Exercise guide · Intermediate · Compound

Cable Standing Up Straight Crossovers: How to Do It & Muscles Worked

Cable standing up straight crossovers are a chest exercise performed using a cable machine. The movement involves bringing the arms together in front of the body, crossing them over each other, which targets the pectoral muscles and also engages the deltoids and triceps.

Primary muscles
Chest
Secondary muscles
Shoulders , Triceps
Equipment
Cable
Level · type
Intermediate · Compound
Demonstration of the cable standing up straight crossovers
Front view: muscles worked by the cable standing up straight crossovers. Primary: chest. Secondary: shoulders and triceps.
Back view: muscles worked by the cable standing up straight crossovers. Primary: chest. Secondary: shoulders and triceps.
Primary Secondary

How to do the cable standing up straight crossovers

  1. Step 1: Stand in the middle of a cable machine with your feet shoulder-width apart.
  2. Step 2: Hold the handles of the cables with your palms facing down and your arms extended straight out to the sides.
  3. Step 3: Keeping your arms straight, bring your hands together in front of your body, crossing them over each other.
  4. Step 4: Pause for a moment, then slowly return to the starting position, keeping your arms extended.
  5. Step 5: Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Sets, reps and programming

Suggested sets, reps and rest for the cable standing up straight crossovers by training goal
Goal Sets Reps Rest Effort
Strength 3–5 3–6 3–5 min 1–3 reps in reserve
Muscle growth 3–4 6–12 2–3 min 1–2 reps in reserve
Muscular endurance 2–3 12–20 1–2 min 1–3 reps in reserve

Ranges follow the ACSM position stand on progression in resistance training. Muscle grows across a wide range of loads when sets end close to failure (Schoenfeld et al., 2017), longer rests between heavy sets support strength and size (Schoenfeld et al., 2016), and stopping a rep or two short of failure works about as well as training to failure (Grgic et al., 2022). Estimate your working weights with the strength calculators.

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