The face pull is an incredible exercise for not only building the rear delts and upper back muscles, but there is one way that people screw up the face pull. Luckily, there is a simple fix that will make sure you get the exercise done correctly every single time you do it.

First, it is important to understand the benefits of the exercise not only is it going to help build muscle at the right loads, but it acts as an incredible corrective exercise to keep your shoulders healthy and working forever.

Face pulls are primarily an exercise that reinforces external rotation of the shoulder joint. Training this function is important as we often spend our time with internally rotated shoulders. Internal rotation can lead to dysfunction, discomfort, and potentially injury as well. Unless we train the external rotator muscles in the shoulder, undoing that bad posture of internally rotated shoulders becomes that much more difficult.

Believe me, for the best performance and healthy shoulders, you are going to want to train the rotator cuff muscles.

This is where facepulls come into play; directly training the rotator cuff, the rear delts, and the upper back. These overlooked areas need a little extra attention to make sure nothing goes awry with your shoulders.

When doing face pulls the traditional way with a single rope attachment, you are not getting enough range of motion to adequately train these muscles. If you take a look at the finishing position of the exercise, you will notice that your forearms are not at 90 degree position in relation to your upper arm. In fact, you will see that there is a pretty acute angle that has the hands directly over the biceps.

The fix is easy though.

You need to make sure you are using the right equipment. Instead of using the standard single rope, providing a smaller range of motion and limited external rotation of the shoulder joint, you will want to use either an extra long rope or, if you have enough of these lying around, two standard ropes. This will give you the extra length needed to properly externally rotate the shoulders. In the finishing position, you will notice that your forearms are now at that desired 90 degree angle.

Remember, external rotation is the name of the game when using face pulls as a corrective exercise or even as a primer before heading into your pushing compound exercises such as the bench press or the overhead press. The best way to achieve external rotation is to get those hands out wide enough which is only achievable through the recommendations I made in terms of the rope attachment(s).

For more ways to make sure you are getting every exercise right with proper form, be sure to stay tuned to this channel and remember to subscribe so you never miss another video from a physical therapist with a pro sports background as a PT and strength coach.

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Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).