These 4 Leg Moves Can Be Done on any Cable Machine

There’s a reason why cable machines have become as occupied like benches on a Monday. This versatile machine gives you great options to train your upper and lower body. And all the attachments —from ropes, D-handles, and straight bars — allow you to attack your muscles with different grips and angles for better muscle development.

When it comes to training the lower body, the cable machine is a solid option alongside dumbbells, barbells, and resistance bands. But the cable machine has one major advantage over these tools. With a cable machine, the resistance is constant throughout the range of motion, unlike dumbbells, barbells, and bands which means better muscle tension and muscle building potential.

Here we will go into the benefits of using cable machine exercises, sets, and rep suggestions and four great exercises to program into your lower body training for variety and hypertrophy.

3 BENEFITS OF CABLE MACHINE EXERCISES

• Constant Tension: Each strength exercise has a strength curve. This is the force generated at each point throughout an exercise’s range of motion, as the resistance you feel is not constant. And this is due to your joint angles, But the cable machine provides constant tension throughout the ROM which can result in more muscle and strength.
• More Core Work: Most cable machine exercises are performed standing, training on the cable machine engages more of the muscles of the lower back, hips, obliques, and abs. And when you train unilaterally, this takes it all up a notch.
• Muscle Development: With the cable machine’s freedom of movement, combined with the ability to go high and low and to change your grip with different attachments, you’ll be able to train your muscles from a variety of angles for better overall muscle development.

CABLE MACHINE SETS AND REPS SUGGESTIONS

The cable machine is a great tool to train your muscles from multiple angles, using various attachments for better overall muscle development. One thing the cable machine isn’t great for is absolute strength. The best tool for strength will always be the barbell.

The cable machine weight stack usually varies between 100 to 200 pounds, which means when you top out, you only can do more reps or perform tempo lifting. Better to program cable machine exercise for variety, hypertrophy, and to strengthen your weakness. For the following exercises perform after your big strength movement for the day for two-four sets from anywhere from six to 15 reps.

THE FOUR BEST CABLE MACHINE EXERCISES

There are other options, but these four exercises are compound movements that train more muscle and have a direct carryover to improve your lower-body barbell lifts.