Demonstration
Watch the Form Demo
Technique
How to Do the Seated Cable Row
- Sit at the station with your feet braced on the platform and knees softly bent.
- Grip the handle and sit tall with your chest lifted.
- Pull the handle to your stomach, driving your elbows back past your ribs.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together for a beat.
- Let the handle return under control, allowing your shoulders to stretch forward at the end.
- Keep your torso upright and still for the whole set.
Anatomy
Muscles Worked
Do This
Form Cues
- Keep the torso upright and still. Do not row with the lower back.
- Pull the handle to the stomach and drive the elbows past the ribs.
- Let the shoulders travel forward at the end of each rep for the stretch.
- Let the shoulder blades glide: forward into a stretch at the front, pinched together at the back. That full glide is the rep.
Avoid This
Common Mistakes
- Rocking back and forth to move heavier weight.
- Rounding the lower back at the stretched position.
- Pulling with the arms rather than initiating with the shoulder blades.
- Rowing with the lower back by rocking the torso, which steals the range the mid-back was supposed to work through.
More to Explore
Variations & Related Exercises
Variations of this lift
Single Arm Seated Cable Row
Bent Over Barbell Row
Lat Pulldown
Trains the same muscles
Assisted Chin-Up
Assisted Machine Pull-Up
Barbell Deadlift
Barbell Rack Pull
Barbell Shrug
Barbell Upright Row
Put It Into Practice
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