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FACT CHECKEDLooking for a piece of gym equipment that will strengthen, build, and sculpt your shoulders, all while providing you with the ability to quickly switch exercises, grips, and the angle at which you hit your muscles?
If it sounds too good to be true, it's not! We're talking about the cable machine, which when paired with the correct shoulder exercises, provides constant tension on all three of your deltoid muscles throughout the entirety of the lift, leading to some serious bolder shoulders.
Read on for the 16 best cable shoulder exercises, along with a great hypertrophy-inducing workout, and information on why the cable machine is so effective for targeting the shoulders.
Let's get started so you can build those delts!
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The simplest answer is that it's incredibly effective. One of the things that makes it so great is it enables you to hit your shoulders from different angles, in addition to changing your body and grip positioning, weight load, and attachments.
All of this versatility leads to serious shoulder growth, as long as you have the right exercises to perform, which is where we come in!
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
These 16 shoulder cable exercises will hit all three deltoids, plus the rotator cuff and upper back muscles. Let's discuss how to perform each.
In this exercise, the angle of the cable overhead press results in the force pulling down behind you, which helps recruit muscle fibers that other shoulder presses aren't able to.
You can control the angle of the press, so if you step further away from the cable machine you will be pushing your shoulder joints through a more horizontal range of motion to hit the front delts more.
How to do the cable shoulder press:
Note: Make sure to stand tall throughout the movement and refrain from using your leg power to help press the weight up.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Triceps, Traps, Serratus Anterior, Pec Major, Triceps
The alternating overhead press is one of the best cable machine exercises because of its versatility and effectiveness. You can perform this move one arm at a time using one cable, or you can alternate your delts using two cables. Either way, you'll press up with a neutral grip to target the front delts and triceps more.
Some cable machines will have a distance that is too far away from each other to perform this exercise properly, in that case just perform with one arm at a time. The single arm cable shoulder press not only works your delts but the core is also engaged to keep your body vertically aligned, preventing you from leaning to one side.
How to do the alternating cable overhead press:
Note: If you change your grip to overhand you will move more tension back to the side delts which is more simialr to the overhead press mechanics.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Triceps, Traps, Serratus anterior, Pec Major, Triceps
This version forces you to use strict form while doing the overhead press. By changing your body position, you can't rely on your legs at all to press the weight overhead, making this one of the best cable machine shoulder exercises.
Pressing up with such a close grip will focus the stress onto the front delts, pecs, and triceps.
How to do the kneeling shoulder press:
Note: Don't lean back too far, try to keep your chest up and back straight throughout the movement.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Triceps, Traps, Serratus Anterior, Pec Major, Triceps
This cable shoulder exercise mimics the dumbbell rear lateral raise but the cable version reigns supreme as it provides constant tension on the muscles, ensuring a smooth movement and more time under tension on the rear delts.
Doing the single arm cable bent over lateral raise enables you to hone in on one shoulder at a time while also allowing you to lift your hand higher, resulting in a longer stretch at the bottom of the movement. Get ready to blast the rear delts with this one.
How to do the cable bent over single arm lateral raise:
Note: Move arm directly out to the side to hit the rear delt and keep elbow far from body to discourage lat use. Perform in a smooth continuous movement and avoid using your triceps to finish off the movement.
Muscles Worked: Rear Delt, Side Delt, Rhomboids, Traps, Teres Minor, Infraspinatus
The rear delts don’t get enough love but we’re here to change that with the cable cross over bent over reverse fly. This exercise is the same movement as the previous exercise except you'll be working both shoulders at the same time.
How to do the bent over reverse cable fly:
Note: Focus on the rear delts rather than the squeezing the shoulder blades. Keep your core engaged throughout the movement without rounding the back.
Muscles Worked: Rear Delt, Side Delt, Rhomboids, Traps, Teres Minor, Infraspinatus
The lying reverse fly is the perfect exercise to hit the rear delts. Completing this exercise lying on your back allows you to focus solely on contracting your rear delts as you pull the cables down to your sides.
It’s important to keep your arms perpendicular to your trunk so that you reduce the chances of your lats helping to complete the exercise. Interested in additional variations of the reverse fly? Check out our article on the best Cable Rear Delt Fly Variations.
How to do the lying reverse fly:
Note: Make sure your shoulders are lined up with the cables before starting the movement and perform with slow focused motion.
Muscles Worked: Rear Delt, Side Delt, Traps, Teres Minor, Infraspinatus
The front raise is one of the most common shoulder exercises you'll see being done because it is effective in building the front delts. By performing this exercise unilaterally, you can focus on one side at a time, which can help you identify any muscle imbalances that exist.
How to do the single arm front raise:
Note: Pause at the bottom off the movement to avoid using momentum to lift weight on next rep. You can raise your arm out to an angle if you want to hit your side delt a little more.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Traps, Serratus Anterior, Pec Major
This variation of the front cable raise helps to engage your traps and side delt more by lifting up on one side of the bar at the top of the movement. This extra lift at the top of the movement makes it harder because of the short isometric hold.
