Strength Training

Cable Pull-Through (Hip Pull) Exercise

The benefits of the cable pull-through, sometimes called ‘hip pulls’, are many. One of the exercise’s main advantages is that it allows one to train the posterior chain, the glutes, hamstrings and hip adductors without the lower back having to support a big external load. This is one of the main advantages the cable pull through versus deadlifts.

Taking the load off the back is great if you have a lumbar injury and also makes pull-throughs a good teaching tool. You are able to focus on hip drive and not get the hips mixed up with the lower back which is a very common problem. Many beginning trainees have a very difficult time disassociating the lumbar from the hips. This is of primary importance. If you can’t tell whether a movement is initiated from the lumbar rather than the hips you will never learn proper hip drive. Hip drive is the foundation of most of our full body strength training movements. There may not be another “glute” movement as good as a pull-through and its value in teaching hip drive is unparalleled. Romanian deadlifts are good for this purpose but they don’t have the advantage of removing the load from the back.

Pull-throughs being more a hip “isolator” makes them valuable as a secondary or finishing movement. A scenario that would make Romanian deadlifts unproductive could be a perfect fit for the cable hip pull through. Low back fatigue is not as much a factor so the hips can be worked harder and longer.

However, as one maintains a good arched lumbar throughout the movement, local muscular endurance of the lower back is also trained.

Cable Pull-Through vs Deadlift

The pull-through is complementary to the deadlift. It resembles a deadlift enough that it is sometimes mistakenly called a cable deadlift.  While it is not a true deadlift, it is a very good exercise in its own right for those who do not want to deadlift.

If you do not want to deadlift but would like some of the benefits, the pull-through will do you right. As a supplemental exercise for ALL lifters, if you haven’t included this movement in your training regimen yet then start giving it some time now.

Yes, it looks funny to some people since you have to reach between your legs and then pull a cable handle up toward your groin. It certainly does not look at strange as hip thrusts done with a barbell and, quite frankly, it is a far superior exercise!

Equipment Needed for Pull-Through

Pull-throughs are done with a cable pulley apparatus with the cable set in the bottom position, such as you would use to do a low pulley row.

There are many affordable cable machines for home use. Although some are fancier than others, with more cable positions which allow for more exercises, even the most basic ones will allow you to do pull-throughs along with lat-pulldowns, low cable rows, etc. You can use these home machines extensively without having to purchase an expensive ‘home-gym’ cable setup. A simple unit like the XtremepowerUS LAT Machine sells for well under 200 dollars, while the Valor unit below, with more attachments and options, for goes for under $300.

Valor Fitness CB-12 Plate Loading Lat Pull Down Machine with Lower T-Bar

A rope handle (sometimes called a triceps rope) is usually used. However, a double-handled v-bar,  like this Double-D Row Handle may suffice for some trainees, or even a V-handle. I (Eric) actually prefer a double handle but most trainees seem to prefer the rope.

Pull-through Setup

1. With the cable handle end lying on the floor back up to it so that you can reach down between your legs and grasp it.

2. Walk out several paces until the slack is taken up on the cable and the weight is beginning to pull you back.

3. Take a wide enough stance to allow free movement (slightly wider than shoulder width or more). Set the shoulders back and the chest out.

Pull-through Execution:

1. Keep the chest high, the lumbar neutral (in its natural arch) and allow the weight to pull you back so that your hips come back. Allow the knees to bend slightly to about 20 to 30 degrees. Don’t think of going down but rather going back. Keep your hands in the same position. They are just there to hold onto the cable.

2. Stop when you reach your end range of motion. This is the point where you can travel back no further without your lumbar (and thoracic) beginning to round.

3. Return to the starting position by a powerful hip extension only. You should feel the contraction mainly in your glutes and second in your hamstrings. Remember that the hips do all the work. The hand do nothing but hold on.

