5 Best Cable Shoulder Workouts in 2023

Exhausted from using free-weight shoulder overhead presses? Use these vital cables to construct the shoulders you wished for.

Cable machines are useful as they offer steady attention to whichever muscle you are aiming for. These machines are specifically designed for shoulder workouts and development. In general, they are used to enhance the strength of your shoulder, in addition to the shape and size.

Are you looking for cable shoulder exercises for strength? This article covers the best exercises for you to try. 

What Are Cable Shoulder Workouts?

Cable shoulder workouts mainly target the muscles in your shoulder from every angle, and they are perfect for delicate joints as well. Unlike free weights, these cables employ a flexible weight pile for resistance and connect to handles to perform various shoulder exercises. Cable shoulder workouts utilize single handles, rope attachments, or bars to allow you to teach your deltoid muscles from different angles. 

What Are the Benefits of Cable Shoulder Workouts?

Most bodybuilders use dumbbells, machines, or barbells for their shoulder workouts. Maybe you can adapt to using cables during shoulder exercises before calling off the day. Anyhow cables provide more advantages than any other free weights. Once you get used to it, you might want to use it on a regular basis.

Some of the Benefits of Cable Shoulder Workouts Are:

About Shoulder Muscles

Exercises that focus on the deltoid muscle are referred to as “shoulder exercises” in the fitness industry. The humerus bone of the upper arm and the scapula bone form the “ball-and-socket” joint known as the shoulder (i.e.) shoulder blade.

Flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, internal rotation, and external rotation are the six primary shoulder movements.

The Deltoid Shoulder Muscle Consists of Three Individual Sections:

1. The anterior deltoid, located in the front.
2. The lateral deltoid, located at the side.
3. The posterior deltoid, located behind

The Top 5 Cable Shoulder Workouts

1. Cable Shoulder Press 

Image Credits: Ruth Maleski

Advantages of a Cable Shoulder Press Workout

One of the few compound exercises you can do on a cable machine is the shoulder press. You can do the cable shoulder press in the harder rep ranges, and concentrate on achieving progressive overload because it is a compound activity. Overall, it’s a great upper body mass builder, especially for the shoulders.

Targeting the front delts, side delts, upper traps, and triceps is made easy with this workout. The rear delt, whose main actions are scapular retraction and horizontal shoulder abduction, is the only delt not included in this workout.

Steps To Do a Cable Shoulder Press 

1. A cable stack with pulleys close together should have two D-handles attached at the lowest point.
2. With your back to the pulleys, take a position there. Grab the handles while squatting, then raise yourself straight. Your feet should be around shoulder-width apart. If a split stance is more comfortable for you, place one foot in front and one foot behind.
3. Hold the grips at shoulder height, engage your core, maintain a straight-forward gaze, and lean slightly forward. Your starting point is here.
4. Inhale, then raise your arms almost to full extension while pressing the wires straight overhead.
5. Before progressively lowering the handles back to the starting position, hold for 1-2 seconds at the peak.
6. The appropriate number of times should be repeated.

2. Cable Face Pull 

Advantages of a Cable Face Pull

The cable face pull is another exercise that works well for developing stronger and larger rear delts. Most people can transfer a lot more weight with the cable face pull than they can with the rear delt fly, allowing you to overload the rear delts to a greater extent. Of all the rear delt isolation exercises, this one is without a doubt the best mass builder.

You can execute this exercise with a straight or cambered bar, but most individuals use a rope attachment. The benefit of utilizing a rope is that you may find it more comfortable on your wrists and that it gives you a wider range of motion. Additionally, you may perform this exercise while sitting or standing by simply adjusting the cable height.

Steps To Do a Cable Face Pull 

1. At around breast level, attach a two-sided rope to a cable pulley.
2. In an upright position, stand straight with your feet hip-width apart.
3. You can balance yourself by using a neutral hold on both sides of the handle or by putting one foot in front of the other.
4. Keep your hands at head height while bending your elbows slightly.
5. Contract your rear deltoids, and bring the rope as close to your face as you can while drawing the two sides apart.
6. Return your arms in a straight line towards the cable pulley.
7. Repeat as many times as necessary.

