Cable Seated Row

1. Sit at the row station with your feet on the platform, knees slightly bent, and grab the handle, commonly a narrow V grip.
2. Slide back until your arms are extended and the weight stack is lifted slightly off its resting pins.
3. Sit tall with your chest up, shoulders down, and core braced.
4. Pull the handle to your lower abdomen, driving the elbows back close to your body.
5. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the end of the pull and exhale.
6. Return the handle with control, letting your shoulder blades glide forward for a full lat stretch.
7. Keep your torso within a few degrees of vertical throughout; a slight forward reach at the stretch is fine, but the spine stays long.
8. Repeat with a steady tempo, about one second pulling and two seconds returning.

Common Mistakes

• Rowing with the lower back: rocking the torso back and forth to move the stack trains momentum, not lats; the hips stay essentially still.
• Shrugging into the pull: letting the shoulders climb toward the ears hands the work to the upper traps; pull the elbows back and down.
• Cutting the stretch: stopping with bent arms keeps tension in the biceps; let the arms fully lengthen so the lats work through their whole range.
• Grabbing the whole stack: this exercise rewards a hard squeeze at 40 kg more than a heave at 80 kg; load what you can pause at the chest.