Cable exercises deliver in a way that free weights alone sometimes can’t match.
If you’re looking to build muscle, isolate a body part, or leave the gym with a skin-splitting pump (or all of the above), it’s time to embrace the pulleys.
In this guide, I’m going to give you the best upper body cable exercises you can add to your routine (and why you should) to make the most out of every rep.
Table of Contents
The Best Cable Exercises for Upper Body Muscle and Strength
The best cable exercises let you train your chest, back, shoulders, arms, and core with constant tension and smooth resistance.
Below are 17 of the best cable exercises for building upper body muscle and strength, along with tips on how to perform them.
Eager to jump straight to them? No problem:
Benefits and Drawbacks of Cable Exercises
Alright, let’s talk about the cable machine. It’s probably the most fought-over piece of equipment in the gym right after the bench press on a Monday.
Cable training is fantastic, but like anything, in fitness and in everything else, it’s not ideal for everyone all the time.
Here’s why you should be using cables, and where they fall a little short.
The Good: Why Cables Rule
1. Constant Tension
You’ll hear me go on about constant tension a lot in this article. But for a good reason.
With free weights, gravity only pulls straight down. That means at certain points in some lifts (like the top of a biceps curl or the bottom of a lateral raise), the muscle almost gets to rest.
But with cables, you get resistance along the line of the wire. That means no dead zones, and your muscles have to fight the weight through the entire range of motion.
2. Versatility
High, low, sideways, or anywhere in between.
You can adjust a pulley to hit a muscle and its fibers from angles that barbells and dumbbells simply can’t match, or at least not without messing with benches and adjusting the entire setup.
If you want to isolate your side delts or train core rotation, you’ll struggle to do that with a barbell. But cables make it easy.
3. Joint-Friendly and Safe
The movement on a high-quality cable machine is buttery smooth, which is a boon for cranky joints. And they make it possible to train around most nagging injuries by simply switching stances or angles.
Plus, you don’t have to hoist heavy weights into position or worry about getting stuck at the bottom of a barbell squat if you train to failure.
Now, strength training is a very safe form of exercise, regardless of equipment.1 Most injuries happen from a lack of awareness rather than from any inherent dangers from a barbell.
But if free weights are generally safe, cable exercises are safer than safe, as long as the gym owner keeps their equipment in shipshape.
4. Fast Adjustments and Weight Changes
Want to do a drop set to milk your pecs dry? Cable exercises rock. Just move the pin down a few slots. It takes two seconds and keeps your pump alive.
Dumbbells are as fast, provided no one sneaks in while you’re curling and steals the 20s from under your nose. And barbells? You need a training partner to make drop sets viable with barbell exercises.
The Not-So-Good: The Drawbacks
1. Not Great for Max Strength
If your main goal is to build max strength (like a 500 lb squat or deadlift), cables won’t get you there.
You just can’t load them up or leverage your body mechanics the same way you can with a heavy barbell, and they don’t allow the same full-body stabilization.
2. You’re Tied to the Gym
Unless you have a few grand to drop and a spare room in your house for a cable setup, you’re pretty much dependent on a commercial gym to get a good cable workout in.
That being said, if you have the room, a quality cable machine does allow you to do a ton of exercises on it, so you won’t have to expand your equipment park very often.
Overall, I’d say cables aren’t perfect (what is?), but they are a viable way to train.
Cables can’t replace your heavy, foundational free-weight movements (like squats, deadlifts, and presses) if you’re training for max strength, but they are top-tier for isolation work, building muscle, and working around injuries.
Top 17 Cable Exercises
Here we go—these are my choices for the best cable exercises you can do, categorized by muscle group, and why they deserve a spot in your routine. We’re focusing on the upper body only this time, so it doesn’t get out of hand.
Note that these are my top choices, not the definitive list. I’m sure you can find a coach who would switch some exercises out for their favorites. But I don’t think you can find anyone who would argue that these are all excellent for what they do.
