The cable stations on our resistance floor are some of the least crowded equipment in the building, which is strange, because they solve a problem free weights genuinely cannot: constant tension through an entire range of motion, in almost any direction you can set the pulley. Here are five cable exercises worth building into whatever split you are already running.
1. Cable face pull
Set the pulley at head height, pull the rope towards your face with your elbows high, and pause where your hands finish beside your ears. This is the single best corrective exercise we hand out for the rounded-shoulder posture that a desk job builds, and it takes about ninety seconds to add to the end of any upper-body day.
2. Cable row, seated
A seated cable row keeps constant tension on your back through the entire pull, unlike a dumbbell row where the bottom of the movement can go slack. It is one of the safest ways to add pulling volume for a member whose lower back needs a break from bent-over barbell rows on a given week.
3. Cable tricep pushdown
Simple, low-risk, and it isolates the triceps in a way few other exercises manage without also taxing your shoulders or chest. Useful as a finisher on a pressing day when your shoulders are tired but your triceps still have work left in them.
4. Cable lateral raise
A dumbbell lateral raise loses tension at the bottom of every rep; a cable, set low and pulled across your body, keeps your side delt working from the very first inch of the movement. Light weight, controlled tempo — this exercise punishes momentum more than almost any other shoulder movement on the floor.
