What do cable crossovers work

For a low pulley Cable Crossover, lower the pulleys to be at a setting near your feet. Following the procedure above, get into the starting position. Your palms should be facing up. Start with the arms extended at chest level and lower to about hip height. This setup will work the upper section of the Pectoralis Major and the deltoids.

Pectoralis Major. Pectoralis Minor. Anterior Deltoid. When it comes to muscles and strength training, the cable crossover has everything. One of its major advantages is that cable crossover exercises are not performed on a bench, you do them standing up. This means your shoulder blades, or scapulae, are free to move around naturally without being pinned from the use of a bench. Freeing the scapulae allows for a greater range of motion, therefore a wider variety of workouts.

The Cable Crossover can work every muscle in your body in various ways, meaning that utilizing it in your workout can save you a whole lot of time. Instead of doing different workouts on different machines and adjusting all of the seats and the weights, you can just easily adjust the settings on a crossover cable and do all of your exercises there.

Additionally, due to the fluid action of moving from one exercise to the next, the crossover cable can also help you circuit train, provide you know what type of muscles you want to hit. A unilateral movement is a type of exercise that impacts your body one side at a time. Cable Crossover exercises are free weights. Performing them engages your core muscles.

The more work you do, the more they will be activated to help you maintain proper posture and stay upright without straining your back. Overall, the Cable Crossover exercise is great for core activation. Not only do they challenge your muscles, but they give you a workout that feels new and exciting, breaking the monotony of hopping from one piece of exercise equipment to another.

The Cable Crossover machine, although arguably one of the best pieces of gym equipment you can use, can usually only be seen in large gyms. This is not because the Cable Crossover is underrated, or that no one ever hardly uses it. Despite seeming like an intimidating machine, the Cable Crossover is a fairly simple workout.

It also helps to ensure your muscles stay under tension the entire time. Since this is an isolation exercise, you are going to want to add it to the end of your routine. Adding it at the end of your routine will ensure your chest is not fatigued for your compound lifts which should make up the majority of your training. If you are working out at home and don't have access to a pulley station you should try picking up some resistance bands to replicate the movement.

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Get Strong. Category: Exercises. Video Demonstration. Training Tips. Click To Subscribe. Blog Search. Latest Posts. Setting the pulleys in the highest position focuses on the lower pecs, while the lowest position will work your upper pecs. Placing the pulleys at shoulder height—with arms parallel to the floor—will target your middle pec fibers.

My favorite way to work this area is a move I call the cable crossover ladder. Start in the lowest position and move up one notch every time you reach failure until you get to the top position. Each time you move the pulleys up one position, the exercise becomes slightly easier, allowing you to continue with little to no rest between positions.

Keep the weight the same through every position and complete as many reps as possible until failure. You can also pre-exhaust your pecs by performing the cable crossover ladder first, then doing your barbell and dumbbell presses.