Suspension face pull
A pull toward the face on suspension handles, leaning back under your own bodyweight. Work for the rear shoulders and upper back.
TrainsShouldersUpper back
NeedsSuspension trainer
The movement
2 stages
Arms straight
01 Arms straight
Lean back on straight arms until the straps are taut, body in one line.
02 Hands to the forehead
Pull the handles apart and back to your forehead, driving the elbows back past your ribs.
How to do it
Setup
- Set the handles to about chest height and face the anchor with one handle in each hand.
- Walk your feet forward and lean back until the straps take your weight and your arms are straight.
- Brace your trunk so your body holds one line from heels to head.
Execution
- Pull the handles back toward your forehead, splitting your hands apart as they travel.
- Finish with your hands beside your ears and your elbows back at shoulder height.
- Straighten your arms slowly to return to the lean.
BreathingExhale as you pull, inhale as you return.
Getting it right
Form cues
- Split your hands wide before they reach your face.
- Drive the elbows back past your ribs, not down toward them.
- Feet further forward to make it harder, back to make it easier.
Common mistakes
- Dropping the elbows toward the ribs, which turns the pull into a narrow row for the lats.
- Bending at the hips to help the arms, which takes the load off the rear shoulders.
Worth knowing
- Keep tension on the straps from the first rep to the last. Letting them go slack at the bottom drops your weight onto a straight arm and jars the shoulder.
General guidance, not medical advice. See how Setkit works.
Notes
The face pull trains the back of the shoulder and the small muscles between the shoulder blades, which most training programs load far less than the front of the shoulder. Two things have to happen in the same rep. Your hands travel back toward your head, and your hands travel apart from each other. Pulling straight back with the hands close together is a row done at an awkward height.
Elbow height is what separates the two. If your elbows drop toward your ribs as you pull, the lats take over and the rear shoulders get almost nothing, which is easy to miss because the rep still looks like it worked. Keep the elbows level with your shoulders the whole way.
There is no weight to add here, so your feet set the difficulty. Standing more upright makes the pull light, and walking your feet forward under the anchor makes it heavy. Because the rear shoulders respond better to sets of twelve to twenty than to heavy triples, pick a foot position you can hold that range at rather than the steepest angle you can manage once.