Cable Chest Exercises
How can I build my pecs without bench presses, you might say? Well, the bench press is admittedly a top-tier exercise, but cables make it possible.
1. Cable Chest Fly
The cable chest fly is a great isolation exercise for the chest. You get both a nice stretch at the bottom of the movement and a massive squeeze at the top.
You can adjust the angle (high-to-low, horizontal, low-to-high) to hit different parts of your chest. For example, scooping the cables upward from the floor works your upper chest more, while pulleys set high target the lower fibers more.
This is an exercise where how you perform it matters more than how much weight you use.
No one is going to ask you, “Hey, what’s your 1-rep max on the cable fly?” The only thing that happens if you load up the entire weight stack is that you’ll isolate your pecs less.
Keep the weight under control and focus on bringing your hands together using your chest and squeezing your pecs.
How to Do Standing Cable Chest Flyes
- Fasten a pair of handles in the top position of a cable cross. Grip the handles, step forward, and lean slightly forward.
- With just a slight bend in the arms, push the handles forward until they meet in front of your body.
- With control, let the handles go back to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
2. Cable Incline Chest Fly
The cable incline chest fly is one instance where using cables is objectively superior to free weights.
They keep full tension on your pecs through the entire movement, unlike dumbbells, where it drops at the top.
Set the bench to a max 45-degree angle to hit your upper chest. No need to overdo the angle; any higher, and you’ll turn a fantastic chest exercise into more of a front delt exercise.
Imagine you are trying to bear-hug a really wide tree. Bring your hands together in an arc, really squeeze your pecs at the top, and control the weight on the way back down until you feel a good stretch in your chest.
How to Do Cable Incline Chest Flyes
- Adjust the incline of a bench to around 30–45 degrees and place it between two cable pulleys set to the low position.
- Grab the handles and lie on the bench with your arms extended wide and a slight bend in your elbows.
- Bring the handles together in a wide arc motion above your chest.
- Lower the handles back to the starting position with control.
- Repeat for reps.
3. Cable Chest Press
The cable chest press is the equivalent of the barbell bench press. But with cables, and without the need for a bench.
For building muscle, it’s chef’s kiss. You can bring your hands together for a massive squeeze without losing tension, and you can adjust the cable height and your pressing angle to keep your shoulders happy.
Where the cable chest press can’t match the barbell bench press is for strength development. If you want to push maximum weight, you want stability, and if you load the cable stack, the weight will literally pull you backward off your feet.
So, building muscle: A-tier. Strength: C-tier. But if you use it for the former, it should be a staple in your cable chest workout.
If you’re struggling with balance and stability, put one foot forward and lean slightly into the movement. You’ll get a better support base, so you aren’t fighting the pull of the cable.
How to Do Cable Chest Presses
- Fasten a pair of handles in the top position of a cable cross. Grip the handles, step forward, and lean slightly forward.
- Push the handles forward until they meet in front of your body.
- With control, let the handles go back to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Cable Back Exercises
If I had to choose only one piece of equipment to build my back, a quality cable setup would probably be it. I love me some barbell rows as much as the next guy, but cables and back training? They go together like chocolate milk and cookies.
4. Lat Pulldown
The lat pulldown is one of the best exercises for building lat width regardless of training equipment. It’s also a surprisingly good biceps builder.
It trains the same primary movement pattern as a pull-up, but in a way that lets you stay in full control of the load, volume, and technique. It’s both a hypertrophy goldmine and the perfect stepping stone if you’re working toward your first few pull-ups.
Leaning back slightly (10 to 15 degrees) is natural and helpful, but doing pulldowns the way you see many people in the gym do them, yanking the weight down, and letting the weight fly back up, is a no-no.
Two things that matter less than many think are grip width and which handle you use. You can pick any grip and any grip width you like best. New research shows that they all work your lats pretty much the same.
