Cable Rope Rear-Delt Rows

🎯 Shoulders🏋️ CableBeginnerCompoundBiceps (2°)Middle back (2°)

How to do the cable rope rear-delt rows

  1. Sit in the same position on a low pulley row station as you would if you were doing seated cable rows for the back.
  2. Attach a rope to the pulley and grasp it with an overhand grip. Your arms should be extended and parallel to the floor with the elbows flared out.
  3. Keep your lower back upright and slide your hips back so that your knees are slightly bent. This will be your starting position.
  4. Pull the cable attachment towards your upper chest, just below the neck, as you keep your elbows up and out to the sides. Continue this motion as you exhale until the elbows travel slightly behind the back. Tip: Keep your upper arms horizontal, perpendicular to the torso and parallel to the floor throughout the motion.
  5. Go back to the initial position where the arms are extended and the shoulders are stretched forward. Inhale as you perform this portion of the movement.
  6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Muscles worked

The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from.

Every exercise for:ShouldersBicepsMiddle back

How this movement works

The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.

It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.

What you need

A cable holds tension for the whole range, including the point where a free weight would go slack. Moving the pulley changes the angle the resistance arrives from without changing the movement.

Every exercise using:Cable

These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:

Difficulty

Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.

Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 are listed at beginner level.

Related exercises

Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.