The One Non-Negotiable Exercise I Do Every Single Time I Hit The Gym
Build 3D delts, prevent injuries, and improve your posture
Leg day. Pull day. Upper day. Even freaking cardio day.
No matter what day, I always do one exercise—the gym bros are going to guess either, “Bench press!” or “Bicep curls!”.
It’s the humble face pull.
The #1 Culprit of Shoulder Dislocations and Chest Tears
Pushups. Bench press. OHP. Front raises — every push exercise hammers the front delts.
Because of this, most have beefy front delts (Red) — and laughably weak rear delts (Blue).
Thanks to this imbalance, the easy “rep” weight becomes unbearably heavy as the barbell touches your chest.
Boom! Shoulder dislocation or god forbit — chest tears.
By building up your rear delts and scapular complex, you’ll bulletproof yourself from such injuries.
No better way to do that than face pulls.
Why I’ll Never Stop Recommending the Face Pull
After AthleanX, I might have rehashed “FREAKING DO FACE PULLS!”, the most.
But if this intrigues even one person enough to take face pulls seriously, my job’s done.
That person (you) will bulletproof himself from the most common gym injuries.
For life.
One shoulder injury is enough to sideline you for months — the (rarer) pec tear needs surgical intervention to even hope to recover from!
This isn’t to scare you — it’s only to drive home the importance of face pulls.
The second (no lesser) benefit is posture improvement — to stand out among the sea of hunched-over gym bros.
The cherry on top?
Juicy 3D delts that pop through your shirt and look rad in the back-double-bicep pose.
5 Ways to Ingrain Face Pulls Into Your Workout Routine
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, MASTER the correct form before jumping into it:
- As a push-day warmup: 2 to 3 light sets of 15 to 20 reps should suffice. Focus on speed and form.
- As a shoulder finisher: To accumulate metabolic stress and time under tension, perform 1 set of 25 to 40 reps till failure.
- As your primary rear-delt exercise: 3 to 5 sets of 12 to 20 reps would be great. Use “perfect” reps — explode through the positive, control the negative, and pause at peak contraction.
- To improve your posture. Forget reps and weight. Emphasize the stretch at peak contraction.
- As an entire shoulder workout. When in a hurry, smash 4 to 6 sets close to failure. Mix up the reps.
“A face-pull a day keeps the physio away”
— Yours Truly
