Upper back exercises on the cable

Why are there no shrugs here?

Because shrugs need a force pulling straight down, and gravity hands you that for free with any bar and any dumbbell. A cable pulls toward the pulley, so to get the same direction you would have to stand exactly over the low pulley. It can be done, but the cable adds nothing there that a barbell held in front of your thighs will not do, and that is why rowing is the only movement pattern in this set.

The practical conclusion is simple: if you are looking for load for your traps, look for it on the barbell list or the dumbbell list. What the cable offers instead is rowing with no break in the tension, and that is its own specialty rather than a substitute for something else.

The seated row machine positions belong to the same family. In terms of the movement they do not differ from the cable version: you sit, your feet are braced, and the resistance comes horizontally toward the stack. The difference is that the machine steers the path, so the handle cannot be swapped.

What changes with pulley height and handle?

The low pulley on the seated version runs the cable roughly horizontally, and the catalog finishes the movement at the lower abdomen or the stomach, with the elbows traveling back close to the torso. It is the most classic position on this list and a good reference point for everything else.

A pulley overhead changes the task. In the underhand high row you start with your arms extended upward and pull the bar to your upper chest, driving your elbows down and back. The pull runs diagonally from above, so the upper back works at a different angle than in the seated version at the low pulley, and it is not the same movement under a different name.

The handle is the third variable, and the cable is the only place you can test it without changing stations. A V-handle sets your hands neutral and close together, a straight bar lets you pick both the width and the direction of your grip, and a single handle leaves you one side. Swapping takes a few seconds, so comparing grips inside one workout is realistic here, while with free weights it would mean changing the whole exercise.