Cable Workouts

Building Big Muscles With Cable Workouts

When it comes to building muscles, it is vital that one changes his routine from time for time. I have changed my own routine many times over the years in order to continue making the most progress possible. If you do not change your routine and add variety to your workouts you will reach a plateau and quit making progress. As stated in other articles of mine, your muscles need to be "shocked" or "surprised" into making new growth because they will adapt to the "same old thing" and feel no need to adjust due to no new demands being placed on them. Thus, they will not continue to grow and become stronger.

One of the methods you can adopt to get past a plateau is to perform cable workouts for the upper body. Though I do not recommend cable workouts year-round, I do recommend that you switch to cable workouts from time to time. However, I suggest that you use "free weights" for the majority of the year.
One of the benefits of cable exercises is that the tension will remain on the muscles being worked throughout the range of motion. Because you are handling the weight with pulley cables, there is no rest permitted due to the continual tension provided by the cables attached to the machine or device. For example, cable flyes keep the tension on your chest muscles throughout the movement unless you totally release the cable. Be sure though that you are not standing, sitting, or lying too close to the machine, which would allow rest to your muscles. Due to the pulley action of cable exercises, there is constant negative and positive resistance placed on the muscles. Positive resistance refers to the pushing or pulling part of an exercise while negative resistance refers to the lowering or returning to the start position of an exercise.
Now I would like to give you some effective cable exercises that will guarantee you to build some serious muscle without the use of free weights. The following are some of the best cable exercises you can do to build size and strength to your muscles.
Cable Flyes - Chest
There are several variations of these that can be done on a double pulley machine.
Cable Bench Presses - Chest
These can be done lying on a bench between two pulley machines.
Cable Presses - Shoulders
Cable Lateral Raises - Shoulders
Tricep Press Downs on a pulley machine - Triceps
Tricep extensions on a pulley machine - Triceps
Cable Curls - Biceps
Cable Concentration Curls - Biceps
These can be done sitting on a bench or bending over and resting your upper arm on your inner thigh.
Bent over Rows with a pulley machine - Back
These are best done with one arm at a time.
Upright Rows with a pulley machine - Upper back
Rope Crunches - Abdominals
These are done while kneeling, facing a pulley machine with your hands alongside your head and bending forward then up again, keeping the rope ends alongside your head throughout the movement.
By Doug King