How to do the cable standing front raise:
Note: Pause at the top of the movement to get peak trap contraction. Move in a slow controlled manner throughout the exercise.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Traps, Serratus anterior, Pec Major
An incredible cable shoulder exercise that targets the side delts, the cable lateral raise is a great isolation exercise that can humble you. It's important to use light weights to begin to ensure you perform the exercise with proper form.
There are multiple variations of the lateral raise but they all have the same common goal, to build the lateral delts. For maximum contraction during cable machine shoulder exercises like this one, pause at the top of the movement while turning your wrist, bringing your pinky toward the ceiling.
How to perform the single arm lateral raise:
Note: To avoid bouncing or using momentum, pause briefly at the bottom before raising your arm again. You can also perform this lateral raise with the cable in front of your body if you want to hit the front deltoid a little more. To make this exercise more difficult, you can hold a safe place on the cable tower and then lean away from it so that there’s a larger range of motion to complete the exercise.
Muscles Worked: Side Delt, Front Delt, Serratus Anterior, Supraspinatus
This variation of the lateral raise creates extreme isolation due to your body position - there’s no way to cheat with momentum. You can perform this side lying lateral raise on the floor or a bench.
This cable shoulder exercise helps build strength and stability in the side delt.
How to do the side lying lateral raise:
Note: You can also try to pull off this exercise while lying on an incline bench to change the ROM.
Muscles Worked: Side Delt, Front Delt, Serratus Anterior, Supraspinatus
The upright row is an excellent cable machine shoulder exercise to work the shoulders and upper back and is great to include in your shoulder workout routine.
The upright row can build some serious muscle in the front and side delts while also building your traps and rhomboids. In addition, this pulling cable shoulder exercise can help some of your other lifts like deadlifts.
People with shoulder impingement issues might be prone to injuring themselves with this exercise. If that's a concern for you, stick to some of the other cable shoulder exercises in this post.
How to do the cable upright row:
Note: The EZ curl bar can make this exercise more comfortable on your wrists. Try switching up where you grip the bar if shoulder width is uncomfortable for you.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Supraspinatus, Traps, Serratus anterior, Biceps
This cable shoulder exercise is an amazing exercise to blast all three delts. The cable Y raise will strengthen the external rotators that help to stabilize the scapula. Stand tall and avoid leaning back or rocking to help lift the weight. Start light with this one!
How to do the cable y raise:
Note: Keep elbows slightly flexed and your body upright throughout the movement.
Muscles Worked: All Delts, Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres minor, Traps, Subscapularis
This cool take on the overhead press includes some movement in the transverse plane due to the twisting motion. This is a truly functional movement that imitates daily life movements.
With this exercise, reaching, twisting, and pressing are all wrapped up into one smooth motion. Give it a try to work the shoulders, arms, core, and legs.
How to do the cable twisting overhead press:
Note: Keep the rotation in the trunk of the body and not at the hips.
Muscles Worked: Front Delt, Side Delt, Triceps, Traps, Serratus anterior, Pec Major, Obliques, Gluteus Medius, Gluteus Maximus, TFL, Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Psoas, Gastrocnemius, Soleus
Face pulls sometimes get a bad rap but this exercise is perfect for strengthening the muscles that are strained in daily life activities, such as looking down at your computer or driving your car.
When done right, this exercise strengthens the shoulders and upper back which can help straighten out a hunched-over posture. Face pulls can help with shoulder dysfunction and strengthen the rotator cuff.
Check out our article on the Best Face Pull Alternatives for some great variations of this move!
How to do cable face pulls:
Note: Pay particular attention to elbow height and don’t allow to go higher than shoulder level.
Muscles Worked: Rear Delt, Side Delt, Teres Minor, Traps, Infraspinatus, Brachialis
This version of the row works the upper back and shoulders without having your arms straight over your head. This exercise is a great option for lifters with shoulder issues as you get the benefits of rows without straining your shoulders.
Being in a kneeling position will help to stabilize your body so that you’re not leaning too far forward or backward.
How to do the cable high row:
Note: Don't lean backwards to pull the weight toward you. Focus on the mind-muscle connection to pull down by using your back muscles.
Muscles Worked: Rear Delts, Lats, Rhomboids, Traps, Teres Major, Teres Minor, Infraspinatus,
While this is primarily a traps exercise, we decided it needed to be included as your traps are required for many shoulder exercises. With cable shrugs you can change up multiple variables to hit the traps in different ways.
How to do the cable shrug:
Note: If you’re not able to squeeze at the top, lower the weight a bit so that you can get maximum contraction.
Looking for a workout program to put on muscle mass? Check out our SFS Hypertrophy Program by Garett Reid (NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S).
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
Here's an awesome delt workout featuring cable shoulder exercises, which can be completed solely using the cable machine.
While we believe free weights should have a role in everyone's resistance training program, this cable workout can help stimulate muscle growth, add some training variety to prevent boredom, and hit your shoulder muscles from new angles.
When performing cable machine shoulder workouts, here are a few things to keep in mind:
If you need a refresher regarding rep ranges and desired outcomes, you can follow these guidelines:
Related: How Many Shoulder Exercises Per Week?
