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Cuban-style face pull

This is an excerpt from Building Strength and Muscle After 50 by Chad Landers.

What makes it “Cuban” (don’t ask me why) is the external rotation during the exercise. Where the rope face pull maintains a constant external rotation as you pull the rope to your body, the Cuban starts with arms straight out in front of you, and then as you draw the elbows back in alignment with the shoulders, you’ll perform an external rotation of the shoulders.

INSTRUCTION

• Attach two hand grips to a cable machine at face level.
• Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and grasp the handles with a pronated, palms-down grip, arms extended in front of you (figure a).
• Pull the handles toward your face, keeping your elbows high (figure b). When the elbows align with the shoulders, externally rotate the arms until they end up in an L position while squeezing your shoulder blades together (figure c).
• Slowly extend your arms back to the starting position and repeat.

CHAD'S TAKE
I love this exercise! It targets the rotator cuff muscles more than the regular face pulls described in chapter 6. I have a unique attachment from Spud Inc. that has two long looping straps. This allows me to anchor the weight at my wrists rather than holding onto a rope. Highly recommended! All the face-pull variations are great options to keep our battered shoulders healthy and strong as we get older.

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