Seated cable row: muscles worked, technique and variations

What is the seated cable row?

The seated cable row is a back exercise where you pull a handle toward your torso while sitting facing the machine. The resistance comes from a low pulley, set at hip height. The movement happens in the horizontal plane, which is where the name comes from.

It's one of the staple exercises for building back thickness. Cable tension stays constant from start to finish, which cuts out the jerking and makes the execution easier to read than with a free barbell. Keep your feet planted on the footplate and your torso upright.

Seated cable row: which muscles actually work?

The question comes up in every back session. The lats do most of the work, but they're not alone. The seated row mainly recruits the middle of the back, the part that gives you thickness when seen from the side.

• Lats: the prime mover
• Mid traps and rhomboids: pulling the shoulder blades together
• Rear delts: the back of the shoulders, often neglected
• Biceps and forearms: elbow flexion, in support
• Spinal erectors: bracing the torso in the seated position

The muscles worked shift with the pulling angle. A handle brought to the navel puts the emphasis on the lats. A handle pulled to the sternum with the elbows flared moves the load onto the traps and rear delts.

Out of ten lifters complaining about a flat back, eight pull too high and too fast. Slowing down the return changes more than adding ten kilos.

How to do the low pulley seated row

The starting position

Sit facing the pulley, feet planted, knees slightly bent. Grab the handle with your arms straight, torso upright, slight arch in the lower back. In this starting position, the shoulders are stretched forward without the back rounding.

The execution

Breathe in, then pull the handle toward the bottom of your sternum. The elbows travel along the body and drive backward. Squeeze the shoulder blades for half a second at the end of the range, then release slowly over a three count. Keep the torso still: if you're swinging your trunk twenty centimetres on every rep, the weight is too heavy.

• Don't shrug your shoulders toward your ears
• Pull with your elbows, not your hands
• Avoid leaning all the way back at the end

Three sets of ten to twelve reps is a solid base. The classic 3x12 works well for hypertrophy, with 90 seconds of rest. To build a full back session around this movement, our guided training programmes lay out sets, loads and progression week by week.

Close, wide or neutral grip: what does the handle change?

The close grip row

The V-handle, hands close together, is the most common version. The close grip row puts your hands in a neutral grip, palms facing each other. The elbows stay near the body and the lats work through a long range of motion.

The wide grip

With a straight bar and a wide grip, the elbows flare out to 45 degrees. The emphasis shifts to the mid traps and rear delts. This is the variation to go for if your upper back lacks density.

The other variations

The single arm cable row, one arm at a time, fixes left-right imbalances and adds torso rotation. The high pulley version, cable at shoulder height, gets close to a face pull and targets the rear shoulder. A supinated grip, palms up, brings the biceps more into play.

Horizontal row or vertical pulldown: what's the difference?

The two movements don't replace each other. The lat pulldown starts from a high pulley and is close to a pull-up: it widens the back. The seated row thickens it.

In a standard back session, put a pulldown first, then a horizontal cable row. Twelve to sixteen weekly sets for the back is enough for most intermediate lifters.

Cable, dumbbells, barbell or TRX: which one to pick?

The cable has a clear edge on constant tension and fine adjustment: load goes up in 2.5 kg plates, with no dead spot at the bottom of the movement. Dumbbell rows give you more range but need a stable point of support. The barbell lets you go heavy, at the cost of a more exposed back if your technique slips.

The TRX is still a valid option at home, with progression driven by body angle rather than load. It does the job, but it plateaus fast. If you're weighing up these options based on the gear you have, the workout builder that matches your equipment adapts the exercises automatically.

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