band that only allows three reps is training something else badly.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Posterior DeltoidShoulders

Secondary

• Rhomboids
• Middle TrapeziusTraps
• Traps