Cable Woodchopper
The cable woodchopper is a rotational core exercise where you pull a handle diagonally across your body, high to low or low to high. It trains the obliques, with the abs helping to brace. Use it to build rotational strength that carries over to throwing, swinging and any sport where you twist under load.
Muscles worked
The cable woodchopper trains the obliques, with abs helping.
Weekly sets for obliques
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for obliques, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the cable woodchopper
- 01Set the pulley at the top position for a high-to-low chop and attach a single D-handle or rope.
- 02Stand side-on to the stack, feet wider than shoulder width, and grab the handle with both hands.
- 03Start with your arms extended up toward the pulley and your torso turned toward the stack.
- 04Pull the handle diagonally down and across your body to the outside of your far knee, rotating through your trunk.
- 05Return along the same diagonal with control, then finish all reps before switching sides.
Coaching cues
- Rotate from the ribs, arms stay long
- Pivot the back foot as you turn
- Control the return, resist the pull
Common mistakes
- Pulling the handle with your arms instead of turning your torso takes the obliques out of it, so keep your arms long and rotate.
- Keeping your feet locked flat strains your knees as you turn, so let the back heel pivot with the rotation.
- Letting the cable whip you back to the start skips the eccentric, so resist it on the way back.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Cable Woodchopper alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your cable woodchopper free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.