You built your functional trainer, routed the cables, started training and now one or both cables are twisting. It looks wrong. You're not sure if you assembled something incorrectly or if the rack is defective.
Here's the honest answer: cable twisting is almost always preventable, but some degree of it is also inevitable on every system over time. What matters is knowing what causes it so you can minimize it and fix it when it happens. This post covers everything, from how you unpacked the cables on day one to how you perform your overhead tricep extensions.
| The short answer: Cable twisting usually comes from one of three sources: how the cables were stored before assembly, mistakes made during installation, or habits built up during training. Fix those three areas and you'll minimize it significantly. Some residual twisting over a rack's lifespan is normal on every system. |
How to Fix It and Prevent It
Here's the full checklist.
Before and during assembly:
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Lay cables flat on the floor immediately after unboxing. Give them 1-2 hours to settle before routing.
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When routing, pull the cable all the way through before securing anything. Let it hang free.
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Fasten bolts with clearance so the ball crimp is not in contact with the bolt stem during threading.
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Confirm every pulley bolt is fully tight with no lateral play in the shroud.
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Tighten weight stack bolts until the top plate floats slightly. That float means the cable has proper tension.
Ongoing maintenance:
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Lubricate guide rods at least once a month. Dry rods cause the weight stack to catch, which relieves cable tension, which causes twisting over time.
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After any exercise that required rotation to set up, reset by rotating in the opposite direction.
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Before starting a set, check that heavy or long attachments haven't drifted. Counter-rotate them back rather than doing a full 360.
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Consider swivel attachments if heavy bars are part of your regular programming.
If twisting has already happened: Some re-routing may be necessary. Remove the cable, let it settle flat on the floor again, and route it back through following all the steps above. It's not a fun hour, but it resolves the problem at the source.
The Ugly Truth Nobody Tells You
No company is going to put this in bold on their product page, but here it is: every functional trainer cable system will experience some degree of cable twisting over time. Every one of them. The difference between systems isn't whether it happens. It's whether you can see it. More on that in a minute.
That said, most cable twisting is avoidable. The steps below address the causes you can actually control.
Causes That Start Before Assembly
Leaving the Cable Spooled Up
When your crate or box arrives, the cables are wound up tight with a twist tie, often inside a plastic bag. A lot of people pull them out, set them aside, and go straight into building the rack frame.
That's a mistake. The cable has been coiled and twisted for however long it spent in shipping and storage. That's its default position now. If you route it straight from that wound-up state, you're baking in pre-existing twists before the system has taken a single rep.
The fix: as soon as you find the cables in the box, pull them out, remove the twist ties, and lay them flat on the floor. Give them an hour or two to settle and naturally uncoil while you assemble the frame. By the time you're ready to route, they'll be significantly more neutral.
Causes During Assembly
Improper Cable Routing
Even if you let the cables settle, you can reintroduce twisting during routing if you're not careful. The mistake most people make: they thread the cable partway through a pulley or crossmember and immediately fix it in place without letting it run all the way through first.
Do this instead. Once you've got the cable started through a pulley or crossmember, pull it all the way through before you attach anything. Let it hang freely for a moment. You'll see any remaining twists undo themselves because all the tension is relieved. Then proceed with the rest of the installation.
How You're Fastening the Bolts
On systems like the Dane 2, you fasten a bolt into the weight stack and the bottom crossmember to secure the cable. The issue is how a lot of people do it: they press down on the bolt so the crimped ball end of the cable is in direct contact with the bolt stem, then start rotating. As they turn the bolt, they're also rotating the cable. Do that a handful of times across a full assembly and you've added real twisting into the system.
The fix: before you start threading the bolt, make sure there's enough clearance that the ball crimp isn't touching the stem. Thread the bolt without that contact and you won't be twisting the cable at the same time.
Pulleys Not Fully Fastened
Check that every pulley is tightened down with no lateral play in the shroud. Pulleys that lean to one side or float slightly will introduce inconsistent cable paths over time and contribute to twisting. Once the cable is routed, go back through each pulley bolt and confirm it's fully fastened.
Top Plate Tension on Weight Stacks
On systems that feed directly into the weight stack, the bolt needs to be tight enough that the top plate has a slight float to it. That float is how you know the cable has real tension on it. Loose cables twist. Keep tightening past hand-tight with a wrench until you see that plate lift just slightly.
Causes From How You Train
Rotating During Exercises Without Resetting
Some exercises require you to rotate your body or the attachment to get into position. The overhead tricep extension is a common example: you pull the cable, rotate, and go into the movement. When you're done, if you rotate back in the same direction to rack it instead of the opposite direction, you've added a net twist to the cable.
The rule: always reset by rotating in the opposite direction from how you got in. This undoes the rotation instead of compounding it.
Heavy or Long Attachments
A long, heavy attachment like a lat pulldown bar will naturally rotate under its own weight on a cable system. If you notice it rotating and then do a full 360-degree turn to "fix" it, you've made things worse. The right move is to rotate it back in the opposite direction of where it drifted.
The easier long-term solution: swivel attachments. These rotate independently at the connection point, so any attachment rotation stays isolated and doesn't transfer into the cable. If you have a Dane 1 or Dane 2, contact our customer service team about availability, or pick up a set on Amazon. They're a no-brainer fix for anyone doing regular cable work with heavy bars.
Being Too Aggressive at Light Weights
On lighter loads, aggressive pulling can briefly relieve cable tension. That tension relief, repeated over time, contributes to micro-twists. This isn't a reason to train lighter. It's a reason to be smooth. Control the movement on the way up and the way back down. Train hard. Respect the equipment.
Why Some Racks "Never" Have This Problem
You've probably heard that 2:1 cable systems don't have cable twisting issues. That's not accurate. They have the same twisting. You just can't see it.
Most 2:1 systems run one long cable from the weight stack, through pulleys, to the trolley. Because everything is locked in, any twist in the cable has nowhere to go. It's masked.
Systems with floating components, like the Dane 2, use top cables and bottom cables that meet at a dual floating pulley in the middle. When either cable has any degree of twist, that center pulley starts rotating and makes it visible. The rack isn't doing anything wrong. It's showing you something that every cable system is experiencing internally. That visibility is actually useful diagnostic information, even if it's frustrating to look at.
Bottom Line
Cable twisting is one of those problems that looks like a defect but is almost always a combination of installation habits and ongoing maintenance. Get the cable flat before you route it, fasten your hardware carefully, train with control, and lubricate your guide rods on a regular schedule. Do all of that and you'll deal with far less twisting over the life of your rack.
If you're setting up or troubleshooting a Dane 2, the team is here.