The facepull is an assistance exercise that I see recommended a lot in many of Jim Wendler’s programs. I don’t have any experience with this movement, so I’m not sure what’s the best way to do them.
Is it better to use an underhand grip (like you were going to do a rope hammer curl) or over hand grip. Is it better to pull closer to your chin or your forehead? How high should the pulley be set? What advantages and disadvantages does one way have over another? Is one way considered “conventional?”
I’ve tried different ways with light weight… I’m just not sure if I am even doing it correctly. Searches show many differing opinions. Some examples are below.
The best advice I can give is to use light weight for sets of 20 with different grips and heights until you find what hits the area that you need. I like to use the longest rope attachment I can find and pull the rope apart as I pull back. Also, pull with your elbows not your hands.
To me, face pulls are more about shoulder health and making sure your upper back muscles are firing evenly. I have never seen someone build massive traps or shoulders with them. Keep that in mind, and keep the reps high!
Well, in the videos attached to those articles you may have noticed they were are overhand grip and there is an emphasis to externally rotating the shoulder. I don’t think you can involve the rear delts a much with an underhand grip. At that point it’s really becoming a row. Also notice that the face pull has your forearms above the shoulders for most of the movement. If you were to do it as an underhand grip it just becomes another variation on the curl.
The face pull is for the rear delts and upper/mid back with emphasis on the rear delt to balance the strength of the shoulder.
Facepulls to the forehead (underhand grip) with emphasized external rotation and rope pull-apart will really hit the rear delts and rotator cuff complex. Its a brilliant shoulder health movement. Your humerus’ should stay at or above parallel to the floor at all times.
Facepulls to the chin/face will hit more upper back postural muscles. These should be done with squeeze and hold at peak contraction.
Both are awesome and both will balance out your shoulders and improve posture. Happy errr, pulling!
[quote]JoeyWaters wrote:
The best advice I can give is to use light weight for sets of 20 with different grips and heights until you find what hits the area that you need. I like to use the longest rope attachment I can find and pull the rope apart as I pull back. Also, pull with your elbows not your hands.
To me, face pulls are more about shoulder health and making sure your upper back muscles are firing evenly. I have never seen someone build massive traps or shoulders with them. Keep that in mind, and keep the reps high![/quote]
I pretty much agree with all this, as I’ve had success using them for sets of 15-20 reps. However, I found them useful in building my upper back and traps - in addition to balancing my shoulders. But I think the caveat is that they solely won’t build your upper back and traps significantly, but can certainly play a contributing role in a program aiming to build those body parts (re: Jim’s Building a Bigger Yoke program).