Seated Cable Rows

What it is

This exercise is a compound pulling movement performed on a cable machine. It effectively targets your middle back, strengthening the muscles responsible for pulling motions. You will also engage your biceps, latissimus dorsi, and shoulders as secondary movers.

Technique tips

• Maintain a slight bend in your knees throughout the movement.
• Keep your back straight with a slight arch, chest up.
• Initiate the pull by driving your elbows back, not just your arms.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the peak of the contraction.
• Control the weight slowly as you extend your arms forward.
• Exhale as you pull the handles, inhale as you release.

How to track your progress

Log the weight and reps of each set. Straddly turns every set into an estimated one-rep max, so a heavier single and a strong set of eight both count as progress, and it flags a personal record the moment you beat your best.