Band face pulls

Who it's for

Climbers who spend most of their training pulling, which is nearly all of them. Face pulls work the back of the shoulder and the upper back, the parts that hold the shoulder in a good position when you're hanging off a steep wall. They take 6 minutes, need one band and suit every level. If you already have shoulder pain, get a physio to look at it before adding this as a fix.

Common mistakes

• Dropping the elbows. Elbows stay high and wide, level with your hands or above them. With low elbows it turns into a row and the back of the shoulder does very little.
• Pulling with the lower back. Stand still and let the arms and shoulder blades do the work. Leaning back to move the band means it's too strong.
• Stopping short. Finish with your hands beside your ears. That last part, where the upper arm rotates back, is the reason to do the exercise.
• Racing through the set. Slow on the way out and slow on the way back. Fast reps with a light band barely count.

How to progress

Work up to 15 slow reps on all three sets before touching a heavier band. When you do go up a band, drop to 12 reps and build again. Two or three times a week is plenty, and it's easy enough to finish a climbing session with. Pausing for a second at the end of each rep makes it harder without changing the band.