Seated Cable Row

How to do it

1. Sit at a cable row station with your feet on the platform and a slight bend in your knees.
2. Take the handle and sit up tall with your arms extended, torso roughly vertical.
3. Let your shoulder blades travel forward slightly at the start — this is the stretched position and it is part of the repetition.
4. Pull the handle toward your lower ribs by driving your elbows back, letting them travel out at around forty-five degrees rather than tucked tight.
5. Finish by squeezing your shoulder blades together. This last two or three inches is where the rhomboids and middle trapezius do their work.
6. Let the handle travel forward again under control, allowing the shoulder blades to open before the next repetition.

Common mistakes

• Finishing when the elbows pass the torso. Without the shoulder-blade squeeze at the end, the set has trained the lats and biceps and left the middle trapezius and rhomboids nearly untouched. That squeeze is the reason to choose this exercise.
• Leaning back and forward to move the weight. Rocking the torso converts the row into a hip movement and lets you use a weight your back cannot handle. Sit tall and let the arms and shoulder blades do the work.
• Rounding the back at the stretch. Letting the shoulder blades travel forward is correct; letting the spine round forward is a different thing and it is what happens when the weight is too heavy.
• Elbows tucked tight against the ribs throughout. That biases the lat, which is a legitimate variation, but it is not what a seated row is usually chosen for.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Rhomboids
• Middle TrapeziusTraps

Secondary

• Biceps
• Lats
• Shoulders