I wrote an in-depth article about the study that looked at how different handles affected lat activation (hint: they didn’t). You can check it out here:
New Study: Do Different Lat Pulldown Variations Hit the Lats Differently?
Keep it clean, keep it strict, and lat pulldowns have a permanent spot on any list of best cable exercises.
How to Do Lat Pulldowns
- Begin by adjusting the thigh pad to fit snugly against your thighs to prevent your body from lifting off the seat.
- Grasp the bar with an overhand (pronated) grip, with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Sit with your thighs under the thigh pad, keep your chest up, and look at the bar.
- Pull the bar down towards your chest, leading with your elbows. Pull until the bar is below your chin or touches your upper chest.
- Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the bottom of the movement.
- Exhale and slowly release the bar back up to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
5. Seated Cable Row
I remember reading in bodybuilding magazines back in the ’80s, “If you wanna grow, you gotta row,” and there’s still truth to that. And the seated cable row is still a go-to for building back thickness.
You can easily swap attachments (V-bar, wide bar, single handle) to hit different parts of your back, and unlike with the lat pulldown, the handle actually makes a difference here. A close grip hits more of your lats and mid-back thickness. A wider bar works more of your upper back, traps, and rear delts.
Pro Tip: Instead of sitting perfectly still and upright, rowing only with your arms, I recommend a controlled sway where you let your shoulder blades move forward and get a good stretch in your lats.
If you watch old footage of Arnold, you’ll see him moving his torso like he’s rowing a boat through a storm. You don’t have to go that far if you don’t have the mobility, but reach forward with your chest, feel that pull under your armpits, and then drive your elbows back. But if you have to use a hitch or a kick with your legs to get the weight moving, it’s too heavy.
How to Do Seated Cable Rows
- Attach a narrow handle to the cable row, and assume the starting position.
- Maintain an upright posture with your chest out, shoulders back, and core engaged. Lean forward slightly and let your scapulae move freely by letting them slide forward to the starting position.
- Inhale, retract your shoulder blades, and pull the handle towards your lower abdomen while leaning back slightly.
- Exhale and slowly return to the starting position by extending your arms and leaning forward.
- Repeat for reps.
6. Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown
Most back exercises involve the biceps. Nothing wrong with getting a little biceps action on back day, but the straight-arm lat pulldown takes the biceps completely out of the equation and allows you to focus 100% on your lats.
Note that it’s called a straight-arm pulldown for a reason. If you bend your elbows as you push the weight down, congratulations! You just turned a great lat exercise into a really weird triceps pushdown. So keep your arms locked.
You can use either a straight bar or a rope. I feel the rope variant more in my lats, but that’s more of a personal preference thing than one being better than the other.
But if you use a rope, you want to hinge forward a bit more, or you’ll cut down the range of motion. You need that hinge to get a good stretch at the top of the movement.
How to Do Straight-Arm Lat Pulldowns
- Set a pulley high and attach a rope or bar. Grip the attachment (slightly wider than shoulder-width if using a bar).
- With straight arms, push the bar or rope down in front of you by contracting your lats.
- Slowly return the bar or rope to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Cable Shoulder Exercises
Free-weight overhead presses can’t be beat for vertical pressing strength and (perhaps) overall shoulder mass, but for isolating individual deltoid heads, which is what a bodybuilder often wants, cables rule the roost.
7. Cable Lateral Raise
The lateral raise is another exercise where using cables might be the better choice compared to the free-weight variant.
With dumbbells, there’s almost no tension at the bottom. With a cable, your side delt is under tension from the first inch of the lift to the very top.
So why “might”? Well, one study actually compared cable and dumbbell lateral raises, and it found no differences in muscle growth after 8 weeks of training.2
I wrote an article about that study and what the researchers found, which you can check out here:
Dumbbell Lateral Raise vs. Cable Lateral Raise: Which Is Best?
Regardless, the lateral raise is the side delt champ, and your side delts are what give you shoulder width. Hello, boulder shoulders.
