Face pulls are a great exercise for your shoulders, upper back, and posture in general. Face pulls are known as pre-hab exercise: an exercise you do to prevent injury. In this way you make this valuable exercise even more effective.

FACE PULLS

Face pulls are not an exercise that you do with tens of kilograms. It’s what I call a ‘contraction exercise’: an exercise where properly contracting the muscle(s) is more important than the weights you use. Do you use a lot of weight and don’t feel the exercise in your shoulders and upper back? Then you’re doing something wrong.

POWER BANDS

Personally, I’m a fan of using resistance bands, or power bands, in strength training. Whether or not in combination with conventional weights. You can add a resistance band to your regular face pulls, but for this exercise I prefer to use only a power band.

Loop a power band around one of the poles in a power cage or, for example, the barbell in the Smith machine. Grab the strap at shoulder width and walk back to tension the strap. First, contract your shoulder blades and move your elbows back, bringing your hands to the sides of your ears. At the end of the exercise, your forearms are vertically on the floor. If you kept them horizontal, you would ‘just’ be doing rear-delt rows.

WHY POWER BANDS?

The progressive resistance that power bands provide ensures that you actually feel this exercise where you need to feel it. With the outer rotation of the upper arm, which brings your forearm from a horizontal to a vertical position, the resistance band offers the most resistance. By holding the end position of the exercise for a while, you really feel the exercise.

As mentioned, you can also do the exercise in a pulley station plus a resistance band. You will then experience some more resistance at the beginning of the movement, plus you will benefit from the progressive resistance that the powerband offers. Be careful not to use too much weight, because then you will have difficulty completing the movement.

Image: Cory Gregory