3. Cable Front Raise 

Image Credits: Hunter Chilton

Advantages of a Cable Front Raise 

Your anterior deltoids are impacted by cable front raises. Your deltoids are under almost continual tension if you do them using a cable instead of dumbbells. Additionally, this exercise makes it more difficult to cheat than free weights do. Overall, this anterior deltoid workout is quite beneficial.

Steps To Do a Cable Front Raise:

1. Connect a low pulley machine to a rope handle or straight bar. With your back to the weight stack, above the cable. Grasp the handle and raise yourself. Hold the grip in front of your hips while keeping your balance by gently bending your knees.
2. Raise your arms forward and up until they are nearly parallel to the floor while keeping your core tight and your arms slightly bent but rigid.
3. Repeat from your starting position.

4. Cable Overhead Press

Advantages of a Cable Overhead Press

This exercise targets your anterior and posterior deltoids quite equally, unlike most overhead press variations. This is because when you utilize your anterior deltoids to drive the weight up, you’ll need to engage your rear delts to keep your arms from dropping forward. This kind of overhead pressing is particularly forgiving on the joints.

Steps To Do a Cable Overhead Press:

1. Connect a low cable to a straight bar. Take an overhand hold on the handle that is a little wider than shoulder width. Wrap the handle across your shoulders.
2. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, engage your core, and draw your shoulders back.
3. Pull the handle out to arm’s length and raise it overhead. Push the handle up and backward simultaneously.
4. Repeat by lowering the bar to your shoulders.

5. Cable Cuban Press

Image Credits: Exercise Library

Advantages of a Cable Cuban Press 

The three deltoid heads are simultaneously worked during the Cuban press, which makes it a special shoulder workout. This may be the ideal option if you don’t have much time but yet want a thorough shoulder workout. Although a barbell or dumbbell is commonly used for the Cuban press, it can also be performed utilizing a low cable machine and a rotating bar.

Steps To Do a Cable Cuban Press:

1. Attach a low pulley to a straight, rotating bar. You can also utilize two D-shaped handles when utilizing a twin low-cable machine.
2. With an overhand grip that is just broader than shoulder width, hold the bar and handles in front of your thighs. Brace yourself with your core.
3. While uprightly rowing the bar up to your sternum, bend your arms.
4. Next, raise the bar to your forehead by turning your arms away and outward.
5. Finally, raise the handle to arm’s length and press it overhead.
6. Reverse this action to get back to the starting position.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are cables safer for workouts?

Cable machines can be added as a safe and effective tool to your regular exercise routine. Less damage is done to the joints as a result of the smooth flat resistance, particularly to the wrists, elbows, and shoulders.

Do cable workouts train your shoulders?

The Front Deltoid, Side Deltoid, and Rear Deltoid muscles are all targeted by cables. Targeting all deltoid muscles is necessary for a cable machine shoulder workout to be effective in increasing shoulder mass. You can easily set up cables to perform exercises that focus on the front, side, and rear deltoids because of how versatile they are.

Do cables help build muscle?

Using cable machines is a great way to build muscle. In contrast to free weights, the cable machine allows constant tension throughout the entire range of motion and separates muscle groups from various angles.  

Wrapping up

You may practice more than just shoulder presses to develop strong, broad shoulders. Numerous exercises can be done to target the delts and rotator cuffs, as well as other parts of the shoulder. The adaptability and strength curve of cable machines are two of their distinctive advantages, however, there are others as well. You can target every muscle group in your body with a few attachments. Increasing size, strength, and stability is a breeze using cables.

The majority of shoulder exercises with free weights have a point where the muscle is at rest, or one element of the lift may be extremely difficult while another may be easy. Cable shoulder workouts make them particularly useful for the shoulders. A cable’s strength curve is rather uniform, which is why they work so well for promoting hypertrophy.

It’s a good idea to start doing cable exercises if you don’t already, and the ones mentioned above can provide you with the greatest return on your investment.