The face pull works the shoulders first — the rear of them, mechanically — with the back as its secondary muscle, and the rear delt fly is the same catalog row done with dumbbells. Both are isolation moves, both rest 60 s, both step 2 kg, and each adds 1 to your weekly shoulder count and 0.5 to back. This guide covers the face pull and the rear delt fly together, because in the app they are twins.
Muscles worked
Mechanically both movements pull the upper arms backward and outward with the elbows bent or nearly straight — horizontal shoulder extension with external rotation on the face pull, horizontal shoulder extension on the fly. The rear part of the deltoid does the arm's share and the muscles between the shoulder blades pull the blades together, which is why the catalog credits back as the secondary. The catalog has one shoulder group, so it does not separate front, side and rear; a set of face pulls and a set of lateral raises both count as one shoulder set. Nothing here is an EMG claim.
Face pull vs rear delt fly
| Face pull | Rear delt fly | |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | cable (rope, pulley at face height) | dumbbells, bent over |
| Category | isolation | isolation |
| Muscles | shoulders; back | shoulders; back |
| Default rest | 60 s | 60 s |
| Load logged as | stack weight | per hand |
| Step | 2 kg | 2 kg |
| Resistance direction | horizontal, from in front | vertical, from below |
| Where the load is heaviest | at the face, arms pulled back | at the top of the arc, arms out |
The direction of resistance is the practical difference. A cable set at face height pulls straight toward the stack, so the load is on through the whole pull. A dumbbell hangs straight down, so a bent-over fly is lightest at the bottom and heaviest when the arms are out to the sides. Same muscles, different loading curve — geometry, not a training claim.
Setup and execution
Face pull. Set a rope attachment at about face height. Take a thumbs-back grip, step back until the arms are straight and the stack is off its rest. Pull the rope toward the face, elbows high and travelling out to the sides, until the hands are beside the ears and the shoulder blades are together. Return under control.
Rear delt fly. Hinge forward until the torso is roughly parallel to the floor (or lie chest-down on an incline bench), dumbbells hanging under the shoulders, slight elbow bend. Raise the arms out to the sides until they are level with the shoulders, then lower under control. Keep the elbow bend the same on every rep so the lever does not change.
How it pairs with rear delt flyes
Because the two share a row, pairing them is additive, not redundant. Three sets of each in one session is 6 shoulder sets and 3 back sets in the weekly counter. The app can also group two adjacent exercises as a superset so they move and reorder as one block. Whether you want six sets of the same muscle list from two angles is a programming choice — the counter will not tell you it is too many or too few beyond the weekly landmark.
Rep and RIR targets by goal
Both are isolation rows.
| Goal | Reps | RIR | Rep ceiling | Sets (beginner / intermediate / advanced) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 6–8 | 2 | 9 | 2 / 3 / 3 |
| Hypertrophy | 10–15 | 1 | 14 | 2 / 3 / 3 |
| General fitness | 8–12 | 2 | 12 | 2 / 3 / 3 |
RIR is reps in reserve — how many more reps were left when the set stopped. @RIR 2 means the set ended two reps short of failure. The rep ceiling is the engine's "expected max": the midpoint of the range plus the RIR target, round((repMin + repMax) / 2) + rir. Beat the ceiling and the load steps up next time. Rest 60 s on both.
How progression steps on this exercise
Cable and dumbbell rows both step 2 kg, and neither has a plate-inventory check. On the hypertrophy target (10–15 @RIR 1, ceiling 14):
| Last set | Next session |
|---|---|
24 kg × 17 face pull | 26 kg × 10 — progress |
24 kg × 14 face pull | hold 24 kg × 14 — ceiling reached, not beaten |
8 kg × 9 rear delt fly | 6 kg × 10 — back-off |
One detail: the engine snaps recommended loads to a multiple of the step. Start from a stack pin that is not a multiple of 2 kg — 25 kg, say — and a progress recommendation reads 28 kg (25 + 2 = 27, rounded to the nearest 2). In plain terms: log what is on the stack, and expect the recommendation to land on an even number. The face pull 1RM page exists but is not the point of this movement.
Alternatives
Ranked for the face pull (same primary — shoulders; +4 loadable, +2 same category, +1 same equipment, then name):
| Rank | Alternative | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cable lateral raise | isolation, cable — 7 |
| 2 | Dumbbell lateral raise | isolation, dumbbell — 6 |
| 3 | Rear delt fly | isolation, dumbbell — 6 |
| 4 | Arnold press | compound, dumbbell — 4 |
For the rear delt fly the list is dumbbell lateral raise, face pull, cable lateral raise, Arnold press. A swap to either lateral raise keeps the shoulder set but drops the 0.5 back credit, because the lateral raise rows have no secondary.
The short version
Face pull: shoulders primary, back secondary, isolation, 60 s rest, 2 kg step — and the rear delt fly is the same row on dumbbells with a different loading curve. Pair them and the credit adds up (1 shoulder + 0.5 back per set, each). Swap to a lateral raise and the back credit goes away. Zyra Workouts is a training log, and this page is a guide to one movement in its catalog. Educational overview only — not medical advice.