Add the exercise to your upper body and back days with 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps. Try to start out with low weight, working to maintain posture and form. Return to the starting position, making sure to keep your shoulders up.Squeeze your shoulder blades together to pull the handles of the rope in toward your face.Keep a strong athletic stance, activating your core and glutes. Take a few steps back from the tower to extend the cable.Hold the rope with an overhand (externally rotated) grip, with your thumbs up.Maintain an athletic stance throughout your reps. For this version of the exercise, you'll need a cable machine with a rope attachment. Proper Form Stand facing the cable machine and grab the ends of the rope with each hand. You'll work your traps, rear delts, rotator cuffs, and mid-back muscles as well as prevent against injuries.Ĭheck out the video above to learn perfect face pull form. The move is easier to perform than pullups, and safer for your shoulder joints than many other back and shoulder options. The face pull is a simple exercise to perform, but the problem is that most people do it (and even teach it) completely wrong First I’ll show you proper form for the traditional cable Face Pull with my preferred option of adding on a trap raise.

You probably do a lot of pushing exercises at the gym (think: bench presses and pushups), so the face pull is a great way to balance all of that pushing out with some pulling. But you should definitely be making it a part of your regular upper-body routine because of it's simplicity and effectiveness, and it also makes a great warmup to bulletproof your shoulders. The move is one of those underrated exercises you're probably not doing often-or at all.

Far too many guys wind up out of the gym with shoulder injuries after pushing themselves beyond their capacities, so it pays to train smart.Įnter the face pull. A broad back and strong shoulders can be some of the most important components to a healthy body-but the muscle groups can be tough to work, since your shoulder joints are delicate mechanisms.

Face pulls form