Forget throwing your whole back into it. Drop the pin down a few notches if you have to heave the weight up. The side delt is a small muscle, and it doesn’t need the whole weight stack to grow.
How to Do Cable Lateral Raises
- Grip a handle connected to the lower position on a cable pulley. Stand close to the pulley, with the arm holding the handle facing away from the machine.
- With control, lift the handle out to your side until your upper arm is horizontal.
- Lower the handle with control.
- Repeat for reps.
8. Cable Upright Row
The upright row is a classic exercise that sometimes gets a bad rap. It hits both your shoulders (the lateral (side) deltoid in particular) and your traps, plus a little bit of biceps thrown in for good measure.
Some believe upright rows are a one-way ticket to Impingement City, but if you have healthy shoulders and don’t raise your upper arms above shoulder height at the top of the movement, you’ve got a great, safe upper-body mass builder.3
If you feel it in your wrists, try a rope attachment or two individual D-handles so your wrists can move freely.
How to Do Cable Upright Rows
- Position a cable at the lowest position possible and attach a straight bar.
- Grip the bar with an overhand grip, slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart.
- Pull the bar straight up until it is at the level of your chin.
- With control, lower the bar back to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
9. Face Pull
The face pull is one of the best exercises for shoulder health and posture, which automatically makes it a top cable exercise. You’re not doing them to build big delts but to strengthen the muscles that protect your shoulders so you can keep training hard and pain-free.
This is one exercise where you want to stick with a lighter weight and higher reps. Focus on the mind-muscle connection and feeling the muscles work.
Pro Tip: Imagine you are hitting a front double-biceps bodybuilding pose at the end of the movement. And think “pull apart and back,” not just “pull back.” Hold the squeeze for a split second before slowly returning to the start.
How to Do Face Pulls
- Fasten a rope handle in a high position on a cable pulley. Grip the ropes with an overhand grip, and take a step or two back.
- With elbows held high, pull the rope towards you by letting your upper arms move straight out towards your sides while simultaneously rotating your forearms up.
- Return with control to the starting position by letting your arms move forward again.
- Repeat for reps.
10. Reverse Cable Fly
The reverse cable fly is an isolation exercise and pretty much the opposite of a chest fly (see the Chest section earlier), but instead of hugging a tree, you’re spreading your wings like a muscle-bound eagle.
It primarily works your posterior (rear) delts, and, as a bonus, it hits your rhomboids and middle trapezius (the muscles between your shoulder blades). If you want stronger, 3D-looking shoulders, this is one of the best exercises (not just the best cable exercises, but in general) at your disposal.
Pro Tip: Pull the cables at a slight downward angle (hands finishing slightly below your shoulders) instead of straight across. You take the upper traps out of the equation and isolate your rear delts more.
How to Do Reverse Cable Flyes
- Attach two handles in the upper pulleys of a cable crossover.
- Reach across your body and grab the handle from the right side of the machine with your left hand and the left handle with your right.
- Position yourself in the center of the machine. Keep your arms straight ahead, your chest up, and brace your core.
- Keep the elbows slightly bent while pulling your arms backward until they are about parallel to your body.
- Reverse the movement.
- Repeat for reps.
Cable Arm Exercises
Time to train arms. The guns. The pythons.
Whatever you call them, cables are exceptionally well suited to build your upper arms.
11. Cable Curl
Attach a handle to a low pulley, grab it, and curl. That’s the cable curl, a go-to biceps builder for newbies and advanced bodybuilders alike.
Sounds simple. It is simple. But it works, and it gives you a pump that’ll make you want to flex in every mirror you walk past.
You might be wondering, “Why not just use dumbbells or a barbell?” You absolutely could and should use those too, if you want. But cables offer one advantage, and it’s the one I’ve talked about before: constant tension. Free-weight curls get easy at the top and bottom, but cable curls don’t.
