Seated Cable Rows

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

How to do the seated cable rows

  1. Sit at a low pulley machine with your feet resting against the footrests and your knees slightly bent.
  2. With your abs drawn in and your back straight lean forward slightly to grasp the pulleys with an overhand grip (palms face downwards).
  3. Slowly bring the pulleys back towards your abs while sitting upright, keep your elbows in close to your chest.
  4. Pause for a moment then return slowly return the pulleys to the starting position.
  5. Repeat.

Muscles worked

The prime movers are the rhomboids and mid-trapezius, which draw the shoulder blades together and back down the ribcage.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the lower back keeps the spine from rounding; the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.

The shoulders take a share of the work as well.

Every exercise for:Middle backBicepsLower backLatsShoulders

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 middle back 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 37 middle back exercises in this database, 21 are listed at beginner level.

Related exercises

Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →

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