How to Do Face Pull: Benefits, Variations, Tips & More

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December 30, 2021

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Face pulls are the best exercise for posterior deltoids and are essential as most shoulder exercises do not target these parts of the body. It isn't hard if you pay attention to the correct form of the face pull exercise. Exercising rear delts help prevent muscular imbalance by building overall strength for the shoulder. Here, you use a cable pulley machine to pull the weights straight towards the forehead. The face pulls can be used as a part of your upper body training regimen in addition to other workouts. However, you cannot perform face pulls at home as it needs the cable pulley machine.

Face Pull Exercise Benefits

Deltoids, the powerhouse of the shoulder muscles, are used to put the items on shelves for even playing most of the sports activities. The muscles worked with a face pull exercise are the deltoids, upper back, and trapezius. They help in keeping the shoulders in square form. Muscular shoulders are crucial for day-to-day activities like pulling, rotating the arms, lifting, and pressing.

The face pulls workout targets the delts from various angles: the lateral or front dumbbell raise, shoulder press, and a reverse dumbbell fly. The delts are made up of lateral, anterior, and posterior sections. However, the exercises mentioned above target the anterior as well as the lateral heads. When the rear delts are strengthened, the face pull exercise benefits the body by preventing and reducing the pain or injuries caused by muscular imbalance. Furthermore, it improves the hunched posture and helps them gain various posture-related benefits.

Face pulls are an effective workout for weight loss as they burn more calories than most other workouts that involve or target your shoulder muscles. Therefore, try adding these to your daily fitness routine to maintain healthy body weight.

What Are The Common Mistakes Committed With Face Pulls?

Some common errors will happen to everyone during an effective workout at the gym, and you have to avoid them to reduce strain and prevent injury. They are:

Doing rope face pulls incorrectly will lead to improper workout of muscles and injuries. It is the most common culprit to injure the backside of the shoulders. A rear delt exercise targets the shoulder blades and so have your arms at right angles to the body. If they are not at 90 degrees, then the higher chance is that you are making a down pull movement.

If you start pulling the ropes towards the chin or neck or if the palms are not facing inwards, and if the elbows point downwards, you are going to feel it more on the biceps rather than the back. So, it is essential to take care of these while appropriately performing any face pull form.

You have to select a suitable weight that is not too heavy or too light while performing the cable face pulls. This is because there is more risk to damage the rear delts. When you haven't used your rear delt muscles for a long time, use only lightweights. The weights should depend on your momentum to pull the rope towards the body. If you can't control the weights in good form as they return to the stack, you have to reduce the number of weights. Therefore, as this workout involves weights, performing face pulls at home is impossible.

How To Do A Face Pull?

The standard face pull exercise is referred to as cable face pulls as they make use of a pulley machine fitted with a cable to perform it. The pulley is above the head with a rope attached to it with a handle. The stepwise instructions to perform a face pull effectively are:

With both hands, grab the handles, with the palms facing inwards. Take a step back so that the arms are entirely extended. Do not forget to engage your core as you lean back in a slight way. You have to position your body approximately at an angle of 20 degrees.
Now pull the rope towards you while starting to lift the weight. Engaging your shoulders and rolling them back to maintain a proper posture. Do not have your shoulders hunch or roll forward.
As you return to the starting position of these rope exercises, pull the handles straight towards the forehead. Place the palms facing inwards as the elbows flare outwards while performing the exercise.
Engage the rear delts and reverse the movement. Slowly extend the arms without letting the shoulder or chest roll in front.
Extend and keep maintaining a good posture.
Perform 2 sets of the face pull exercise with 20 reps as a final part. Take care to go lighter and focus on controlled motions to gain better results.

What Are The Variations Of Face Pull Exercise?

Your muscles worked with face pull exercises can be targeted with new modifications or variations. Some of the most popular ones are listed below.

The resistance bands need to be heavy-duty so that you can hang them at the highest point on the machine. You can mimic the bands just as a pull-up bar. If you are doing the face pulls workout for the first time, this will be ideal for training your rear delts. However, this will not be challenging for advanced exercisers.
You can use dumbbell exercises to do the rear delts differently. It is not an ideal replacement for rope face pulls, but it works on the same muscles.

How To Make A Face Pull More Challenging?

Though an overhand grip may be preferred most of the time, sometimes, an underhand grip is an effective variation. If you are a beginner, always use only light weights during the initial stages and perform it slowly. But if you aim to build more muscles, you should opt for heavier weight in a seating position. It is called a seated face pull. The emphasis on sitting and performing with heavy weights is because: A standing posture with heavy weights will work all the muscles on the hips as well as the lower body. This will reduce the total load on the deltoids. Therefore, a seated face pull will help maintain the torso at a stable position.

Wrap Up

Now that you know how to ace and perform the face pull form flawlessly, you must not do it with any back-related or shoulder problem. In case you feel any discomfort or pain, stop and take sufficient rest allowing the body to heal and recover.

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