How To Do Face Pulls (And Actually Feel Them) (2024)

But with an estimated 1 in 4 people struggling with shoulder pain, and even more of us suffering from hunched posture thanks to working in front of a screen all day, what better exercise to add to your back day workout than one that keeps your shoulder health in tip-top condition while building a muscular v-shaped upper back [1]?

We’re talking about Face pulls: An isolation exercise performed on the cable machine targeting the upper back and rear delts, while promoting shoulder health and good posture. They’re a great exercise: well-suited to high-volume work, activating and fatiguing the slow-twitch muscle fibers that comprise most of the back. But… the majority of us are doing them wrong, meaning we often don’t feel them in our back.

If this is you, then look no further: We’re sharing exactly how you should be doing face pulls, including a step-by-step guide and tips on form, along with a guide to the different grip positions, attachments, and variations.

Once you get them right, they’re a golden ticket to enhancing the size of your back, better posture, and stronger presses–not to mention reducing the chance of a shoulder injury along the way. So stick with us to discover how to perform them correctly.

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What Are Face Pulls, And What Muscles Do They Work?

When it comes to the best exercises to build your back, face pulls are high on the list. Commonly performed on the cable machine using the rope attachment, face pulls involve horizontal pulling, which refers to moving the weight from out in front of you toward your midline. This makes them extremely effective at working the traps and rhomboids, the muscles responsible for sculpting and shaping the upper back [2]. If you want to build a v-shape upper body to look big and muscular in your muscle fit tshirt or you want to give the illusion of a smaller waist in your BBL jacket, face pulls will target the exact muscles to get you there.

If that wasn’t enough, cable face pulls also target the rotator cuffs and rear delts–one-third of the deltoid muscle that is often neglected during shoulder workouts. Neglecting the rear delts can not only make you look imbalanced but can also lead to shoulder injury and disorders, which can affect up to 69% of us during our lifetime [3]. Face pulls work to fix that, developing well-rounded, healthy shoulders.

How To Do Face Pulls

1. Attach the rope extension to the cable pulley and move it up or down the tower so it sits just above head height.

2. Take each end of the rope in each hand (either in an overhand or underhand grip, depending on which is most comfortable).

3. Take a few steps back so the weight comes off the stack, and extend your arms in front of you. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart, and you should lean back slightly and engage your core.

4. Begin the movement by pulling the rope towards your forehead, keeping your elbows high, letting them flair out, and aiming to get the handles towards your ears.

5. Pause in the top position (which should look like a front double bicep bodybuilding pose), squeezing your shoulder blades together and squeezing your rear delts.

6. Reverse the movement, slowly extending the arms back to the starting position, letting the shoulders pull forward, then repeat the movement.

Face Pulls Form Tips & Mistakes To Avoid

• Don’t point your elbows down and bring the rope to your chin. Instead, flare your elbows up and out and bring your hands to your forehead.

• Don’t start by squeezing your shoulder blades together. Instead, start the movement with shoulders slightly rounded forward, pull the rope by driving your elbows out, and then squeeze your shoulder blades at the top of the movement.

• Don’t use momentum and ‘swing’ back and forward as you pull. If you struggle with balance, take a split stance and brace your core. Choose a lighter weight if needed to keep the body stable through the movement. This can help you focus on

  Mind-Muscle connection, helping you to focus on the muscles you are working to increase hypertrophy.

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How To Add Cable Face Pulls To Your Strength Workout

Unlike heavy compound movements such as bench press or strict press, where you might train in low rep ranges to build strength, cable face pulls are best trained at higher rep ranges and lighter reps.

This is because the back muscles are made up of primarily slow twitch muscle fibers (known as Type I) [5]. These muscle fibers don’t produce a lot of power but can contract for a long period of time and are essential for helping the back muscles support the spine to enable us to keep us standing (or sitting) upright for long periods of time [6]. Using cable face pulls to isolate your upper back and rear delts using higher volume training (i.e., 12 to 15 reps) will recruit these slow twitch fibers, giving them the stimulus they need to fatigue and grow.

When structuring your workout (unless you’re using the face pull exercise as an activation exercise during your warm-up), you’ll want to perform them following your compound lifts. This is because compound exercises are more fatiguing because they work multiple muscle joints and groups simultaneously. You’ll lift heavier during compound exercises vs. isolation, making them more fatiguing and coming with a higher risk of injury, whereas isolation exercises use a lighter weight and limit movement to a single joint.

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Face Pull Your Way To A Bigger Back And Healthier Shoulders

Who knew that they’d be a back-building exercise that not only made your back look strong AF but kept your shoulders healthy, improved stability for pressing movements, and helped undo at least some of those hours slumped over the computer?

If you follow the face pulls form tips above (and avoid the common mistakes) you should be able to master the face pull technique and feel them exactly where you want to: in your upper back and rear delts.

Ready to get training? Download the Gymshark Training App – and don’t forget to add face pulls to your next back and shoulder day to sculpt a wide back and boulder shoulders.

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References:

1. Luime, J., Koes, B., Hendriksen, I., Burdorf, A., Verhagen, A., Miedema, H. and Verhaar, J. (2004). Prevalence and incidence of shoulder pain in the general population; a systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology, 33(2), pp.73–81. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/03009740310004667.

2. Hewit, J.K. (2018). A Comparison of Muscle Activation during the Pull-up and Three Alternative Pulling Exercises. Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports, [online] 5(4). doi:https://doi.org/10.19080/jpfmts.2018.05.555669.

3. Sweeney, S., Porcari, J., Camic, C., Kovacs, A. and Foster, C. (2014). ExCluSivE ACE-SPonSorEd rESEArCh. [online] Available at: https://acewebcontent.azureedge.net/certifiednews/images/article/pdfs/ACEShoulderStudy.pdf.

4. Schoenfeld, B.J., Contreras, B., Krieger, J., Grgic, J., Delcastillo, K., Belliard, R. and Alto, A. (2018). Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, [online] 51(1), p.1. doi:https://doi.org/10.1249/mss.0000000000001764.

5. MANNION, A.F., DUMAS, G.A., COOPER, R.G., ESPINOSA, F.J., FARIS, M.W. and STEVENSON, J.M. (1997). Muscle fibre size and type distribution in thoracic and lumbar regions of erector spinae in healthy subjects without low back pain: normal values and sex differences. Journal of Anatomy, 190(4), pp.505–513. doi:https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1469-7580.1997.19040505

6. Golden, N. (2022). Fast-Twitch Vs. Slow-Twitch Muscle Fiber Types + Training Tips | NASM Blog. [online] blog.nasm.org. Available at: https://blog.nasm.org/fitness/understanding-fast-twitch-vs-slow-twitch-mucle-fibers.