Can you get a complete, muscle-building back workout using nothing but cables?
Heck yes, you can.
If the barbell bros tell you that you can’t build a thick, wide back without heavy deadlifts and barbell rows, just smile and wave. Free weights are fantastic, but cables work just as well on back day.
Here’s why it works, how it works, and the ultimate cable-only back workout.
Why Cables Are Top-Tier for Building Your Back
When you use free weights like dumbbells or a barbell, gravity always pulls straight down. That means that an exercise gets easier or harder depending on where you are in the movement.
But with cables, you get constant tension through the entire range of motion, whether you’re at the top of a stretch or squeezing the life out of your lats at the bottom.
To get a complete back workout, you need to hit the muscles from different angles to build the whole landscape:
- Vertical Pulling (pulling down): Hits the latissimus dorsi (lats) to give you a wide V-taper.
- Horizontal Pulling (pulling toward your torso from straight in front of you): Also hits the lats, plus the rhomboids, mid-traps, and rear delts to give your back thickness and a 3D look.
- Isolation Exercises: Allow you to train your lats without your biceps pitching in, or hit your rear delts specifically.
Your back is a convoluted weave of many muscles, but cables make it easy to target the parts you want simply by adjusting the pulley height on a machine.
Cable-Only Back Workout
This is a workout for your back that you can complete in around 30 minutes. It’s free in our workout log app, StrengthLog.
It features a mix of pulldowns, rows, and isolation work, including both moderate-heavy sets and higher-rep work for a good pump.
Here’s the plan:
| Exercise | Sets | Reps | Notes |
| Lat Pulldown | 4 | 8–10 | Explosive but strict on the pull, controlled on the way up. |
| Seated Cable Row | 4 | 10–12 | Squeeze your shoulder blades together. |
| Rope Lat Pulldown | 3 | 12–15 | Focus on feeling your lats sweep back. |
| Face Pull | 3 | 15–20 | High rep, light weight for joint health and posture. |
The Cable Back Exercises
Let’s do a rundown of each exercise in the cable back workout and find out why they are in there and how to do them.
1. Lat Pulldown
The lat pulldown is your vertical pull for back width. It trains the same muscles as pull-ups, but without the need to stabilize, so you can focus more on squeezing your lats.
- Setup: Grab the long bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder-width. Keep your chest up, lean back slightly, pull the bar down to your upper chest, and control the weight on the way back up.
- Sets & Reps: 4 sets of 8–10 reps.
If you prefer another grip, go right ahead. Narrow or wide, palms forward or towards you, they all hit your lats pretty much the same.
2. Seated Cable Row
This is your heavy, horizontal pull. While pulldowns give you wings, the seated cable row gives you thickness.
- Setup: Sit down, plant your feet, and grab a close-grip handle. Let the weight pull your shoulders slightly forward, then pull the handle to your belly button while squeezing your shoulder blades together.
- Sets & Reps: 4 sets of 10–12 reps.
Keep it strict without momentum, but let your shoulder blades spread for a nice stretch-and-squeeze combo.
3. Rope Lat Pulldown
Most back exercises are compound movements that involve the biceps, but the rope lat pulldown is purely for the lats.
- Setup: Attach a rope (a straight bar works, too) to a high pulley. Stand a few feet back, hinge at the hips, and keep your arms almost straight. Pull the rope down in an arc until it hits your thighs.
- Sets & Reps: 3 sets of 12–15 reps.
This exercise takes your arms out of the equation entirely, isolating your lats and giving them a great loaded stretch.
4. Face Pull
Face pulls hit your rear delts and upper traps, and are super for shoulder health and for pulling your shoulders back into aesthetic alignment.
- Setup: Attach a rope to a pulley at about eye level. Grab the rope with your thumbs pointing up. Pull the center of the rope right toward your forehead, and pull your hands apart at the end of the movement.
- Sets & Reps: 3 sets of 15–20 reps.
Many lifters bundle face pulls with shoulder work, but it makes at least as much sense to do them on back day.
How Often Should You Do This Cable Back Workout?
According to research, somewhere between 10 and 20 weekly sets is where you want to be for optimal muscle growth.1 2
So, even if you only do this workout once per week, that’s fine. It’s an ideal amount of volume for advanced beginners and intermediate lifters.
For more experienced lifters, I’d suggest doing it twice per week to get the training volume you need to make good progress.
Remember to lift a little heavier or do one more rep when you can. If you did 10 reps this workout, try to hit 11 reps next week, or bump the weight up by 5 lb. Log your training and try to beat yourself.
Track This Cable Back Workout in StrengthLog
This is one of the many free workouts in our workout log app, StrengthLog.
StrengthLog remembers what weights you used in your last session and automatically loads them into your next one.
That makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the fast road to progress.
Download it and start tracking your gains today!
StrengthLog is free to use, and so is this cable back workout.
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
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Final Rep
If I were stranded on a desert island and could only choose one piece of equipment… well, I’d pick a boat. But if I had to choose something to build a massive back, I might actually pick a good cable machine over a rack of dumbbells.
Many bodybuilders actually prefer cables for back training because they are so effective for isolating the muscles.
The best thing about strength training is that your muscles don’t really care what equipment you use.
Free weights are awesome, but if you prefer cables, you’re not “settling”. You can build a top-tier back without ever touching a plate.
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Last reviewed: 2026-02-27
References
- J Hum Kinet. 2022 Feb 10:81:199-210. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy.
- International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Vol 1 No 1 (2021). Resistance Training Recommendations to Maximize Muscle Hypertrophy in an Athletic Population: Position Stand of the IUSCA.
