Cable Rope Seated Row

1. Attach a rope to the low pulley of a seated row station and sit with your feet braced on the platform.
2. Grab the rope ends in a neutral grip, palms facing each other, and slide back until your knees are slightly bent.
3. Sit tall with your chest up and arms stretched toward the machine; this is your start.
4. Pull the rope toward your lower ribs by driving the elbows back past your torso.
5. As the rope reaches you, pull the ends slightly apart and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
6. Hold the squeeze for a moment with your torso upright.
7. Let the cable pull your arms back out slowly, allowing the shoulder blades to glide forward at the end.
8. Repeat without rocking your body back and forth.

Common Mistakes

• Rowing with the lower back: swinging the torso backward to move the stack means the hips, not the back muscles, are doing the pull. Keep the torso within a few degrees of vertical and let the arms and shoulder blades work.
• Shrugging into the pull: letting the shoulders ride up toward the ears shifts effort into the neck. Pull the shoulder blades down and back, keeping the neck long.
• Stopping short of the squeeze: ending the pull with the hands far from the body skips the mid-back contraction that the rope is best at. Draw the elbows past the torso and finish each rep with the blades pinched.
• Letting the weight yank the arms forward: releasing the return phase drops tension and rounds the spine. Resist the cable on the way out and keep the chest tall through the stretch.