Hold a dowel or broomstick at each end with an overhand grip. This will create a good dynamic stretch for the shoulders and pre-activate the rear deltoids. Make sure to maintain contact in all the above points as you do this. Slowly slide your arms up and down the wall, as though you’re doing a press pattern. Stand against a wall with your heels, butt, upper back, shoulders, elbows, and hands completely against it. If you can’t perform this movement, you’re not in a good starting place for face pulls to “take” as best they could. Remember – mobility is a combination of strength and flexibility, so if you’re tight, you need both sides of the coin to be taken care of.

In this case, there are some key stretches and drills that would serve you well to help open up your shoulder rotation. If your neck cranes forward on each rep or your lower back goes into a serious overarch to pull the movement off, you’ve either used weight that’s too heavy or you have restricted shoulder mobility. In other words, if you’re lacking mobility at the shoulder joint, you’ll be able to see based on how far behind your head you can get your hands when they’re put under load. When using this method, many lifters will notice whether there’s a serious deficiency in terms of rotary capacity – not just strength. Instead, pulling higher with a more internally rotated starting position will engage the rear deltoids as well as all of the other muscles in question. Holding the weight with a palms-in grip and pulling to the neck is still great to use the mid traps and rhomboids, but hardly does anything to really tax the rear deltoids due to this lack of rotation. We have to remember that in the case of the rear deltoids, from a biomechanical perspective, there’s also a rotary component to their list of actions they’re responsible for. In my opinion and experience, that doesn’t do as great a job to isolate the muscles of the upper back, especially the rear deltoids. Some people instruct face pulls to be done with an overhand grip and pulling to the neck or mouth level. Remember to keep wide elbows the entire time and retract the shoulder blades on each pull. Maintain all posture and pull the ropes with your fists until they finish beside your ears. Assuming a bilateral stance with a cable pulley situated squarely in front of you and just above head level, hold a rope pulley with your knuckles facing in. Instead, focus on really feeling each rep, and you’ll get better results.

Related: 6 Crucial Exercises For Shoulder Stability This isn’t a movement that you should be stacking the plates on the cable machine with. The truth is, this is a humbling movement that doesn’t take much weight to really feel, especially when you’re doing them right. Muscle groups like the mid and lower traps, the rear delts, the rhomboids, and the teres minor are all worth their weight in gold for developing the mid back, creating better posture and an imposing presence, and improving the health and performance of the shoulder capsule.Ī move that attacks that in one shot is the face pull. The muscles they can’t see take second place to these, and it ultimately results in a physique and performance level that could stand to improve. That’s what makes bench press, shoulder press, ab exercises and curls such classic movements in the gym. Let’s face it – most people are concerned with the mirror muscles the stuff they (and everyone) can see when they’re standing face to face. When it comes to posture, upper back strength, and completing the rounded “cap” of the deltoid, you can’t get any better than the face pull.Īnd the truth is, it’s a neglected movement that very few people practice in the gym – at least where I’m from.

Face pulls with rope