Band Pull-Apart

Start

Finish

How to do it

Hold a light band in front of you at shoulder height with straight arms, then pull your hands apart until the band touches your sternum and the shoulder blades have squeezed together.

Muscles worked

Primary: traps · Also works: rear delts, back

Equipment

Resistance bands

Common mistakes

• Bending the elbows to get the band further apart, which shifts work to the biceps
• Shrugging the shoulders up to the ears instead of drawing the blades together and down
• Using a heavy band, which forces the arms to break form long before the mid-back is tired

Variations

• Overhead band pull-apart with the arms raised
• Diagonal band pull-apart with one hand high and one low

Can't do this one? Swap it for

• Face Pull
• Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly
• Prone Y Raise

Related exercises

• Barbell Shrugtraps
• Dumbbell Shrugtraps
• Cable Shrugtraps
• Resistance Band Shrugtraps
• Prone Y Raisetraps
• Dumbbell Rear Delt Flytraps