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Technique

  1. Sit on the cable row machine bench with your feet securely placed on the footplates and knees slightly bent.
  2. Grab the handle with both hands, keeping your arms fully extended and your back straight.
  3. Engage your core and pull your shoulders back before initiating the movement.
  4. Pull the handle toward your midsection by driving your elbows back while keeping them close to your body.
  5. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the end of the movement ( Shoulder retraction).
  6. Slowly extend your arms back to the starting position in a controlled manner without rounding your back.

Form tips

  • Keep your chest up and avoid leaning back when pulling the weight.
  • Focus on pulling with your back muscles rather than relying too much on your arms.
  • Control the weight on the way back to maintain tension in your muscles.
  • Avoid shrugging your shoulders—keep them down ( Shoulder depression) and engaged throughout the movement.
  • Use a full range of motion but do not let the weight stack slam down between reps.
Logging: Total weight used.

Muscles

Strength

Primary

  • Rotator cuff
  • Back
  • Shoulders
  • Triceps
  • Biceps
  • Forearms
  • Teres minor
  • Teres major
  • Posterior deltoid
  • Middle trapezius
  • Latissimus dorsi
  • Rhomboid major
  • Triceps brachii (long head)
  • Biceps brachii (short head)
  • Brachialis
  • Brachioradialis
  • Lower trapezius

Equipment

Appears in

Joint movements
Elbowflexion
trains stretches

Regressions

e1ch

Machine row

Beginner

Variations

e1cg

Seated cable row with forward lean

Beginner
e154

Seated bent-over dumbbell row

Beginner
e10n

Lying incline dumbbell row

Novice
e15m

Kettlebell gorilla row

Beginner
e025

Barbell bent-over row

Novice
e131

Dumbbell bent-over row

Novice
Want to log this exercise? Open it in Calistree. Text and images are used under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; the video plays from the original source.