How to Do Dumbbell Face Pulls: Proper Form, Muscles Worked, and Variations

Everybody loves a press. Bench, overhead, dips… they make you feel kinda fierce. Plus, they build some nice shelving on the front of your shoulders (you know, the side you see in the mirror). But meanwhile, the backs of your shoulders are missing out big time. Dumbbell face pulls are a great fix for that. Believe it or not, you don't actually need a cable stack to do them, either.

You can do dumbbell face pulls with just an incline bench, light dumbbells, and a willingness to leave your ego at the door for a few sets (these wee muscles can't lift a ton of weight with good form).

What Are Dumbbell Face Pulls?

Dumbbell face pulls are a rear delt and upper back exercise where you lie chest-down on an incline bench, pull a pair of dumbbells up toward your ears with your elbows high and flared, then rotate your hands at the top so your thumbs point toward the ceiling. Instead of relying on a cable stack, gravity does the job. Lying on a bench holds you still so you can't cheat by swinging or thrusting.

Who Should Do Dumbbell Face Pulls (Probably You)

If you press a lot, sit a lot, or throw things for fun, this exercise belongs in your program. Weak external rotators (the small rotator cuff muscles that turn your arm outward) are a risk factor for shoulder problems in elite handball players. When 660 of those players added a warm-up that built external rotation and shoulder blade strength, they had 28% fewer shoulder problems over a season. Desk workers get their own reason to care, since rounded shoulders come with noticeably weaker middle and lower traps, two of the main muscles a face pull trains. If you have shoulder pain right now, get it checked before ripping through sets of anything.

Dumbbell Face Pulls Muscles Worked

Your rear delts (the back third of your shoulder) are the star of the show. In fancier terms, a face pull is prone horizontal abduction with external rotation, and that exact movement lit up the posterior deltoid at close to 90% of its max in an electromyography (EMG) study, higher than any other shoulder exercise they tested. Your middle traps and rhomboids (the muscles between your shoulder blades) handle the squeeze, and your lower traps keep your shoulder blades from riding up toward your ears. The rotation at the top brings in your infraspinatus and teres minor, two rotator cuff muscles that get about half of their max activation in this chest-down position.

Benefits of Dumbbell Face Pulls

Posture is the big benefit of dumbbell face pulls (along with better symmetry if you've been pounding your front delts a lot). When you strengthen around your shoulder blades, research shows it improves rounded shoulders and forward head posture (also known as nerd neck). Strengthening your shoulder blade retractors is also better for fixing forward head posture than stretching your chest. Stretching sure does feel nice, but nothing beats pulling back your shoulder blades under load to teach them to stay there.

How to Do Dumbbell Face Pulls with Proper Form

Set Up the Bench

Set an adjustable bench to a 30- to 45-degree incline and lie chest down with your feet planted on the floor. Hold a pair of light dumbbells with your palms facing each other and let your arms hang straight down. If your chin is jammed into the top of the pad, scoot down an inch so your neck stays neutral.

Pull Toward Your Ears

Pull your shoulder blades together and down, then drive your elbows up and out so the dumbbells travel toward your ears. Your elbows should sit around 45 to 60 degrees from your torso and stay high the whole way up. Lead with your elbows instead of your hands.

Rotate at the Top

As the dumbbells reach your face, rotate your forearms so your thumbs point back and up. You should look like you're hitting a double biceps pose while lying on your stomach, which is exactly as goofy as it sounds. Squeeze your shoulder blades together hard and hold for a full second.

Lower Slowly

Reverse the rotation and lower the dumbbells under control for about two seconds, keeping tension on your upper back the whole way down. Don't let the weight yank your shoulders forward at the bottom. Repeat for 10 to 15 reps.

Mistakes That Turn Face Pulls Into Shrugs

Going too heavy is mistake number one by a mile. Heavier loads shift the work away from the rotator cuff and onto the bigger rear delt. Shrugging toward your ears means your upper traps have taken over, and pulling toward your belly button means you've turned this into a row (that's a no-no).

Dumbbell Face Pull Variants

Bent-Over Dumbbell Face Pull

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, hinge at your hips until your torso is close to parallel with the floor, and let the dumbbells hang. Perform the face pull exactly as you would on the bench. Your core and lower back have to hold your position now, so go even lighter than usual.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Face Pull

Set up on the incline bench with one dumbbell and plant your free hand on the bench for support. Pull with one arm while keeping your shoulders level and your torso from twisting. You'll find out pretty quickly if one side is lagging (it usually is), and an extra set on the weaker side will bring it up.

How to Program Dumbbell Face Pulls

Stick these in your program once or twice a week for three sets of 10 to 20. Your last couple of reps should feel hard without losing your form. Add at least one other rear delt and upper back move per week into your program as well, because working your shoulder blades three times a week is what research shows will improve posture and build strength.

You can use dumbbell face pulls as an accessory lift for your bigger presses by tacking them onto an existing upper body and shoulder workout, or as a way to balance out the extra front delt and triceps work you get with chest exercises.

Progress by adding reps until you can do more than 20 (or even up to 30, depending on how you respond to volume and load), then increase your weight by 2.5 to 5 pounds and start over. Rear delts are small and recover fast, so you can hit them again in a day or two.

If you really want to grow them, be sure to get enough protein and overall calories. Add a scoop of Purist® Whey Protein with 25g of grass-fed isolate to your post-workout shake along with some carbs, and you'll be set.

How to Do Face Pulls at Home With Dumbbells

The AB-3000 2.0 FID Adjustable Bench is ideal for hitting every incline angle you'd need, with eight back pad positions and a 1,000-pound rating. Or you could go for the Nighthawk™ Adjustable Bench for a premium option if you want to level up.

For dumbbells, adjustable dumbbells make the most sense since face pulls live at the light end of the rack. The QuickDraw™ adjustable dumbbells start at 5 pounds with 2.5-pound microplates, which is exactly the kind of tiny jump this exercise calls for, and the REP x PÉPIN™ FAST Series™ Adjustable Dumbbell starts at 10 pounds and climbs to 125 pounds. A few pairs of rubber-coated dumbbells in the 10- to 25-pound range work fine too.

FAQs

What's the difference between cable face pulls and dumbbell face pulls?

Cable face pulls keep tension on your muscles through the whole rep and let you change weight quickly, so they're easier to load progressively. Dumbbell face pulls use gravity, so the hardest part of the rep is the top squeeze, and the chest-supported position on a bench takes your lower back out of the movement entirely. Home gym lifters without a cable stack should stick with dumbbells and lose zero sleep over it.

How heavy should I go on dumbbell face pulls?

You should go lighter than you think for dumbbell face pulls. Start around 10 to 20 pounds per hand, or even lower. The rotator cuff muscles you're trying to train are small, and going heavy just hands the work to your bigger rear delts and upper traps. If you can't hold the rotated top position for a full second, drop the weight.