Face Pull
Trains the Posterior Deltoid.
- Equipment
- Cable
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Attach a rope to a cable pulley set at roughly head height or slightly above.
- Take one end of the rope in each hand with your thumbs pointing back toward you, and step back until the cable is under tension.
- Stand with a staggered stance, chest up, arms extended toward the pulley.
- Pull the rope toward your face by driving your elbows back and keeping them high — at or above the height of your hands throughout.
- Finish with your hands beside your ears, elbows wide, and your shoulder blades drawn together.
- Let the rope travel forward under control until your arms are straight and your shoulder blades open again.
Common mistakes
- Letting the elbows drop below the hands, which turns the movement into a high row. Elbows high is what keeps the rear deltoid and the external rotators in the movement.
- Finishing with the hands in front of the shoulders. If the hands do not reach beside the head, the shoulder blades never retracted and the set trained very little.
- Using a weight that pulls you forward. This is a light, high-repetition movement; if you are being dragged toward the pulley, the load has already won.
- Counting it as rotator cuff training. Face pulls involve the infraspinatus and teres minor at the end range, but the arm's rotation barely changes across the movement, so they are not trained through a range. They are worth doing on their own merits and are not a substitute for rotation work.
Muscles worked
Primary
- Posterior DeltoidShoulders
Secondary
- Rhomboids
- Middle TrapeziusTraps
- InfraspinatusRotator Cuff
- Teres MinorRotator Cuff