Cable machine exercises

A tall tower holding a stack of flat plates. You slide a pin into the stack to choose the weight, then pull a handle joined to it by a steel cable running over a pulley. Lat pulldown and seated row are cable stations. The tension stays even through the whole movement, which free weights cannot do.

With Cable machine and nothing else, 11 of the 18 muscle groups can still be trained to a full session's target.

Cable machine loads these hardest: Lats, Side delts, Mid-back / traps, Abs, Chest.

On its own, Cable machine cannot take these to a full session target: Quads, Hamstrings, Lower back / erectors, Calves, Adductors (inner thigh), Obliques, Abductors (outer hip).

Where to find it: Boxed-in stacks of flat plates with a printed number scale and a pin, cables and handles hanging above them.

Every movement on the Cable machine (24)

Best Cable machine movement for each muscle

Percent of one session's target for that muscle. Anything at 100% finishes that muscle on its own.

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