Best Back Workouts With Cable Machines

Cables are an incredibly versatile piece of exercise equipment that offer unique benefits due to their adjustable resistance angles.

They enable precise muscle activation by allowing variations in handle attachments, providing tailored exercise experiences suitable for individual needs.

The back muscles, located on the upper posterior torso, play crucial roles in pulling motions and other shoulder movements.

Common exercises targeting these muscles include rows, pull-ups, and lat pull-downs, all of which can be effectively performed using cable machines.

Incorporating cable pulls into your routine enhances back engagement and overall workout efficiency.

If you’re not training your back with cables, then you may not be targeting your back muscles from all angles and you could be missing out on some key components for growing a bigger and stronger back.

Anatomy Of Back Muscles

The back comprises a few different muscles: latissimus dorsi, spinal erectors, and traps. Each of these muscles works to pull objects into the body or helps to support the back under load.

Latissimus Dorsi

The lats span the entire upper back and their muscle fibers run diagonally. Due to the angle at which these muscle fibers run, you need to make sure to train the lats with both horizontal (i.e. rows) and vertical (i.e. pulldowns) pulling movements to target them effectively.

Spinal Erectors and Multifidus

The spinal erectors and multifidus muscles make up what is known as the lower back and are responsible for supporting the spine during movement. They also work to extend the back (bend the torso backward) when contracted.

You can train these muscles by doing back raises or any movement that is performed in a “bent over” position. Most workout plans include free weight exercises like deadlifts and squats that work the lower back.

Trapezius

The trapezius muscle spans the entire back of the body and consists of three different parts based on the direction of the muscle fibers, which are classified as the upper, middle, and lower traps.

The upper trap is the most notable section of the traps, running across the upper back, and is responsible for elevating the shoulder blades (shrugging movements, aka scapular elevation).

The middle trap runs along the spine and helps assist the upper traps, and supports good posture.

The lower traps sit lower on the back and help to maintain posture while also keeping the shoulder blades pulled down (scapular depression).

Rhomboids

The rhomboids are small yet important muscles that run between the shoulderblades. These muscles help to pull the shoulder blades together (retraction) as well as support the shoulder girdle during pressing and pulling movements.

Benefits Of Cable Back Exercises

Below are three benefits of performing back exercises with cables.

Train in a Non-Fixed Range of Motion:

Cables allow you to train the muscles in a non-fixed path, meaning that you can adjust them more easily to suit your needs and preferences.

This can help increase muscle growth and coordination by working around any movement restrictions or discomfort you may have when training with dumbbells or barbells.

While free weights are less fixed movements than machines, they still have some limitations. Cables do not directly work against gravity, so you can load the muscle from all angles rather than moving the loads in a vertical up-and-down plane.

Can Train Back from All Angles:

Similar to the benefit above, cables allow you to truly attack the back from all angles as you are not working directly against the downward force of gravity.

If you only train your back using dumbbells or barbells, then it will be tough to isolate all muscle fibers of the back because you cannot do vertical pulling movements with free weights. While you could throw in some pull-ups to supplement your free weight training, not everyone is capable of doing pull-ups for multiple sets.

Using the cables for back exercises allows you to target the back from every angle, regardless of your experience level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) or strength capacity.

Easy to Set Up:

Cables allow you to train all back exercises quickly and easily, as all you need to do is change the position of the cable, switch out the attachments, and change the weight on the stack.

Unlike barbells or dumbbells (which can still be effective for building back muscles), cables allow you to make your workouts more time and space efficient.

This is ideal when training in circuits or with a partner, as you can easily change the movement or weight without wasting time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Cables Good For Back Training?

Cables are great for building back muscles as they allow you to train the back at all angles while keeping tension on the muscles at all times. If you can train the back with various loads and the weights are heavy enough, you could do all your back workouts with cables and get great muscle growth!

Can You Build A Bigger Back Using Only Cables?

Yes, if you do both pulldown and rowing exercises multiple times a week with various rep ranges and loading, you can 100% get a bigger back. Many lifters prefer cables because they keep constant tension on the muscle and help you train the back from all angles easily (by adjusting the pulleys).