How to do the Cable Woodchop
Step by step
- Set the cable high and stand side-on, gripping the handle with both hands.
- Set your feet about shoulder-width and brace your abs, arms fairly straight.
- Pull the handle down and across your body toward your opposite hip.
- Return slowly to the start, resisting the cable rather than letting it snap back.
- Finish your reps, then turn to face the other way and repeat on that side.
The thing people get wrong
Drive the movement with your core rotating, not your arms - your hips and feet stay fairly steady while your torso does the turning.
Coaching cue
Breathe out as you chop and finish with the handle past your opposite hip.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Use a lighter weight and a shorter arc.
- Harder: Add weight, or start from a taller overhead reach.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Core
- Secondary: Side delts, Hips
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.