The shoulder is made up of three muscles, the anterior deltoid (front), lateral deltoid (side), and posterior deltoid (back). We also included the rotator cuff muscles and the traps as they often work in unison with the deltoids.
In addition to your shoulders, the exercises we went over will also work your four rotator cuff muscles and traps, as these muscles are vitally important to having strong well-functioning shoulders.
The four rotator cuff muscles are:
The cable machine offers an incredibly effective way to train the shoulders. Let’s have a look at some other benefits of cable shoulder exercises.
The cable machine offers almost unmatched versatility because you can change up the load, angle, grip positioning, and body positioning easily when performing shoulder cable exercises. With the ability to change all these variables, it’s less likely you’ll get bored with your training when using the cable machine.
Body positioning simply refers to how you position your body during each exercise. You can combine the cable machine with the following body positions:
In essence, you will be able to hit all aspects of the shoulder with a good cable shoulder exercise or two, ensuring you don't create any muscle imbalances. The ability to hit the shoulder so well can be attributed to pairing your shoulder joint mobility with the cable machine's incredible range of motion.
The cable machine has pulleys that are affixed to vertical tracks so that you can easily raise or lower the starting point. This capability results in you being able to target your muscles in a slightly different manner using the same exercise.
For instance, you could do bent over rear delt flys with the cable set toward the ground. In this position, you will be using more muscles overall to complete the movement because you’re bent over in a hinged position.
You could do this same exercise standing up with the cable at shoulder level where the rear delt will be a tad more isolated because you only have to focus on the main movement of the reverse fly.
When performing cable shoulder exercises, you can switch up your grip on the cable machine by using different attachments such as the stirrup or ropes.
You could change from an overhand to underhand to neutral grip rather easily with the cable machine. By switching up your grip, you can make small alterations in how you’re targeting the muscles you’re working.
With a cable machine, you can easily and quickly change the load you’re working with by pulling the pin and then reinserting it into a different weight in the stack. This ease of changing the load comes into play if you’re doing any drop sets, pyramids, or supersets.
The next amazing feature of the cable machine is that it puts constant tension on the muscles throughout a range of motion. This flat strength curve can work your muscles throughout the entire movement at the same rate which allows for more time under tension.
This is one of the main reasons why the cable machine is favored amongst bodybuilders and advanced trainees with the goal of hypertrophy when doing isolation exercises.
Performing shoulder exercises on a cable machine can highlight any weaknesses or shortcomings you may have on one side versus the other.
Like dumbbells, you can work one shoulder at a time but with the cables, the tension is in a smooth flat strength curve so it’s easier to identify if you’re weak in a particular exercise.
Iron out any muscle imbalances with a cable machine exercise or two before they become a bigger issue.
The cable machine offers a smooth, controlled motion when performing cable shoulder exercises, which can be manipulated by the variables above to deliver the exact resistance you’re looking for. This is ideal for maximizing time under tension.
Cable machines are a safe and efficient tool to incorporate into your workout program. The smooth flat resistance results in less wear and tear on your joints, especially the wrists, elbows, and shoulders.
You can efficiently change the load, angle, and attachment, making it easy if you want to change up the exercise and other variables without having to move to another area of the gym to use other equipment.
Training to failure might be dangerous on barbell or dumbbell exercises but with the cable machine, you’re safe to push yourself to the absolute limits without fear of dropping a weight on yourself or injuring yourself.
We generally recommend free weights for the large compound lifts to get the biggest bang for your buck, but when it comes to isolation exercises, the cable machine is a perfect choice.
One of the best perks of the cable machine is you can target muscles precisely how you want to and train them to failure, which is great for hypertrophy.
There’s often a learning curve to using barbells and dumbbells safely and effectively. But, beginners can quickly get the gist of movements on a cable machine without worrying about hurting themselves.
The best exercises for broad shoulders are ones that work the side delts. Well-built side delts can add broadness to the shoulders. Lateral raises are a great exercise to hit the side delts and multiple variations and angle changes can be done to help you thoroughly work your side shoulders.
Upright rows are another awesome exercise to add some size to the side delts, with research showing that when compared to 11 other shoulder exercises, the incline upright row activated the lateral deltoids the most1.
Just remember to train both the side and rear delts adequately in your workouts to develop full shoulders all around. The front delts usually are the most developed because they're involved in many horizontal pressing movements.
It's also important to remember that your genetics play a part in how broad your shoulders can become. You can put on some size by building up the side delts but if you have shorter clavicle bones then you might not be able to get your shoulders quite as broad as you'd hoped.
Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days...
All in all, the cable machine provides tremendous value when it comes to building big well-defined shoulders. Shoulder exercises on a cable machine can hit your shoulders from all angles, stimulating new muscle fibers to be activated for more potential growth.
Don’t just take our word for it. Next time you’re in the gym, try a few of these cable shoulder exercises. We’re sure you’ll be an advocate afterward. Shoulder on!
Looking for more great cable exercises? Check out these Cable Arm Exercises and the best Cable Machine Back Exercises. Ready to set your home gym up, so you can perform cable exercises anytime, anywhere? Check out these 9 Best Cable Machines!
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