Incorporating Face Pulls in Your Training

Trainees tend to spend most their training what they can see in the mirror.

Hence, pecs and biceps get plenty of attention.

That works for a while, until shoulder pain sets in because of improper muscle balance between the agonist and antagonists.

Since I shot this video on face pulls, I have been asked to expand on it:

I became aware of this exercise in the late seventies, through the writings of John Parillo, who to the best of my knowledge, is the one who promoted it the most. I immediately incorporated it in the training of my athletes, from swimmers to football players, with obvious dividends in health and performance.

It highly benefits the scapulae retractors, which in turn keep the shoulder in proper alignment. Not training the scapulae retractors effectively leads to plethora of shoulder issues from cartilage degeneration, labrum tears, osteoarthritis to name a few.

Tips on how to make them more effective:

Have a partner stick the fingers of one hand in the center of your spine, so that you don’t succumb to using your posterior chain to hoist more weight.

As you retract the scapulae , aim a squeezing your partner’s fingertips.)

Make sure to pull the center of the rope slightly up towards the face.

Concentrate pulling the ends of the rope apart, not simply pulling back.

As you near your face, bring your hands upwards so that the knuckles face the ceiling..

Hold for up to  6 seconds if you are a beginner, and/or your scapuale retractors are weaky weak in the shortened position.  Lower the weight under control.

Stretch your pec minor muscles statically between sets, that will increase the load you can use on facepulls.

So here is a video on making sure the range is respected.

Note the use of the fingertips  between the shoulder blades to make sure that the form is good, as mentionned in tip # 1 and 2.

You can also use a neutral grip where the index fingers make contact with the wooden stoppers, this allows for greater external rotation of the humerus. From experience, most people need 3 weeks of the pronated version before they can move on to this one.

Do face pulls and keep your shoulder girdle balanced and healthy

Stay strong,

Coach Charles R. Poliquin