What Are the Benefits of Cable Exercise?

Cable equipment features a weight stack, a pulley system and attachments for a bar, a rope, a handle or an ankle cuff. Some come with two weight stacks, with attachments for the lower and upper side of each stack. Lacking the bells and whistles of high-tech machines, the cable apparatus may be the Rodney Dangerfield of the local fitness center, but those in the know give it the respect it deserves because of its benefits.

  1. Functional Training

    • Although cable equipment facilitates isolation exercises such as biceps curls and triceps extensions, the beauty of this equipment lies in its ability to enable movement patterns that simulate sport moves and activities of daily living. Called functional training, this workout mode opens the playing field for exercises that engage multiple muscle groups in different planes of motion. The wood-chopper, a sport training exercise for rotational sports, illustrates the point. It involves holding the cables at the low or high end of the weight stack, rotating the torso either diagonally downward or upward, and triggering simultaneous muscle activity in the obliques, hip and upper body muscles.

    Core Engagement

    • High-tech exercise machines often come equipped with seat belts and other types of devices to stabilize your spine. When relying on these devices becomes a habit, your body's deep core muscles -- including the transverse abdominal muscle, the multifidus and internal obliques -- eventually get lazy. Cable equipment exercises remind these natural stabilizers that they have an important job to do, especially since many of its exercises use a standing position. Standing upright challenges all of your body's stabilizers to activate and support your postural alignment.

    Variety and Convenience

    • When you're faced with a time crunch, the cable equipment lets you perform a variety of exercises in a short time frame. Immediately after finishing an upper body exercise, switch to the ankle cuff and work your legs. This eliminates the need to walk over to another machine, which might already be in use. The cable equipment also enables multitasking. Add a lunge to a biceps curl, or, if both ends of a two-sided cable machine are available, do an upper body exercise on one side and a leg exercise on the other. Adjust the weight accordingly on each side.

    Adding Balance Equipment

    • Although some cable machines, such as the lat pull-down, have their own benches, many do not. If space permits, make the exercises more interesting by adding balance equipment. Use a balance board, disc, or half-ball for some of the standing exercises, or lie supine on a stability ball for the chest fly, bench press, pullover or abdominal curl. The balance equipment challenges stability, which calls your deep core muscles to action. Use lighter weights for cable balance exercises, and keep a spotter nearby.

    Cable Courtesy

    • Although the cable equipment is not the most popular kid at the gym, it does have a group of loyal followers. During crowded times, if you plan to use the apparatus for more than one exercise, or if you plan to use both sides of the machine, give others the chance to "work in" with you.