Cable Shoulder Exercises: 7 Moves for Front, Side and Rear Delts

The best cable machine shoulder exercises are the cable lateral raise for your side delts, the face pull and cable rear delt fly for your rear delts, and a cable or half-kneeling press for overall strength. Put three or four of those into one session, twice a week, and you've covered every head of the deltoid. The other moves below (front raise, Y-raise and upright row) are useful extras rather than essentials.

Most cable shoulder guides on page one are a list of names and a GIF. This one tells you which head each move actually trains, where to set the pulley, and how to fit the lot into a workout that doesn't wreck your shoulders.

Why use cables for shoulders?

A dumbbell only resists you in one direction: straight down. That's a problem for raises, because when your arm hangs by your side the weight is pulling along the line of your arm, and the delt has almost nothing to do until the arm is halfway up. A cable pulls from wherever you put the pulley, so you can angle the resistance to load the bottom of the rep.

That said, don't believe anyone who tells you cables build bigger shoulders than dumbbells. A 2025 study in Frontiers in Physiology had 24 trained lifters do cable lateral raises with one arm and dumbbell raises with the other for eight weeks, and side delt thickness grew by about the same amount on both sides. The real case for cables is practical: smoother tension, easy angle changes and less joint grumbling for a lot of people.

The 3 delt heads in 30 seconds

• Front (anterior) delt: lifts your arm forward. Every press and most chest work already hit it hard.
• Side (lateral) delt: lifts your arm out to the side and gives your shoulders width. Usually needs direct work.
• Rear (posterior) delt: pulls your arm back and out. Rows help, but it's the head most people undertrain.

1. Cable lateral raise (side delts)

The single most useful cable shoulder exercise if your goal is wider shoulders. Full walkthrough in our cable lateral raise guide, but here's the short version.

1. Set the pulley at its lowest point and stand side-on to the machine.
2. Grab the handle with the far hand, so the cable crosses in front of your legs.
3. Lean slightly away from the stack, holding the frame with your free hand.
4. Raise your arm out to the side, elbow soft, until your hand reaches shoulder height.
5. Lower over two to three seconds, letting the handle drift back across your body.

Keep your thumb roughly level or pointing slightly up. An EMG study of lateral raise variations in bodybuilders found that the neutral-arm version gave the highest side delt activity of the variations tested, while turning the thumb down shifted more work to the upper traps and rear delts.

2. Face pull (rear delts and upper back)

Face pulls train your rear delts alongside the muscles that rotate and steady the shoulder blade, which is why physios and strength coaches both like them. We've got a dedicated face pull guide if you want the detail.

1. Set the pulley at upper chest or face height and attach a rope.
2. Grip the rope with palms facing in and step back until your arms are straight.
3. Pull the rope towards your forehead, splitting the ends apart as it arrives.
4. Finish with your hands beside your ears and elbows high, like a double-biceps pose.
5. Return slowly without letting your shoulders roll forward.

Go moderate on the weight. If you have to lean back to finish the rep, it's too heavy, and you're turning a rear delt exercise into a bad row.

3. Cable rear delt fly (rear delts)

Where the face pull spreads the work across your upper back, the cable rear delt fly isolates the back of the shoulder. Research on the reverse pec deck, which uses the same arm path, found it activated the rear delt more than seated rows or lat pulldowns, and the cable version gives you an even longer range.

1. Set both pulleys at shoulder height, with no handles; just hold the cable ends or ball stoppers.
2. Cross the cables: left cable in the right hand, right cable in the left.
3. Step back to the centre so your arms are straight out in front, hands crossed.
4. Sweep your arms out and back in a wide arc until they're in line with your body.
5. Pause for a beat, then return under control.

Think about pushing your hands out to the walls rather than squeezing your shoulder blades together. Squeezing hands the job to your mid traps and rhomboids.

4. Cable Y-raise (side delts, rear delts and lower traps)

The Y-raise starts like a lateral raise and keeps going, finishing overhead at roughly 45 degrees from your head. It works well as a second side delt move, or a substitute when straight lateral raises irritate your shoulder. See the cable Y-raise guide for the full setup.

1. Set both pulleys low and grab them crossed in front of your hips.
2. Raise both arms up and out, travelling slightly in front of your body.
3. Finish with your arms in a Y, ribs down and lower back neutral.
4. Lower slowly back to the crossed start.

