Cable Pull Through: How to Do It, Muscles Worked and Variations

The cable pull through is the movement I hand people when they cannot feel a hip hinge. Stand facing away from a low pulley, reach between your legs for the rope, push your hips back until your hamstrings complain, then stand up by driving your hips forward. The cable pulls you backwards the whole time, so the direction of the load teaches the pattern almost by itself, which is something no amount of coaching a deadlift from the floor manages to do as quickly.

It is also a genuinely good glute builder in its own right, and unlike most hinges it barely taxes your lower back.

How to do a cable pull through

Set a cable pulley to the lowest setting and attach a rope. A single handle works but the rope gives your hands more room.

1. Set up facing away. Straddle the cable, reach between your legs and take the rope in both hands, then walk forward until there's real tension with your arms straight. Feet about shoulder-width, toes slightly out.
2. Hinge, do not squat. Push your hips straight back towards the pulley. Let your knees bend a little, maybe 15 or 20 degrees, but no more; your shins should stay close to vertical. Your torso comes forward as a consequence of the hips travelling back, not because you chose to bend over.
3. Find the stretch. Go back until you feel your hamstrings load up and your lower back is still flat. Your arms stay straight and passive throughout, functioning as a rope, not a lever.
4. Drive the hips forward. Squeeze your glutes and push your hips towards the far wall until you're standing tall. The rope travels forward between your legs; your arms are not pulling it.
5. Finish without arching. At the top, ribs down, glutes hard, pelvis tucked slightly under. Do not lean backwards to feel a bigger contraction; that just loads your lumbar spine and achieves nothing your glutes care about.

Muscles worked

• Gluteus maximus. The main event. The pull through loads hip extension where the glutes are strongest, near full extension, which is the opposite of a squat.
• Hamstrings. Biceps femoris and semitendinosus assist hip extension and control the descent, though they take less of a beating here than in a Romanian deadlift.
• Spinal erectors. Longissimus and multifidus work isometrically to keep your spine from folding. Less than in a barbell hinge, and that lower demand is a feature rather than a flaw.
• Adductors. The inner thigh contributes to hip extension in the final third of the rep, more so with a slightly wider stance.
• Core. Bracing against a load that's constantly trying to drag you backwards.

The numbers on that comparison are worth being specific about. Researchers put lifters through three straight-legged hinge patterns, a Romanian deadlift, a reverse hyperextension and a cable pull through, measuring the longissimus, multifidus, gluteus maximus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Going from the deadlift to the pull through cut longissimus activation by around 11 percent, multifidus by around 14 percent, biceps femoris by around 13 percent and semitendinosus by nearly 7 percent (Int J Exerc Sci). Swapping gravity for a pulley genuinely lowers the demand on your lower back and hamstrings.

So read the pull through honestly: it's a lower-fatigue hinge that lets you add glute volume without adding spinal loading. If your goal is maximum posterior chain strength, the Romanian deadlift still outranks it.

Where it beats the alternatives

Loaded hip extension exercises differ enormously in how much force they actually put through the glutes, and the differences do not always follow how hard they feel. Work modelling gluteal muscle forces across a range of hip-focused exercises found substantial variation between movements that coaches often treat as interchangeable (Med Sci Sports Exerc). Separate research comparing peak glute activity across strength and pre-activation drills came to a similar conclusion: exercise selection changes the answer more than effort does (Eur J Appl Physiol).

Practically, the pull through occupies a useful niche. It's the cheapest hinge to recover from, it teaches the pattern faster than anything else, and it lets you train hip extension on a day when your lower back has had enough. It also stacks nicely with the muscle-strengthening work the NHS suggests on at least two days each week.

Common mistakes

Squatting instead of hinging. The single most common error, and it turns a glute exercise into a quarter squat. Knees back, hips back, shins vertical.

Pulling with the arms. Your arms are rope. If your elbows bend or your lats fire, you've turned it into an awkward row and your hips have stopped working.

Standing too close to the stack. Not enough distance means no tension at the top and a plate slam at the bottom. Walk out until the weight lifts off the stack with your arms straight and your hips already back.

Hyperextending at the top. Leaning back to chase the squeeze loads your lumbar spine and does nothing for your glutes. Finish stacked, ribs down.

Going heavy. Load enough and you simply get towed backwards. If your feet are sliding or you're bracing your torso to stay upright, drop the weight and add reps instead.

Variations

• Banded pull through. Long resistance band anchored low behind you. Ascending tension, no machine needed, ideal for home training. See the best resistance bands in the UK for options that actually anchor properly.
• Single-leg cable pull through. Same movement, one foot planted, other leg back for balance. Exposes side-to-side differences and adds a frontal plane stability demand.
• Rope pull through with a pause. Two-second hold at the bottom of the hinge. Brutal for the position most people rush through, and it makes light weight feel serious.
• Kettlebell pull through. No cable available, so you swing a kettlebell back between your legs and stand up without letting it travel forward. Closer in feel to a kettlebell swing minus the ballistic element.
• Wide-stance pull through. Feet outside shoulder-width, toes turned out. Brings the adductors in harder and suits people who feel their hamstrings dominate the standard version.

A functional trainer or a cable machine gives you the smoothest version, but a single long band and a solid anchor point covers the movement for a fraction of the cost.

Sets, reps and where to put it

• Glute volume: 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps with a one-second squeeze at the top, resting 60 seconds. This is the default and the one that works.
• Technique work: 2 sets of 10 slow reps as hinge practice before deadlifts or squats. Light load, full attention on the hip path.
• Lower-back-friendly hinge day: 4 sets of 12 to 15 as your only hip extension movement when your spine needs a break from loaded barbell work.

Twice a week fits comfortably. Pair it with hip thrusts for a glute session that covers both ends of the hip extension range, and use it alongside rather than instead of the deadlift if strength is your priority. Our roundup of glute exercises shows where it sits among the alternatives.

Recommended reads

1. The best cable machines for a home gym
2. The best resistance bands in the UK
3. Romanian deadlift: technique and programming
4. Hip thrust: how to do it and how to load it
5. All our workout and exercise guides