Seated Cable Row
Also known as: Seated Row, Cable Row, Straight-Bar Seated Cable Row
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Description
Sit tall at a low-pulley row station and pull a short straight bar, palms down, to your upper stomach to build the middle of your back. Your middle and lower traps (between and just below the shoulder blades) and your lats take the bulk of the load, with the infraspinatus and teres muscles on the shoulder blade close behind. The seat and foot plate spare your lower back, so it works at any level. Compared with the close neutral-grip handle, the overhand bar puts more work on your middle traps and forearms and copies the grip of a barbell row.
How to Perform
- Clip a short straight bar to the low pulley and sit facing the stack, feet on the foot plate, knees clearly bent but never locked.
- Grab the bar overhand, hands about shoulder-width apart, and slide back until your arms are straight and the selected plates lift off the stack.
- Sit tall on your sit bones, torso vertical, chest up. That's the start: arms long at lower-chest height, shoulder blades spread forward.
- Draw your shoulder blades back first, then drive your elbows straight back along your ribs, upper arms about 15–35° out from your sides.
- Finish with the bar on your upper stomach, just below the ribs, and hold a second: elbows behind your torso, shoulder blades squeezed together and down.
- Let the bar travel forward over about 2 seconds until your arms are straight. Only your arms and shoulder blades move.
- Keep the plates off the stack until the last rep, then bend your knees and set the bar on the foot plate with a flat back.
What Muscles Work
Primary Muscle:
Secondary Muscles:
Tips
- Use 3–4 sets of 8–15 reps for muscle, or 6–8 for strength; much heavier than that and the overhand grip usually gives out first. Add reps at the same weight until all your sets hit the top of the range with a still torso, then move the pin down one plate (usually 5 kg, about 10 lb; 2.5 kg on small stacks) and drop back to the bottom.
- Expect a stretch across your upper back at the front of each rep and a squeeze between your shoulder blades at the finish, with the backs of your shoulders and your forearms chipping in. If your lower back or biceps tire first, you're rocking or pulling with your hands instead of your elbows. A pinch at the front of the shoulder means your elbows are going too far back.
- Can't keep your torso still? Learn the pull on a chest-supported machine first, or stay here with less weight and a 2-second pause at your stomach. Before the next jump in weight, slow the return to 3 seconds.
- Substitutes: Seated Cable Low Row Neutral Grip for more lats and easier wrists, Chest Supported Machine Row when your lower back is tired, Barbell Bent Over Row for the same overhand grip held in a hip hinge, and Dumbbell Bent Over Row when the cable station is taken.
Common Mistakes
- Rocking: you lean forward to reach and back to finish, so your hips and lower back move the stack. Keep your torso vertical and get the stretch from your shoulder blades; if the bar only reaches your stomach when you lean back, drop the weight.
- Rowing the bar to your chest. Your elbows lift and flare and your shoulders creep toward your ears; aim just below the ribs and keep your elbows close to your sides.
- Bent wrists. Palms down, they tend to curl under or cock back, and your forearms quit before your back does. Point your knuckles forward, hold the bar like a hook and pull with your elbows; if your grip still goes first, use straps.
- Cutting the reach short, so your arms never straighten and your shoulder blades stay pinned back. At the front of every rep let them glide forward with your chest up, then start the next pull from there.
Workout plans with this exercise
- Full body · 2 days
- Full body · 2 days
- Full body · 3 days
- Full body · 3 days
- Upper/Lower · 4 days
- Push/Pull · 4 days
- PPL · 3 days
- PPL · 6 days
- Body part split · 3 days
- Full body · 3 days · Glutes
- Upper/Lower · 4 days · Glutes
- Upper/Lower · 3 days · Glutes
- Upper/Lower · 5 days · Glutes
- Machines · 3 days · Glutes
- Full body · 2 days · Glutes
- Upper/Lower · 4 days · Chest
- Upper/Lower · 4 days · V-taper
- Full Body to Split
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