Band Face Pull
rear deltoid
What moves the load, and what it costs
3.5MET
Rear deltoid is the prime mover, with the upper back, rotator cuff assisting. The home version of the cable face pull, and just as useful. A band in a suitcase keeps a travelling lifter's shoulders healthy.
Cue: Anchor a band at head height, hold both ends and pull towards the face with the elbows flaring high.
మూలం·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·FILED UNDER WEIGHTS, 8–15 REPS·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
SHARED AXIS · SEVEN VALUES FROM ONE TABLE · HIGHLIGHTED ROW IS THIS MOVEMENT
The compendium files band face pull under a category, not a lift. Read the ladder as position, not precision: this is heavier work than sitting quietly by a factor of 3.5, and middling for conditioning work.
Turning that MET value into a real energy cost
- Map the movement to a published category. The compendium measures categories of conditioning work, never individual lifts, so band face pull is filed under Resistance training (weight lifting), multiple exercises, 8–15 repetitions at varied resistance.
- Take the category's MET value — 3.5. One MET is the cost of sitting quietly, so this is 3.5 times resting metabolism.
- Multiply by 3.5 to get millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute, the unit the MET is actually defined in.
- Multiply by your bodyweight in kilograms and divide by 200. The result is kilocalories per minute of work.
- Count working minutes only. Under load, not under the roof — a set of eight is about 25 seconds of the hour you were there.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × body mass (kg) ÷ 200 Band Face Pull: 3.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 4.29 kcal/min
మూలం·ACSM metabolic equation + 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REFERENCE BODY MASS 70 KG·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
What is actually doing the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| Rear deltoidPosterior deltoid | Prime mover | Draws the upper arm backwards and out (shoulder horizontal abduction and extension). Works with the rhomboids and mid traps on every wide-elbow row. |
| వీపు పైభాగంరాంబాయిడ్స్ మరియు మధ్య ట్రాపిజియస్ | Synergist / stabiliser | భుజం ఎముకలను ఒకదానికొకటి దగ్గరగా, వెన్నెముక వైపుకు లాగుతుంది (స్కాపులర్ రిట్రాక్షన్). ప్రతి హారిజాంటల్ రో దీనిపై భారం వేస్తుంది; ప్రతి పుల్డౌన్ దీనిపై తక్కువ భారం వేస్తుంది. |
| Rotator cuffSupraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis | Synergist / stabiliser | Rotates the upper arm and, more importantly, holds the ball of the shoulder centred in the socket while bigger muscles move it. |
The prime mover produces the movement against the resistance; synergists assist and stabilisers hold a joint still without moving it. An exercise trains the whole muscle it loads — there is no way to work only part of a muscle, and no exercise removes fat from the area around it.
Set up, then earn the rep
Resistance band. Every rep should look like the first one. The moment it stops looking like the first one, the set is finished.
PATTERN · PULL
- Set the band at roughly upper-chest to face height and take the ends with thumbs pointing back.
- Step back until there is tension at arm's length and stand with a braced trunk.
- Anchor a band at head height, hold both ends and pull towards the face with the elbows flaring high.
- Pull towards your face, separating the hands and driving the elbows high and wide.
- Finish with the hands beside the ears, upper arms parallel to the floor, shoulder blades back and down.
- Return slowly, letting the shoulders travel forward at the end of each rep.
Where this one breaks down
Not theory. These are the faults you correct on a gym floor, and the correction that actually works.
Elbows dropping below the hands.
Then it is a row. The upper arms should finish parallel to the floor for the rear delt and external rotators to do the work.
Too much weight.
Face pulls are a high-rep, light, shoulder-health movement. If the trunk is swinging, the point has been lost.
Rushing them.
Two seconds out, two seconds back. This is the one exercise where being boring is the entire benefit.