One of the best things about cable exercises is how easy they are to adjust how you want (or need). Swap the attachment to target the muscles a little differently, rope for cable hammer curls, EZ-bar handle to make it easier on the wrists, or single-hand handles to work one arm at a time.
How to Do Cable Curls
- Fasten a bar in the lower position of a cable cross. Grip the bar with an underhand (supinated) grip, hands about shoulder-width apart, and take a step back.
- Lift the bar with control, by flexing your elbows.
- Don’t let your upper arm travel back during the curl, keep it still or move it slightly forward.
- Reverse the movement and lower the bar back to the starting position.
12. Bayesian Curl
The Bayesian curl is named after the idea of Bayesian probability: keeping up-to-date based on new evidence. Here, you’re forcing your biceps to update their understanding that they’re not getting out of this one without growing.
Bayesian curls are elite for the long head of the biceps because they load the muscle in a stretched position. To do so, your arm needs to be behind your torso (shoulder extension), and that’s what you’re getting here.
As you curl up, your elbow might naturally want to drift forward a bit, and that’s OK. But if you swing your elbow way out in front of you, you’ll turn it into a front deltoid raise.
How to Do Bayesian Curls
- Stand in front of a cable machine with the handle attached to the lower pulley. Hold the handle in one hand and position yourself with your back facing the machine.
- Step forward slightly so that the cable creates light tension, and lean your torso slightly forward.
- Keep your elbow close to your body, starting with your arm extended behind you.
- Bend your elbow and pull the handle forward and upward, contracting your biceps at the top. Keep your upper arm stationary throughout the movement.
- Lower back to the starting position and repeat for reps.
13. Triceps Pushdown
Pushdowns are the most popular triceps exercise and a staple for everyone from beginners to advanced bodybuilders. For many reasons: easy to learn, easy to control, scalable, elbow-friendly, and effective.
You can use either a rope or a bar. A rope allows you to spread your hands at the bottom and get a harder squeeze, while a bar makes the exercise more stable so you can use more weight.
Both have their place, so feel free to use the one you like the best, or rotate. Your triceps development does not stand or fall with your choice of pushdown handle. I like to do both, sometimes in different workouts, sometimes in the same (with a bar first, then finishing with high-rep sets with a rope).
Your forearms should be the only things moving. Imagine you have a $100 bill tucked under each armpit and you can’t afford to let them drop.
How to Do Triceps Pushdowns
- Stand one step away from the cable pulley, and grip a rope or a bar (about shoulder-width apart).
- Pull the handle down until your upper arms are perpendicular to the floor. This is the starting position.
- Push the handle down until your arms are fully extended.
- With control, let the handle up again.
- Repeat for reps.
14. Overhead Cable Triceps Extension
The single best and most important cable exercise for adding lean mass to the upper arms, in my opinion: the overhead cable triceps extension.
And research agrees, with one study showing ~40% more long head (the meaty part at the back of your arm) growth compared to sticking with just pushdowns.4
That’s because complete long head development requires you to have your elbows over your head when you do triceps work. Cables make this exercise feel a great deal smoother than a dumbbell (and easier on the elbows, too).
How to Do Overhead Cable Triceps Extensions
- Fasten a rope handle in the lower position of a cable pulley. Stand with your back against the pulley, with a slight forward lean, and hold the rope behind your head and your upper arms next to your ears.
- Straighten your elbows until your arms are fully extended.
- Reverse the motion by bending your arms again.
- Repeat for reps.
Cable Core Exercises
Core training is not just sit-ups and leg raises. Cables can hold their own when it comes to building a core of, if not steel, then at least rock-solid muscle.
15. Cable Crunch
Bodyweight ab exercises are great, but they lack two things: constant tension and easy progressive overload. The cable crunch gives you both, which makes it perhaps the best cable exercise for building stand-out six-pack abs.