Use about half what you'd use for a lateral raise. Most people find 2.5kg per side plenty to start.

5. Cable front raise (front delts)

Honestly, most people don't need this one. If you bench press, push up or overhead press, your front delts are already getting plenty. The cable front raise earns a spot only if you've got a specific reason, like a front delt that's clearly lagging or a rehab plan that calls for it. Our front raise guide covers the dumbbell and plate versions too.

1. Set the pulley low and stand facing away from the machine, cable between your legs.
2. Hold a straight bar or single handle with an overhand grip.
3. Raise your arms in front of you to shoulder height, elbows soft.
4. Lower over two seconds.

The same bodybuilder EMG study found the front raise mainly loaded the front delt and the upper chest, so it's a front delt move, full stop.

6. Cable upright row (side delts and traps)

The upright row gets a bad name for shoulder pain, and that reputation's partly earned. Most of the trouble comes from a narrow grip and pulling the bar to your chin. Fix both and it becomes a decent side delt and trap builder.

1. Attach a straight bar to the low pulley and grip it a little wider than shoulder width.
2. Stand close to the machine with a slight forward lean.
3. Pull the bar up by driving your elbows out and up.
4. Stop when your elbows reach shoulder height; the bar will be somewhere around your lower chest.
5. Lower under control.

Grip width matters more than most people realise. A study of the barbell upright row found that a wider grip increased deltoid and trapezius activity and reduced the biceps' share of the work. If any version causes a pinch at the front of the shoulder, swap it for lateral raises and don't look back.

7. Half-kneeling cable shoulder press (front and side delts, triceps)

Cable stacks don't do a great job of heavy overhead pressing, but the single-arm half-kneeling press is a genuinely good exercise. Kneeling on one knee stops you leaning back, so your core has to stay braced the whole time.

1. Set the pulley at its lowest point and kneel side-on or facing away from the stack, on the knee nearest the machine.
2. Hold the handle at shoulder height, elbow slightly in front of your body.
3. Squeeze the glute of your down leg and brace your abs.
4. Press up and slightly forward until your arm's straight.
5. Lower back to shoulder height, keeping your ribs down.

This is the move to load heavier. Sets of 8 to 12 work well, and doing one arm at a time shows you quickly if one side is weaker.

Sample cable shoulder workout

Run this twice a week with at least two days between sessions. It covers all three heads in about 30 minutes.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest	Main target
Half-kneeling cable press	3	8 to 12 per arm	90 sec	Front and side delts
Cable lateral raise	4	12 to 20 per arm	60 sec	Side delts
Face pull	3	12 to 15	60 sec	Rear delts, upper back
Cable rear delt fly	3	15 to 20	45 sec	Rear delts

On your second session of the week, swap the lateral raise for Y-raises or upright rows to change the angle. Add a front raise only if your programme has no other pressing.

Stop each set one to three reps short of failure. Progress by adding reps first, then the smallest weight jump your stack allows. Cable stacks often go up in 5kg steps, which is a big jump on a raise, so a clip-on add-on weight is worth having.

Common mistakes

Going too heavy on raises. Side and rear delts are small muscles. Once the weight forces you to swing or shrug, your traps and lower back are doing the lifting and your delts are along for the ride.

Wrong pulley height. Most cable shoulder moves only work at one height. Lateral raises, Y-raises and front raises need the pulley low; face pulls go at face height; rear delt flies go at shoulder height. Getting this wrong changes which muscle does the work.

Rushing the lowering phase. The cable is trying to yank your arm back to the start. Take two to three seconds on the way down, because that's where the cable's main advantage over dumbbells lives.

Skipping rear delts. If your weekly plan has four pressing moves and one face pull, your shoulders will end up rolled forward. Aim for at least as many sets of rear delt work as front delt work.

Kit for cable shoulder training

You'll need a pulley that adjusts from ankle height to above your head, plus a rope and a couple of single handles. A dual-stack machine saves you time on Y-raises and rear delt flies. If you're kitting out a home gym, our best cable machine guide compares the options for different spaces and budgets, and the GYM MASTER crossover is our top pick for most homes.

Check GYM MASTER price on Amazon

Recommended reads

• Cable lateral raise: form, pulley height and tempo
• Face pulls: how to do them properly
• The best shoulder exercises for every delt head
• Best cable machine UK