4. Come all the way back up to the starting position and squeeze the glutes to ensure full lockout.

The following video is Craig Ballantyne performing the pull-through:

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Slow Pulls Versus Fast Pulls What makes a “pull” slow or fast. Is it a choice? After all, we can do speed deadlifts. So does that make the deadlift a fast pull? These questions come up because most strength trainees have been trained in the slow lifts but not the fast Olympic lifts. The information … Read more

Biofeedback for Strength Training? Misapplied and Misunderstood

Biofeedback EEG Training at a Health Center

Have you heard the one about the guy who walks into the gym, bends over and tries to touch his toes, does a deadlift, touches his toes again, scratches his head, does a squat, touches his toes again, does a barbell curl, touches his toes one more time, and decides, due to the biofeedback he got from … Read more

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Sequential and Simultaneous Movements in Strength Training and Weightlifting

olympic weightlifting clean and jerk

Every once in a while you will hear someone calling the squat a simultaneous lift. You’ll even hear people calling the deadlift a sequential lift. What does this mean, and is it correct?

olympic weightlifting clean and jerk
Svetlana Podobedova performing the Clean and Jerk at the 2012 Olympics Women’s 75kg Weightlifting, image by Simon Q

Sequential and Simultaneous Movements in Biomechanics

Well, these terms come from the description and measurement of the coordination of human movement, a branch of biomechanics called kinematics. Movements, in this context, are looked at in terms of the movement of body segments, and this means also the action of the body’s joints. You may have never given it a second thought, but during some movements, the joints act “all at once” or simultaneously and in others they act one after the other in a sequence. Most movements, however, are not really so black and white and fall in a continuum between the two. Sometimes, for instance, a movement may look to be simultaneous, but upon close observation be sequential.

Notice that I used the word movements and not lifts. That is because high force activities such as strength training lifts tend to be simultaneous movements. The squat, the deadlift, and the overhead press are all simultaneous movements. The body must call upon many large muscle groups at once to produce such maximal forces.

Sequential Movements in Sports

Speedy, but lower force movements, such as throwing a baseball, tend to be sequential. Although children may start out performing these movements in a more simultaneous way, using only the shoulder for instance, a highly skilled throwing action uses a sequential movement of the body’s segments, and a sequential rotation of the hips and the trunk, which transfers to the upper body through the action of the shoulder and on to the ball. If you’ve ever seen someone ‘throwing like a girl’ you have witnessed a novice thrower who has made the throw a simultaneous movement. So, girls don’t throw like girls! In reality, inexperienced girls or boys will display this same pattern.

Squat and Deadlift: Simultaneous Movements

In the squat and the deadlift, the knees and the hips both tend to extend at once. Tend, because not everyone is the same and some people display different movement patterns. You may see someone extending their knees first and then their hips, for instance. This is often true of the novice, which makes sense in terms of motor learning. But even some experienced lifters may use such a method. The question is, can they really produce the highest muscular force possible if the body’s segments, and therefore it’s largest muscles, are not used in a coordinated fashion? It is very hard to determine but it is safe to say, I think, that most of us must extend forcefully at all the involved joints in order to muster our highest force.

Strength training has much to do with intention. Always keep this in mind. What a maximal lift looks like, and what the lifter’s intention was, are often two different things. This is why maximal lifts are often not the best ones to use for teaching examples. When many many different high force lifts are observed, we would never be able to view them as absolutely simultaneous. But if intentions were understood, then high force lifts would fall much closer to the simultaneous end of the continuum.

Olympic Lifts are Sequential Movements

Olympic lifts are not simultaneous lifts although the initial powering up of the bar requires a strong simultaneous triple extension. In the case of the clean (and jerk) the bar must be transferred to the shoulders in the “catch” which is part of a sequence of movements that involves first getting the bar accelerating upwards then dropping down underneath and bringing the elbows beneath the bar. Then another extension is used to power the bar up in the press to overhead.

The snatch likewise requires a simultaneous triple extension but the momentum of the bar is transferred overhead in a sequential movement while the lifter drops down under the bar and subsequently returns to the upright position. In case you are confused, remember that the Olympic lifts are NOT high force movements, they are high power movements.

Watch closely the slow-motion video of volleyball spikes below (you may want to mute your speakers). What do you think? Is the spike a simultaneous or sequential movement?

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upper extremity muscles, veins, illustration

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