maratoolPull Through
How to do the pull through
- Begin standing a few feet in front of a low pulley with a rope or handle attached. Face away from the machine, straddling the cable, with your feet set wide apart.
- Begin the movement by reaching through your legs as far as possible, bending at the hips. Keep your knees slightly bent. Keeping your arms straight, extend through the hip to stand straight up. Avoid pulling upward through the shoulders; all of the motion should originate through the hips.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the gluteus maximus, which is the strongest hip extensor you have and drives the pelvis forward at the top of the movement.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the lower back keeps the spine from rounding.
Every exercise for:GlutesHamstringsLower 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 glutes too, using equipment this one does not:
- Seated Glutebody only
- Barbell Glute Bridgebarbell
- Downward Facing Balanceexercise ball
- Flutter Kicksbench + body only
- Hip Extension with Bandsband
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 24 glutes exercises in this database, 13 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.