The most common mistake when doing cable crunches is keeping your back straight and pushing your hips back. But do them that way, and you work your hip flexors, not your abs. You want to round your back and really crunch your abs.
How to Do Cable Crunches
- Fasten a rope handle in the upper position on a cable pulley. Sit down on your knees a few feet away, facing the pulley.
- Bend your upper body forward by contracting your abs. Hold the ropes on either side of your head throughout the movement.
- Reverse the motion and return to the starting position with control.
- Repeat for reps.
16. Cable Woodchopper
Most core exercises happen in the sagittal plane, meaning forward or backward movement. But that’s not enough for all-around core strength. Woodchoppers build rotational strength and power (the transverse plane), which you need in many sports. And in real life. Real life and real athleticism happen in 3D.
Woodchoppers train your obliques, abs, and the deep transverse abdominis, and there are a few variations (horizontal, low-to-high, high-to-low) that train those muscles and the rotational movement from different angles.
Do you need to do this exercise if aesthetics and six-pack abs are all that matter? No. But if you want a core that can twist, generate power, and resist getting knocked off balance with the best of them? Then yes, it’s a very good bet.
How to Do Horizontal Woodchoppers
- Fasten a handle in a cable machine, at about shoulder height. Grip the handle with both hands, step away, and stand sideways to the cable’s anchor point.
- With almost straight arms, make a sweeping, horizontal movement to your other side.
- Return to the starting position in a controlled manner.
- Repeat for reps.
17. Pallof Press
The Pallof press is an anti-rotation exercise that too few people outside of certain athletes do on a regular basis.
Two of your core’s primary jobs are to flex your spine (like a sit-up) or twist it (like a woodchopper), but an equally important job is to resist unwanted movement.
A strong core transfers power; a weak core leaks it.
So, when you do a Pallof press, the cable tries its darndest to twist your torso, and you use your entire trunk to prevent that movement. The result is better deep-core stability and a body that can withstand and continue to perform when outside forces try to throw you off balance.
How to Do Pallof Presses
- Attach a handle in a cable machine at chest height and stand with your side facing the machine.
- Grab the handle with both hands and stand with feet hip-width apart and knees slightly bent.
- Pull the handle to your chest, engage your core, and then press your arms straight out in front of you without rotating your torso.
- Hold briefly, then bring the handle back to your chest in a controlled motion.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions, then switch sides.
The Best Cable Workouts for Strength and Muscle
And that’s a wrap! Seventeen of the best upper body cable exercises you should consider adding to your routine, at least if you want to build muscle, get stronger, and perform better.
But before we close this one out, let’s take a look at some great cable workouts that implement many of these exercises to great effect.
Cable workouts are viable whether you just prefer cable training, are working around an injury that can’t handle free weights, or find yourself in a hotel gym consisting of a sit-up chair, an exercise bike, and a cable station.
These are five of the many free workouts in our workout log app, StrengthLog, that cover the major muscle groups in your upper body.
You can follow them directly in the app, and it makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re progressing. It remembers what weights you used in your last session and automatically loads them into your next one.
And did I mention that they are free? Well, they are. Both the workouts and the StrengthLog app.
1. Cable Chest Workout
This is a workout for your chest that you can complete in around 25 minutes or less.
It features a mix of presses and flyes, hitting your entire chest from all major angles.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Cable Chest Press | 4 | 8 |
| Cable Incline Chest Fly | 3 | 12 |
| Standing Cable Chest Fly | 3 | 15 |
2. Cable Back Workout
This is a workout for your back that takes around 30 minutes.
A mix of pulldowns, rows, and isolation work, including both moderate-heavy sets and higher-rep work, build strength and muscle in your lats and upper back. And gives you a nice pump.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Lat Pulldown | 4 | 8–10 |
| Seated Cable Row | 4 | 10–12 |
| Rope Lat Pulldown | 3 | 12–15 |
| Face Pull | 3 | 15–20 |
3. Cable Shoulder Workout
This is a balanced, full-volume shoulder workout designed to hit every fiber of your deltoids. You can complete this one, too, in around 30 minutes.
