Who Should Do The Cable Face Pull?
General Populations
The cable face pull improves shoulder health and supports better posture. Both of these help to reduce the risk of shoulder injuries when performed regularly. It also helps build your posterior deltoids and traps to balance your muscular development.
As a general gym goer, poor posture and uneven muscle development are two common issues. This is due to the large amount of desk-based jobs and the lack of a structured training regime. When programming exercises to address these, the cable face pull makes a perfect addition.
Strength Athletes
As a strength athlete, most of your training consists of heavy pressing and overhead lifts, Examples include the bench press and push press.
Both of these movements use your shoulder and back muscles. They require good shoulder stability for the primary muscle groups to function correctly and safely.
The cable face pull helps to improve your shoulder stability and health. Because of this, it’s a great accessory exercise that can be programmed alongside your normal compound lifts. This can improve your overall health and performance when done regularly.
Bodybuilders
Bodybuilders tend to have one main goal in mind. They want to develop a well-rounded physique that looks great and performs well. As part of this, they need to train each muscle group with the right volume and intensity. This includes the ones they can’t see.
As a bodybuilder, programming the cable pull into your routine is a great way to ensure balanced muscle development. It can help to improve lifting performance and reduce the risk of shoulder injuries. Each of these can help to improve your training quality and quantity.
Who Should Not Do The Cable Face Pull?
Those With Chronic Shoulder Mobility Issues
Performing cable face pulls is a great way to improve shoulder stability. As we’ve discussed above, regular performance can improve posture and shoulder health. However, cable face pulls require a certain amount of shoulder mobility to be performed correctly.
If you’re suffering from shoulder impingements that impact your mobility, the cable face pull might not be suitable. In this case, you would need to consult a relevant healthcare professional. They would most likely give you some stretching and strengthening exercises to perform.
Benefits Of The Cable Face Pull
Promotes Shoulder Health
We use our shoulders in nearly everything we do. Daily tasks such as reaching for a high shelf and lifting our children involve our shoulders. Pressing movements in sporting events such as the snatch and overhead press also involve our shoulders.
When we move and exercise, our shoulders need to function properly to ensure they move in the correct way. This requires good shoulder strength and stability. When combined, these determine our shoulder health and the risk of injury.
The cable face pull is a great exercise for developing both of these. It helps to build stronger shoulders and develop stability. Both of these improve our shoulder health and prepare us for daily tasks and sports performance.
*Did you know? 37% of injuries caused by resistance training occur in the shoulder complex. This backs up the importance of good shoulder health and function.
Supports Better Posture
As the cost of living increases, we are spending more time working. In industrialized cities, a large proportion of our work consists of desk-based jobs. In a typical day, most of it will be spent sitting down at work on our phones when relaxing.
Sitting for long periods can lead to rounded shoulders and slouching if done over a sustained period. These can lead to neck and back pain, reducing mobility and quality of life.
The cable face pull works two key scapula stabilizers; the posterior deltoids and traps. When sitting down or performing daily tasks, both of these help to keep your chest up and shoulders back.
By adding cable face pulls into your gym routine, you can improve your posture and improve your quality of life.
Balances Muscle Development
Whatever our exercise goal, a lot of us are guilty of one thing. We tend to focus on the muscles at the front of our body or the ones we can see. While this isn’t the case for everyone, it’s certainly more common among beginners and recreational exercisers.
The cable face pull works our posterior deltoids and upper traps. Adding these into our routine helps to balance our muscular development and ensure we build a well-rounded physique.
Frequently Asked Questions
Face pulls are an effective exercise to improve your shoulder health, maintain posture, and build bigger shoulders. Ensure you perform them correctly using the guide above.
Generally speaking, the cable face pull isn’t an exercise to develop strength and power. Using the programming guide below, stick to the suggested hypertrophy and endurance training intensities.
One of the most common mistakes with cable face pulls is allowing your shoulders to drop as you pull. This takes the emphasis away from your posterior deltoids and upper traps.
Set the rope attachment at around eye level. Ensure you keep your elbows up throughout the movement, pulling straight back.
Resources
Endomondo.com refrains from utilizing tertiary references. We uphold stringent sourcing criteria and depend on peer-reviewed studies and academic research conducted by medical associations and institutions. For more detailed insights, you can explore further by reading our editorial process.
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