Face pull
The face pull is a cable exercise for the rear delts and the muscles between the shoulder blades, the areas that get the least work in a routine built around pressing. It is easy to set up and easy to do badly. Most people load the stack until the pull becomes a row with a rope on the end.
Updated September 2026
- Equipment
- Cable
- Primary
- Shoulders
- Secondary
- Middle back
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Facing a high pulley with a rope or dual handles attached, pull the weight directly towards your face, separating your hands as you do so. Keep your upper arms parallel to the ground.
Instructions from free-exercise-db, public domain — the same text the app shows on this exercise.
Saying it out loud
Any of these logs a set of face pull in SayLift. Say the whole session in one go if you want — weights, reps and sets in whatever order they come out.
- “Face pulls, three sets of fifteen at 40”
- “Rope face pulls 50 for 15, 15 and 12”
- “Cable face pull 35, four by twenty”
Set it up at face height
Put the pulley at about eye level or a little above, with a rope attachment. Hold the rope with your thumbs pointing back toward you, step back until the stack lifts, and stand tall.
Pull the rope toward your face and spread the two ends apart, so your hands finish beside your ears. The elbows stay high, level with your shoulders or above them. At the end of the rep your arms should look like a double biceps pose.
- Elbows high. If they drop to your ribs, the lats take over and it turns into a row.
- Pause at your face for a second. If you cannot hold it there, the weight is too heavy.
- Keep your body still. Leaning back to finish the rep hands the work to your legs and lower back.
SayLift logs your whole workout from one spoken sentence. iPhone only, 873 exercises built in, 3 days free then $49.99 a year.
Start the free trialWhy lighter works better here
The rear delts are small, and a heavy stack lets the bigger back muscles and your body weight do the pulling. Sets of 12 to 20 reps with a real pause at the end usually train them better than heavy sets of 6.
A good test: if you can pull the weight to your face but not hold it there, go down a plate.
Logging a small exercise
Face pulls move up slowly. Many cable stacks go up in 5 or 10 lb plates, and one plate can be a large share of the weight you are using. Add reps first, and log every set so you can see them add up over a few months.
It is also the exercise most likely to go unlogged, because it comes at the end of the session when you are already packing up. Saying "face pulls, 40 for 15, 15 and 12" into SayLift takes a few seconds and keeps the small lifts in the same history as the big ones.
Frequently asked questions
What muscles do face pulls work?
Mainly the rear delts, with the middle back and the small muscles that turn the upper arm outward helping. The fact table on this page lists shoulders as the primary muscle and middle back as the secondary one.
Rope or straight bar for face pulls?
Rope. It lets your hands spread apart at the end, so the elbows can travel back past your body. A straight bar stops your hands at the width of the bar.
How heavy should face pulls be?
Light enough that you can pause for a second with the rope at your face on every rep. For most people that is far less than they use on a cable row.
Stop typing between sets
Say what you lifted. SayLift writes down every set, rep and weight, then tells you what to lift next time. iPhone only, 3 days free then $49.99 a year.
Download on the App Store
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