Muscles worked
The face pull trains the back of your shoulders and your upper back. Your rear delts pull your arms back, and the middle and lower trapezius and the rhomboids squeeze your shoulder blades together. As your hands spread apart and back at the end of the pull, the external rotators of the shoulder, the infraspinatus and teres minor in the rotator cuff, work as well. These muscles often get less training than the chest and front delts, which is why the face pull appears in so many programmes.
Common mistakes
- Using too much weight. The face pull trains small muscles, and with too much load you never get all the way back. Choose a weight that lets you hold the end position for a second on every rep.
- Shrugging towards your ears. That hands the work to your upper traps. Keep your shoulders down while your elbows travel back.
- Stopping with your hands in front of your face. Keep spreading your hands so they end up beside your head, roughly like a double biceps pose.
Variations and alternatives
- Band face pulls are the same exercise with a resistance band, good at home or as part of your warm-up.
- Reverse pec deck trains your rear delts on a machine with a chest pad.
- Rear delt flyes are done with dumbbells and your torso hinged forward, a good choice when the cable station is busy.
- Prone YTW raises train the same area on the floor with no equipment.
Sets and reps
The face pull works best with high reps and light weights. 12 to 20 reps is common, and 10 to 15 works if you want to go a little heavier, over two to four sets. Heavy sets of low reps add nothing here, because you lose control of the end position. Many people put face pulls at the end of the session, or use light sets as part of the warm-up before an upper body session. The guide to sets and reps has more on this.
Progress comes mainly from more reps and better control, and the weight follows. Only go up once you reach the top of your range on every set with a brief pause in the end position, in line with progressive overload. The steps on a cable stack are often large for such a small movement, so add a few reps rather than jumping up in weight.