Traps · Cable
How to Do a Face Pull: Rope to the Eyes, Elbows Above the Shoulders
Set the pulley at eye level, split the rope past your ears, and hold the finish for a second, because a cable will never make that last inch hard for you.
Illustration adapted from Everkinetic via workout-guide, CC BY-SA 4.0. Full credits.
| Equipment | Cable |
|---|---|
| Back zone | Traps · Rear Delts · Upper Back |
| Muscles | Infraspinatus · Rear Delts · Lower Traps |
| Level | Beginner |
| Typical work | 3 × 12–15 |
| Where | Gym |
What is the Face Pull?
The face pull is a cable exercise for the rear delts, lower traps and infraspinatus. With the pulley set at face height, you pull a rope toward your eyes and separate your hands until one finishes outside each ear with the elbows level with the shoulders. The cable holds tension evenly across the whole range.
The one cue that matters: Set the cable at face height and pull the rope apart toward your ears, elbows high.
Why the Face Pull is worth doing
- Puts a repeatable number on rear delt work, because a stack weighs the same next Tuesday as it does today
- Keeps tension on at the very start of the rep, where the arms are long and a band gives you almost nothing
- Drills the elbows-high, hands-back finish that shows up again in every heavy row you do afterwards
- Adds Traps and Rear Delts volume standing upright, with no bar loading the hips or the lower back
How to do the Face Pull
- Set the pulley height Attach a rope and put the pulley at roughly eye height. Set it higher and your elbows will drop through every rep; set it lower and you have built a wide row.
- Hold the ends Grip the very ends of the rope with thumbs on top and palms facing each other. Holding it short makes it physically impossible to separate your hands at the finish.
- Step back and stagger Walk back until the stack lifts slightly with your arms extended, then put one foot in front of the other. A square stance invites you to lean away from the weight.
- Pull with the elbows Drive the elbows back and out, staying level with or just above your shoulders, until the rope arrives at your face and your hands have travelled outside your ears.
- Hold and rotate At the end of the rep turn your knuckles up and back and hold for one full second. The cable does not get heavier here, so that hold is the only thing making the finish count.
- Return long Let your arms straighten fully in front of you and the shoulder blades come apart before the next rep. Take two seconds and never bounce the plates off the stack.
Muscles worked
The Rear Delts (posterior deltoid) carry the pull. With the elbows held at shoulder height, the upper arm travels backward across the body, and constant cable tension means they are loaded from the first inch of the rep rather than only at the end.
The Lower Traps (trapezius, mid and lower) draw the shoulder blades together and hold them down against the shoulders’ natural urge to climb. On a cable this is the fibre group that fails first when the weight goes up, and the sign is always the same: the shoulders rise, the elbows sag, the rep gets shorter.
The Infraspinatus (infraspinatus and teres minor) rotate the forearms back at the finish. Because the stack never increases, that rotation only happens if you decide it does. This is a Traps-primary movement in BackMaxx that also feeds the Rear Delts and Upper Back zones, which is unusual reach for something this light.
| <a href=”/back-muscles/infraspinatus/”>Infraspinatus</a> | Infraspinatus & teres minor — The plate under the shoulder blade. Separation, and healthy shoulders. |
|---|---|
| <a href=”/back-muscles/rear-delts/”>Rear Delts</a> | Posterior deltoid — Rounded shoulders from behind — the detail that finishes a back. |
| <a href=”/back-muscles/lower-traps/”>Lower Traps</a> | Trapezius (mid & lower) — Pulls the shoulder blades down and back. Kills the rounded look. |
Form tips
- Elbows arrive before hands. If your hands get to your face first, your biceps are doing the pulling. Think of the rope ends as something you are dragging along behind your elbows.
- Weight is not the objective. The stack you can move with your elbows above shoulder height is a fraction of the one you can move by leaning. Pick the number that keeps the elbows up on rep 15.
- Half-kneel to kill the lean. Dropping to one knee removes the option to shift your weight backward and exposes exactly how much of the load was coming from the floor. Expect to drop a plate or two.