Regress it, or progress it
Regress — earn it first
ఈ సైట్లో దీన్ని ఇంకా సులభతరం చేసేది ఏమీ లేదు: ఇది ఇప్పటికే ఈ పద్ధతిలో ప్రారంభ స్థాయికి దగ్గరగా ఉంది. బరువు తగ్గించండి, కదలిక పరిధిని కుదించండి, లేదా వేగాన్ని తగ్గించండి — ఇదే వరుసలో.
Progress — the next demand
Prescription: load, reps, rest
Read off the goal, then hold the technique constant as the load climbs. Derived from the movement's mechanics, not invented for this page: a single-joint movement does its best work in moderate to high reps — very low reps load the joint before the muscle.
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–4 | 6–10 | 2 min | Single-joint work responds poorly to very low reps — the joint gets the load before the muscle does. |
| Muscle size | 3–4 | 10–15 | 60–90 sec | This is where isolation work earns its place: cheap volume for one muscle, little systemic fatigue. |
| Endurance / fat loss | 2–3 | 15–25 | 30–45 sec | High reps here are genuinely useful — the load is small enough that form survives the fatigue. |
| First month | 2 | 12–15 | 60 సెక | Light. Isolation work is for adding volume later, not for building a base. |
Time under load, in kilocalories
Read these as minutes of work, not minutes in the building. A set of eight takes about twenty-five seconds; the rest of the hour is rest, chalk and queueing.
Mapped category: Resistance training (weight lifting), multiple exercises, 8–15 repetitions at varied resistance — 3.5 MET. That is the published category this movement is filed under, not a measurement of this specific lift.
Worked at 3.5 MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 = 4.29 kcal per working minute for a 70 kg adult. Scale it by your own bodyweight; the equation is linear. The full activity dataset lives at BurnLab.
మూలం·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·CATEGORY VALUE, NOT A PER-EXERCISE MEASUREMENT·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
If the rack is taken
Substitutes train the same prime mover through the same pattern with different kit. Computed from the muscle and pattern data on this card, not hand-picked to fill a grid.
Where it sits in a week
One movement is not a programme. The twelve templates put these in order, including 6 that need no gym at all.
The questions that come up on the floor
What muscles does the band face pull work?
Band Face Pull is a single-joint isolation movement in which the rear deltoid is the prime mover, assisted by the upper back, rotator cuff. Draws the upper arm backwards and out (shoulder horizontal abduction and extension). Works with the rhomboids and mid traps on every wide-elbow row.
Is the band face pull good for beginners?
Yes. It rates 1 out of 5 for technical difficulty on this site — learnable in a single session with no coaching. Start with the lightest sensible load and two or three sets of 12–15.
What can I do instead of the band face pull at home?
పరికరాలు లేకుండా ఈ కదలికను చేయడం కష్టం. బాడీవెయిట్ ప్రత్యామ్నాయం లేని చోట, బరువు పెంచే బదులు వేగాన్ని తగ్గించి, ఒకే కాలు/చేయి వెర్షన్లను వాడి ముందుకు సాగండి.
How many sets and reps of the band face pull should I do?
For muscle size, 3–4 sets of 10–15 with 60–90 sec rest. For strength, 3–4 sets of 6–10 with 2 min rest. In your first month, 2 sets of 12–15, stopping well short of failure. Total weekly hard sets per muscle group matters more than the exact rep number in any of these ranges.
Does the band face pull burn fat from the rear deltoid?
No. No exercise removes fat from the area it trains — spot reduction has been tested repeatedly and does not happen. Training the rear deltoid builds the muscle underneath; where body fat is lost from is decided by an overall calorie deficit and by your genetics, not by which exercise you chose.
Muscle roles follow standard kinesiology references and are described by joint action rather than by gym convention — see how this site is built. Energy figures are derived from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Every reference is named and dated on the sources page. General information only — not medical or coaching advice. Load, form and progression should be adjusted to your own experience and any injury history. When in doubt, get coached in person.
మూలం·Published exercise references·MUSCLE ROLES ASSIGNED BY JOINT ACTION·జూలై 2026న సమీక్షించాం
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