Upright Cable Row

Muscles worked

Two muscle groups share the work: the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint and the trapezius, which shrugs the shoulder blade up, rotates it, and pulls it back down.

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

Every exercise for:ShouldersTrapsMiddle backBiceps

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 and traps too, using equipment this one does not:

• Alternating Deltoid Raisedumbbell
• Alternating Kettlebell Presskettlebell
• Anti-Gravity Pressbarbell
• Back Flyes - With Bandsband
• Backward Medicine Ball Throwmedicine ball

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 46 are listed at intermediate level.