Cable Woodchop
Stand sideways to a high cable, feet shoulder-width apart. Grip the handle with both hands and pull diagonally across your body from high to low, rotating your torso while keeping arms relatively straight. Control the return. Can also be performed low-to-high. Builds rotational core strength and targets obliques.
Muscles worked
Equipment
How to do it
- Set a cable to a high anchor and stand sideways to the stack at arm's length.
- Grip the handle with both hands and let the cable line tension the trunk.
- Brace the core and rotate through the rib cage, not the low back.
- Drive the handle in a smooth diagonal toward the opposite hip.
- Pause briefly when the handle reaches the outside hip.
- Return under control along the same path and reset before the next rep.
Watch for
- Twisting through the low back instead of rotating the rib cage.
- Pulling the handle with the arms instead of the trunk.
- Letting the front knee collapse inward as you finish.
Breathing
Exhale through the chop, inhale as you return.
Tip
Drop the weight if the rotation runs into the low back. Clean thoracic rotation loads the obliques better than heavy cheats.
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