Single-arm cable row: seated or standing, the twist, and where it fits

A single-arm cable row is a row with one handle: you pull with one arm while the other side of your body does nothing to help, so your trunk has to stop the cable from turning you. It's done two ways, seated at a low cable with your feet on the platform, or standing at a pulley set around chest height.

This page covers both versions, what was measured when one-arm rows were put beside two-arm rows, what a test of each side found, the twist, the faults and the sets. The two-handle version is the seated cable row, and the one-arm row with a dumbbell is the dumbbell row.

How to do a seated single-arm cable row

1. Clip a single handle to the low cable and sit facing the stack, feet on the platform, knees slightly bent.
2. Take the handle in one hand and slide back until that arm is straight and the weight lifts off the stack. Sit tall.
3. Pull your elbow back past your ribs, close to your side, until the handle reaches your lower ribs or stomach.
4. Keep your chest facing the stack. The arm and shoulder blade move; your trunk doesn't turn with them.
5. Let the arm go long under control until it's straight again. Do all your reps on one side, then switch.

Those steps are practical cues. A study that tested this row sat people with their hips and knees bent to 90 degrees, the free hand behind the back, and measured each pull from a straight elbow to an elbow bent at 90 degrees.¹ That study used a motorised cable device that set the speed and measured force, not a weight stack, so take the position from it, not the numbers.

How to do it standing

1. Set the pulley around chest height with a single handle, and face the stack.
2. Step back into a split stance, the foot on the side that isn't pulling in front, knees soft, until your arm is straight and the stack lifts.
3. Brace and pull your elbow back past your ribs, chest square to the stack.
4. Return slowly to a straight arm without letting your shoulders turn toward the cable.

Those steps are practical cues, not a study's protocol. What has been measured is the trunk: in seven healthy men comparing three rows, the authors found that the standing one-arm cable row "challenged the torsional capabilities of the trunk musculature": it made the trunk muscles work against twisting.² A practical reading, not a finding: nothing holds you in place when you stand, so your legs and trunk have to keep you still. No study cited here compared standing with seated.

What it trains: one arm against two

The pull uses the same back and arm muscles as any row; the seated cable row has what the studies measured there. What changes with one arm is the trunk. In 15 resistance-trained men doing a free-weight bent-over row, a seated cable row and a machine row, each with one arm and with two, at matched effort:³

• The outer obliques worked more with one arm. Across the three rows, the two-arm versions drew 37% to 41% of the outer-oblique activity of the one-arm versions.
• The muscles along the spine worked more with two. In the cable and machine rows, the erector spinae and the multifidus were less active when one arm pulled.
• The one-arm free-weight row drew more still. One-arm cable and machine rows drew less outer-oblique and multifidus activity than the one-arm free-weight row did.

Both studies on this page that measured muscle activity were short lab sessions, not changes over weeks. For growth itself, a 2025 meta-analysis of nine studies found no significant difference between one-limb and two-limb training, while strength rose most in whichever version was trained.⁴ So pick the one-arm version for what it adds to the trunk and for working each side on its own, not because it builds the back faster.

With rotation, or square?

Square is the default: the cable tries to turn you and you don't let it. That's the version this page's cues teach, and the authors of the seven-man study suggest the one-arm cable row "might be considered" when the goal is "torsional endurance or strength", strength against twisting.² The Pallof press trains the same job with no row at all.

The version with rotation lets the shoulder reach toward the stack at the start and turns the trunk back as you pull. No study cited here measured it, so this page doesn't describe what it does differently. If you use it, keep it slow, and know it's a different exercise from the square row: the weights you write down for one don't compare with the other.

One side stronger than the other?

A little on average in one study, and not at all in another. In 29 young, physically active adults (about one in five of them women, average age about 21), a seated one-arm cable row test gave consistent results from one week to the next on most measures, and the dominant side produced significantly more force on the pull. Across the group the difference stayed under 10%, but on the pull 32% of the people had a gap bigger than 15%.¹ In 10 junior kayakers, 5 women and 5 men, the left and right arms didn't differ, and their maximal strength on a seated one-arm cable row was linked with their performance at the start of a 12-metre sprint, though a two-arm bench pull was linked slightly more strongly.⁵

A practical way to use that, not a finding: start each set with your weaker side, and do the same reps on the stronger one rather than more. If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, ask a doctor or a physical therapist.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• Twisting to heave the weight. If your shoulders turn toward the stack to finish each rep, the turn is moving the weight. Go lighter until your chest stays square.
• Shrugging. Shoulder up at your ear as the handle comes in. Pull the elbow back, not up.
• Half reps. Arm straight at the start, elbow past the ribs at the finish.
• Rocking on the seat. A lean of a few degrees is fine; a swing back on each rep is not.
• Rowing through pain. Sharp pain is not soreness. Stop, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• As a practical start: 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 12 on each arm, stopping a rep or two short of failure. (How to judge reps left.) This is practical advice, not a finding.
• After the main row. A barbell row, a T-bar row or a two-handle seated cable row first, then this as the second row, or in place of the dumbbell row on a cable day.
• Pair it with a vertical pull, such as the lat pulldown. The back workout has a slot for each direction.
• Add weight when every set reaches 12 on both arms with reps to spare. (Progressive overload covers how much.)

Common questions

Seated or standing?

Seated, the platform holds you and the pull is easier to load. Standing, nothing holds you, and the seven-man study found the standing version made the trunk muscles work against twisting.² No study cited here compared the two directly. A practical rule, not a finding: seated when the back is the goal, standing when you want the trunk to work too.

Single-arm cable row or dumbbell row?

Both train one side at a time. In the 15-man study, the one-arm free-weight bent-over row drew more activity from the outer obliques and the deep muscles along the spine than the one-arm cable row did.³ The cable keeps a steady pull through the whole rep and changes weight with a pin; the dumbbell row needs only one dumbbell and a bench.

What's a good single-arm cable row alternative?

Without a cable: the one-arm dumbbell row, or a band anchored in a door at chest height (the band workout shows the setup). With a bar overhead: the inverted row, which works both arms at once.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The single-arm cable row takes a minute to learn; deciding which row leads your week, which one follows, and how the sides compare over time is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: at your next back session, do three sets of ten on each arm, weaker side first, and write down the weight.