13 Best Exercises You Can Do With a Cable Machine at the Gym

Some cable machines come with a long, straight bar with holes at each end. You can attach this to both cables of a pair of cable machines. When I first saw it, I tried to do back squats, but I hated it because the cables were pulling on the bar and it was hard to stabilize. Place the bar in the elbow bend and squat to stand.

A single cable can also do these things, but you may find that a full stack isn’t heavy enough unless it’s very small.

accessories: Double-headed straight bar

cable position: Both cables are at the bottom