A Primer, Bodyweight Basics

FACE PULL
The majority of us overwork our front delts in relation to our rear. Push ups, bench press,
shoulder press and many other pushing motions load our front delts. Many people do front
deltoid isolation work ON TOP of this in the form of front raises with dumbbells while ignoring
the rear. A long with the rear delt fly, the face pull also works the rear delts, bringing the
rotator cuff into the equation as well.
Use a neutral grip
to ensure the rings
rotate around the
fingers, keeping
tension on the rings
at all times.
With a neutral grip, lean back as far as you want, the further the feet go forward, the
harder it’ll be! We want to depress (bring down) and retract (pull back) the scapula so the
elbows are lower than our shoulders. If they are higher than the shoulders, we’ll be targetting
the rear delts a lot more. Focus on keeping the shoulder blade position you started
with. Depressed and retracted!
From your chosen position, pull the rings towards you while bringing the elbows back, in
the same motion, raise your hands to around ear height for the external rotation. At the top
of the movement your arms should be in line with your elbows below the shoulders.
The face pull is an essential exercise for strengthening the muscles responsible for external
(outward) rotation of the shoulder. We have many exercises that work on internal (inward)
rotation moving the hands in front of the body, but not much for the reverse!
As usual we want to be keeping ourselves under control so keep the glutes tight, back
straight and avoid using excessive momentum to cheat the exercise. Keep the rings under
tension at all times!
We need balance in
exercise selection to
achieve a full physique
42 BODYWEIGHT