- Rope length caps the finish. A short rope stops the hands separating; a longer one lets them travel well past your ears. That changes the final third of the rep more than the weight on the stack does.
Common mistakes
- Turning it into a row
- Letting the elbows drop below shoulder height feeds the work to the lats and mid-back and leaves the rear delts the leftovers. Lower the weight and reset the pulley to eye level.
- Leaning away from the stack
- Counterweighting with your bodyweight means the cable is heavier than the muscle can hold. Stagger your feet and keep your ribs stacked over your hips for the entire set.
- Stopping at the nose
- Ending the pull when the rope touches your face with your hands still together skips the separation that produces the finish. The rep is done when your knuckles are outside your ears.
- Grinding to failure
- The last two reps of a maximal set are the ones where the shoulders climb and the elbows collapse, so they train the wrong thing. Stop two short of failure and add a fourth set instead.
Sets, reps and where it fits
BackMaxx programs 3 sets of 12 to 15 in a gym session. It belongs after the heavy pulls, because doing it first leaves the shoulder blades tired for rows, and because nothing about it needs you fresh. It is also the best between-sets filler on a pressing day, where it adds Rear Delts volume on a day that otherwise has none.
Progress reps to 15 on all three sets, then add the smallest increment the stack allows and reset to 12. When you run out of plates you can hold with the elbows up, add the one-second finish hold rather than more weight, then move to four sets. If Rear Delts is the zone dragging your score down, the reasoning behind that priority is in the guide to rear delts from the back view.
No cable? Do this instead
No cable machine? The banded face pull is the direct replacement, anchored at eye level to anything solid. The tension curve is reversed, so the band is easy at the start and hardest at the finish, and you should run higher reps to make up for that easy first half. Resistance is set by how far back you stand, not by a stack.
Variations and similar exercises
- Reverse Pec Deck
- The Reverse Pec Deck fixes your torso against a pad and takes the leaning and the stance out of the equation entirely, which makes it the honest choice when you keep drifting into a row.
- Cable Rear Delt Fly
- The Cable Rear Delt Fly keeps the arms long and sweeps them wide, dropping the lower traps and the end-range rotation, so it isolates the posterior deltoid more narrowly than a face pull does.
- Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise
- The Bent-Over Rear Delt Raise trades constant cable tension for gravity, which means the hardest point is at the top of the arc, and it needs only a pair of light dumbbells.
8 Face Pull alternatives, by equipment and level →
Compared: Face Pull vs Rear Delt Fly · Band Pull-Apart vs Face Pull
Frequently asked questions
What weight should I use for face pulls?
Light enough that your elbows stay at shoulder height for all 15 reps and your hands still separate past your ears on the last one. If you have to lean back to start the rep, the stack is too heavy by at least two plates. Most people are strongest on this movement at a weight that looks unimpressive.
Are face pulls worth doing if I already row?
Yes, because rows and face pulls load different fibres. A row drives the elbow down and back near your ribs, which is lats and mid-back work. A face pull keeps the elbow up at shoulder height, which is where the Rear Delts and Infraspinatus take over. The Rear Delts zone rarely fills out on rows alone.
Should face pulls come at the start or the end of a back workout?
The end, in almost every case. Fatiguing the shoulder blade muscles before heavy rows or pulldowns makes those sets worse, and face pulls need no freshness to be effective. The exception is a dedicated Rear Delts and Traps session, where doing them first is the point of the session.
Do face pulls hit the traps or the rear delts?
Both, and BackMaxx tags it Traps-primary with Rear Delts as a secondary zone. The trapezius involvement is the mid and lower fibres pulling the shoulder blades together, not the upper fibres that shrug. That is why a face pull can look like trap work while doing nothing for the shape of your upper traps.
Should the Face Pull be in your plan?
BackMaxx scores your traps from one photo and builds the week around whatever is lagging — so the Face Pull only shows up when it is the right call.
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