Cable Rope Pullover Guide: Benefits, How-To, Alternatives & More

cable rope pullover banner

Related Blackridge guides: humble row (upper back), helms row (lats), pronated pulldown (lats), neutral grip pulldown (lats), V bar pulldown (lats), 5 dumbbell pullover alternatives (lats + chest), pull-ups (back), chest supported row

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What is a cable rope pullover?

In short, it’s a brilliant standing cable exercise that targets the lats, as well as working on some of the stabilising muscles in the back and core. Usually, this exercise is used as an accessory to bigger back exercises like pull-ups and barbell bent-over rows.

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How to do a cable rope pullover

Form tips

  • When setting up the cable, use its highest setting. Also, if you only have short rope handles available, use 2 at the same time so that you can get your hands on either side of your hips.
  • Start with feet shoulder-width apart, standing roughly 2 – 3 feet away from the cable machine. The further you are away from the cable machine, the harder the rep is going to be to complete with control.
  • Have a moderate hinge in the hips (approximately 45 degrees) and a slight bend in the knees.
  • Make sure that your spine is straight and your shoulder blades are stable and locked using the traps and rhomboids.
  • Ensure that your hips are also locked and engaged for complete stability,
  • As you pull the weight down, have a slight bend in your elbows and keep this constant throughout the entire movement.
  • Focus on bringing your elbows to your sides and behind your torso (you won’t get far) until you achieve the maximum contraction.
  • From here, return your arms to the starting point with control
  • Important: Don’t use any momentum in this movement. We’re only interested in isolating the lats and moving the humerus (upper arm bone). If you need to use momentum you should lower the weight and focus on the correct form.

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Cable rope pullover workout

Because this is a very isolated movement, we would recommend that you keep your rep ranges higher rather than progressively overloading the exercises. The design of the exercise is better suited to hypertrophy training, with strength training for the lats being better suited to pull-ups (see guide), weighted pull-ups and more supported back exercises.

Considering this, aim for a 10 – 12 rep range, for 3 – 4 sets with a 1 – 2 minutes rest time.

cable rope pullover example

Cable rope pullover benefits

Excellent for isolating the lats

This exercise is brilliant for getting maximum activation of the lats. If we’re looking to build in this specific area, the position of our arms and torso allows us to get the maximum stretch on this muscle as our humerus is high and in front of us.

Exercises that are also good for lat isolation: helms row, v bar lat pulldown, neutral grip pulldown, pronated pulldown.

lat muscle

Requires core stability, aiding functionality and compound movements

Because we’re using our abs and hips to stabilise the movement, this exercise is much more functional than a sitting, chest-assisted move for example.

This means that we’re gaining crossover benefits for every day life, as well as our bigger compound lifts that require core and hip stability.

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cable rope pullover example
Form isn’t bad, not sure about the mask…

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Cable rope pullover drawback

We’re not building other back muscles due to isolation

Isolation exercises are a double-edged sword. Whilst this exercise is brilliant for targeting the lats, what about all of the other muscles in our back?

Using this exercise as an accessory to a bigger move like the pull-up (see guide) is fine, but by itself, we’re not going to build a strong back.

back muscles
We’re only hitting one of many back muscles

Related Blackridge guides: humble row (upper back), helms row (lats), pronated pulldown (lats), neutral grip pulldown (lats), V bar pulldown (lats), 5 dumbbell pullover alternatives (lats + chest), pull-ups (back), chest supported row

Cable rope pullover muscles worked

Lats (latissimus dorsi)

As we’ve discussed, the lats are the key muscle in this movement. In the diagram we have here we can see how the muscle attaches to the humerus. When our arms are in front of us, like they are at the start of this movement, our lats will be working to pull the bone back to the torso.

Regarding other muscles involved in this movement. The traps (see prone trap raise guide) and rhomboids will be working hard to keep the shoulder blades in place. Also the teres major (Little lat helper) will be assisting the lat by pulling the humerus. Finally, the triceps will be working to keep the slight bend in the arm.

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lat back muscle

Cable rope pullover alternatives

Seated cable row

If you’re using a narrow or medium grip width, this exercise is brilliant for working the lats. We would also recommend a neutral grip (palms facing each other) for maximum results.

This exercise differs from the cable rope pullover in that 1) it’s seated so it requires less stability. This can help us to kick the weight up and progressively overload the muscle. And 2) because our elbows are flexing (bending), our biceps will be getting a bit of a workout. In short, less isolated and athletic, but potentially more strength potential.

Cable high pull

We’ve recommended this exercise on a few of our blogs because there’s so much to love about it. It’s incredibly functional as we’re in a standing position with our core and hips stabilising us.

We also have the potential to really overload this exercise because we’re flexing the elbow, recruiting the bicep. Finally, if we relax our shoulder blades at the start of the movement, we can also get a good trap and rhomboid workout as we retract our scapula close to our spine midway through the rep.

Additional resources

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Olly is a CIMSPA accredited personal trainer with a BSc degree in sport management from Solent University. He has over 10 years experience helping clients reach their health & fitness goals.