Cable Rear Drive

How to do the Cable Rear Drive

1. 1Set a cable pulley to roughly chest or shoulder height and attach a single handle to each side, or use a dual-handle setup.
2. 2Grab a handle in each hand and face the machine, taking a step back so the cables stay under tension with your arms extended forward.
3. 3Stand in a staggered or shoulder-width stance, brace your core, and lean your torso slightly forward.
4. 4Keeping your upper arms close to your sides, drive your hands back and down past your hips by extending your elbows.
5. 5Squeeze your triceps hard at the bottom with your arms straight and your hands just behind your torso.
6. 6Reverse the motion under control, letting your elbows bend and your hands return forward until the triceps are fully stretched.
7. 7Complete your reps, then step forward and return the handles to the stack with control.

Form tips

• Pin your upper arms against your sides so the movement comes from your elbows, isolating the triceps.
• Lead the drive-back with your pinky and turn the handles slightly to deepen the triceps squeeze at the bottom.
• Keep your torso angle and core brace steady so the work stays in your arms rather than your back.
• Control the return phase; resisting the cable on the way forward keeps tension on the triceps and posterior delts.

Common mistakes

• Letting your elbows drift forward and away from your sides, which shifts the load off the triceps and onto the shoulders.
• Using bodyweight rock or torso swing to fling the handles back, which cheats the rep and removes tension from the target muscle.
• Cutting the range short and never fully extending or fully stretching, which limits triceps recruitment.
• Setting the weight too heavy so you can no longer keep your upper arms fixed, turning it into a sloppy whole-body movement.

Frequently asked questions