You hit all three deltoid heads, mostly with isolation exercises but with some compound work in the mix.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Cable Front Raise | 3 | 10 |
| Cable Lateral Raise | 4 | 12 |
| Cable Upright Row | 3 | 10 |
| Reverse Cable Fly | 3 | 12 |
4. Cable Biceps Workout
Yes, you can build the most important muscle of the body with cables. I am, of course, talking about the biceps.
This is a three-exercise, cables-only workout designed to hit every fiber of your biceps from fully stretched to fully contracted.
You can complete this one in 25 minutes or less.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Cable Curl | 4 | 8 |
| Bayesian Curl | 3 | 10 |
| Rope Hammer Curl | 3 | 12 |
5. Cable Triceps Workout
This triceps workout hits all three heads, from all angles, with a combination of heavier and lighter exercises and lower and higher reps.
Like the biceps workout, it only takes around 25 minutes or less.
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Triceps Pushdown | 3 | 8 |
| Overhead Cable Triceps Extension | 4 | 10 |
| Crossbody Cable Triceps Extension | 3 | 12 |
Track These Cable Workouts in StrengthLog
All five of these workouts are free in the StrengthLog workout tracker.
Download it and start tracking your gains today.
Track Your Training. See Real Progress.
Log your workouts in one place and watch your numbers climb, week after week.
- Free to get started
- Fast workout logging
- Cardio and strength training
- Beginner-friendly
- Free weights, cables, and machines
- Progress over time, personal bests
- Free and premium training programs and workouts for every fitness goal
Download StrengthLog free:
Short FAQ About Cable Exercises
Got cable questions? I’ll do my best to answer the most common ones here.
You bet. Cable exercises are excellent for muscle growth because they keep constant tension on the muscles through the entire range of motion. They are especially effective for isolation work and getting a good pump, and many bodybuilders actually prefer cable work over free weights.
Some of the best cable exercises for the upper body include the cable chest fly, lat pulldown, seated cable row, cable lateral raise, cable curl, and triceps pushdown. Add them together, and you train all your major upper-body muscle groups.
Absolutely. A well-designed cable workout can pack on the muscle just as well as a barbell or dumbbell workout, as long as you use progressive overload and train close to failure.
Neither is always better for every goal. Free weights are usually better for maximum strength and big compound lifts, while cable exercises are awesome for isolation work, joint-friendly training, and constant tension.
Most workouts include 2–4 cable exercises depending on what you’re training. Smaller muscles like biceps or triceps might only need two exercises, while larger muscles like your back are more complex and can handle more volume.
Yes, you can!. The StrengthLog workout tracker includes free and ready-to-use cable workouts and lets you log weights, reps, and progress directly in the app.
Final Rep
I’m not saying you need to break up with your barbell. Heavy iron will always be the top choice for building raw strength.
But cables offer benefits that free weights can’t always match. For building muscle, they’re at least as good. For isolation work and working around an injury, they’re hard to top.
And yes, you can base an entire workout on cable-only exercises and get great results. You don’t have to, but you can.
Add a few of these cable exercises to your routine or fire up StrengthLog and try one of the workouts, and your muscles will definitely get the message.
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Last reviewed: 2026-03-23
References
- Sports Med. 2017 Mar;47(3):479-501. The Epidemiology of Injuries Across the Weight-Training Sports.
- Front Physiol. 2025 Jul 7:16:1611468. Dumbbell versus cable lateral raises for lateral deltoid hypertrophy: an experimental study.
- Strength and Conditioning Journal 33(5):p 25-28, October 2011. The Upright Row: Implications for Preventing Subacromial Impingement.
- Eur J Sport Sci. 2022 Aug 11;1-11. Triceps brachii hypertrophy is substantially greater after elbow extension training performed in the overhead versus neutral arm position.
