Stand in front of the cable apparatus about a foot away from the weight stack. Grab the short bar with a less-than-shoulder-width grip and stand straight up again. You will need to tilt your body backwards a bit in order to counter the weight trying to pull you forward. This is your starting position.
Lift the bar up vertically all the way until the bar reaches your neck line. Once at the top hold for a fraction of a second and then release the weight back down to the original starting position.
Finally, repeat entire movement for the desired or prescribed number of repetitions.
DO
DON'T
Perform this exercise in a smooth and fluid motion
Don't jerk the weight up as this may result injury; similarly, don't drop the weight back down too fast either
SPECIAL NOTES & LEVEL of DIFFICULTY VARIATIONS
To increase the level of difficulty, slow down the movement or increase the weight resistance.
This is a great exercise for your upper lats and traps. It's primarily a shaping exercise. Thus, it's not the best exercise if you want to pack slabs of muscle onto your back. If that is your goal you should do barbell and dumbbell exercises for the back.
The key to executing this exercise is a slight lean backwards (to counterbalance the force of the weight trying to pull you forward). Thus, take a moment and try to find that perfect "sweet spot" where your body's lean backwards and the weight pulling you forward are in perfect balance and cancel each other out.
