Face Pull
The face pull is a cable exercise where you pull a rope attachment toward your face, elbows flaring high and wide, finishing with your hands near your ears. It targets the rear deltoids and the muscles between your shoulder blades, the ones that spend most of a desk-bound day doing nothing while the chest and front shoulders get all the work. It's a favorite for anyone who presses heavy, sits a lot, or wants their shoulders to stop rounding forward.
Why it works
Most people's daily posture and training both favor the front of the shoulder: pressing, typing, driving, all of it pulls the shoulders forward and rounds the upper back. The face pull directly opposes that by pulling the rope toward your face while externally rotating your shoulders at the top, a combined movement that hits the rear delts and the mid-back retractors (rhomboids and middle trapezius) at once. Because the rope splits into two handles, each side can travel its own path outward and up, letting the rotation happen naturally instead of being blocked by a fixed bar.
Set up
- Set a cable pulley to roughly upper-chest or face height and attach a rope handle.
- Grab one end of the rope in each hand with palms facing each other.
- Step back until there's tension on the cable, feet staggered or shoulder-width apart.
- Stand tall with your core braced, not leaning back to use body weight.
How to do it
- Pull the rope toward your face, leading with your elbows.
- Flare your elbows out and up as the rope approaches your face.
- Finish with your hands near your ears and your knuckles pointing roughly behind you.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the peak of the pull.
- Return the rope slowly to the start, resisting the cable the entire way.
- Repeat without letting your torso lean back to help the pull.
Form cues
- Elbows lead the pull, higher than your hands.
- Finish with hands near your ears, not your chin.
- Squeeze the shoulder blades together at the top.
- Keep your torso still; don't lean back to cheat the weight.
Breathing: Exhale as you pull the rope toward your face, inhale as you return it to the start.
Common mistakes
Pulling the rope toward the chin or chest instead of the face.
Fix: Aim the rope at eye or nose height and keep the elbows high throughout the pull; a lower pull turns this into a row and skips the rear-delt rotation.
Leaning the torso backward to help move the weight.
Fix: Brace your core and keep your torso upright; if you need to lean back, the weight is too heavy.
Letting the elbows drop below the hands.
Fix: Keep your elbows at or above hand height through the whole pull; dropped elbows shift the work toward the lats instead of the rear delts.
Rushing the return and letting the cable yank the arms forward.
Fix: Control the return at the same pace as the pull; the rear delts do real work resisting the cable on the way back too.
How to program it
- Two to four sets of 12 to 15 reps works well, since this is light-to-moderate posture and shoulder-health work rather than a max-effort lift.
- Because the load is light and the joint stress is low, most people can include it in two or three training sessions a week without it competing with recovery from heavier lifts.
- Program it after your main pressing or pulling work as dedicated rear-delt and upper-back volume, not as a warm-up unless you keep the weight very light.
- If you spend most of your day at a desk, this is one of the better exercises to bias slightly higher in weekly volume than the rest of your shoulder work.
Safety notes
- Keep the weight light enough that you can finish each rep with your hands near your ears without straining your neck forward to meet the rope.
- Stop if you feel pinching at the front of the shoulder instead of a stretch and squeeze through the rear delts and upper back.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Pull
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- Strength
Frequently asked questions
What muscles does the face pull work?
Mainly the rear deltoids, plus the rhomboids and middle trapezius between your shoulder blades. It's one of the better exercises for the muscles that counteract rounded, forward shoulders.
How heavy should I go on face pulls?
Lighter than most other pulling exercises. Twelve to 15 reps with strict form, elbows high and hands finishing near your ears, matters far more here than the number on the stack.
Can I do face pulls without a cable machine?
Yes, a resistance band anchored at face height works the same pattern. A dumbbell reverse fly also targets the same rear-delt muscles without any cable at all.
Why do face pulls help with shoulder pain from bench pressing?
Heavy pressing biases the front of the shoulder, and face pulls directly train the opposing rear-delt and upper-back muscles. Balancing the two can ease some of the rounded-shoulder discomfort that heavy pressers often develop over time.