Why Face Pulls Now Come Before Every Pressing Session
For a couple of years I treated face pulls as an afterthought, the kind of exercise I'd toss in at the end of a workout if the gym wasn't too packed. Something shifted about nine months ago after a minor shoulder niggle kept flaring up during heavy bench days, and face pulls quietly became the first thing I load before any pressing work.
The change has been small but noticeable. I am not chasing bigger rear delts or a fancy mobility goal. I just want my upper back to switch on before I load a barbell, and a couple of steady sets of face pulls has done that more reliably than any band pull-apart or stretch I had been using.
The niggle that kicked things off
The warning sign was dull rather than dramatic. During a heavy bench session in my garage I felt a flat, bruised ache through the front of my shoulder that lingered into the next morning. A physio in Melbourne ran through some tests, ruled out anything structural, and pointed at scapular control as the likely culprit.
Pressing strength had crept up faster than my upper-back work. Rows were happening, but rear delt and external rotation work had drifted out of the routine. Adding face pulls back in was less about correcting a real injury and more about restoring balance that had quietly slipped.
What a few sets actually changes
Face pulls aren't magic, but they hit a few things pressing tends to ignore. They load the rear delts, ask the external rotators to work, and give the scapulae a reason to move through retraction and external rotation under tension. That tends to translate into a tighter upper back when I set up for a bench or overhead press.
A couple of light sets before pressing seems to be enough to wake the area up. I am not after a pump or a sweat from them. I want the muscles to feel engaged and the shoulder blades to sit where I want them before I unrack anything heavy.
How I slot them into the warm-up
I treat face pulls the way I treat any other warm-up, which means they have to fit into a tight window. On busy weeknights at the local gym in Parramatta I usually superset a couple of sets with push-ups or some light dumbbell pressing, rotating between movements rather than chaining long rest periods.
The weight stays deliberately light. I am not trying to build through face pulls, I am trying to prepare for the work ahead. Tempo matters more than load here, with a slow eccentric and a deliberate squeeze at the top. It only takes five or six minutes before I move on to the main lift.
Gym realities that shape the routine
Training in Australia means dealing with summers that make long warm-ups punishing and gyms that get crammed once the arvo peak hits. In Brisbane and Sydney I have found that anything more than ten minutes of accessories before pressing starts to feel like a waste of session time, which is why face pulls earn their spot — they deliver a lot of preparation for very little time cost.
Working in an apartment in the inner west means I keep my home sessions minimal. A band and a single adjustable dumbbell cover most of it, and face pulls travel between the two settings without needing a cable machine. That portability matters more here than I expected, since not every gym layout has a functional trainer in a sensible spot.
Cues and form notes that stuck
A few small cues made a noticeable difference. Keeping the elbows slightly above shoulder height stops the movement from turning into a shrug, and thinking about rotating the hands away at the top pulls the rear delts in properly. The rope should travel back toward the forehead rather than the chest, which keeps the shoulder in a more externally rotated position.
Tempo is the other piece. I count a slow three on the way out, pause briefly at the top, and control the return. That deliberate pace is what makes a light weight feel useful, and it carries over into better positioning once the bar is in my hands.
Where face pulls sit compared to other warm-ups
| Warm-up | Time needed | Rear delt focus | Equipment | Best role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Face pulls | 4–6 min | High | Cable or band | Pre-pressing activation |
| Band pull-aparts | 2–3 min | Moderate | Band only | Quick mobility primer |
| Light dumbbell rows | 5–7 min | Low–moderate | Dumbbells | General upper-back warm-up |
| Scapular wall slides | 2–4 min | Low | None | Posture reset, not loading |
Face pulls land in the sweet spot of enough stimulus without eating into the working sets, which is why they have stayed in the warm-up while other movements have come and gone.
I have tried heavier face pull work as a finisher and it has its place, but doing them heavy before pressing just tires the rear delts out and steals from the working sets. Keeping them light and deliberate keeps the focus where it belongs.
A few sets of face pulls will not fix a stubborn shoulder on their own, but they have quietly become the cheapest, fastest way I know to feel switched on before pressing. If you have been skipping upper-back work between heavy sessions, slotting them in at the start is the simplest place to begin, and you can read more about how I set up the rest of my training in my barefoot shoes for lifting note.