IOL Strength and Conditioning

Accept no Substitutes: The Barbell Row

The more I train, the fewer exercises I use. Over time I have tried a huge number but only a handful or two are still around. Most of those that made the cut are the simple basic exercises that I learned when first starting out.

Now one of the basics that I never really took to was the barbell row. I always rowed, but I always used dumbbells. I figured if you’re going to row, do a rowing variant that spares your lower back; the lower back gets all it can handle (and sometimes more) from squats, deadlifts, pulls, etc. I was always relatively strong in dumbbell rows, so they were never a high priority in my program. I focused on pulldowns, and later on chins.

I thought this was a reasonable plan and didn’t really think much about it. I got to be a good chinner and grew a broad back. But a few things were subtly suggesting that I missed something.

“Thing is, they’re the toughest, meanest and most demanding upper body movement. Bent-over rows are a comprehensive exercise like squats, deadlifts and standing military presses. They work large and specific muscles (full back) yet engage the whole system in their execution — fingers to toes.”

You can and should read the rest here.

That got me thinking a little, but not enough to actually do some bar rows. I am dense. Fortunately, IOL Forum member and veteran strong guy Dan Martin mentioned, oh, forty or fifty times that bar rows are among the cream of the cream, the number one pull, in his estimation “the fourth powerlift.” Now dense though I am, Dan Martin’s subtle-meter reads somewhere between the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket and a poke in the eye with a hot stick. I tried some rows.

Where Have You Been All My Life

To make a long story short, me like. Not rowing with a bar all this while was a huge omission. It may be that working both arms at once forces more of the back to work. Dumbbell rows minimize the work for the rest of the body, focusing everything on the pulling arm; maybe the big advantage is that bar rows do just the opposite, involving the rest of the body in the effort of stabilization. Whatever it is, the effects were dramatic.

Another plus: I was pleasantly surprised to find that my chinup ability didn’t suffer while doing nothing but rows. I decided to lay off chins entirely and focus on rows. Out of curiosity, I tried a set of chins on the spur of the moment. I was only a few reps off my best.

The conventional wisdom is that chins develop width in the back, and rows develop thickness. I heard that for years and it never made a lick of sense to me. To tell the truth, I’m still not sure it makes any sense to me; here’s what I think it means. Chins develop the lats, which are the largest single muscle in the back and create the dramatic wing like appearance. Rows develop the whole back. There are dozens of muscles back there.

Developing all these muscles rather than just lats is of interest to bodybuilders - it’s what separates a back like Dave’s from the broad, flat backs that you see so often. More importantly though, developing all these muscles is crucial for athletes and for general fitness. It balances the shoulder joint in ways that chins or pulldowns do not.

As always, form is extremely important with barbell rows. The most important form point is to keep a flat lower back. This will require quite a bit of flexibility in the hamstrings, and good core strength and stability in the bentover position. You must develop these prerequisites before attempting barbell rows (or T-bar rows, or seated pulley rows, etc.).

There are a lot of don’ts with barbell rows. Don’t try to modify your form so the exercise to emphasize lat development. It will develop the lats without any fiddling. Don’t emulate the form some of the monsters use in photo shoots for bodybuilding magazines. You’ll typically see these guys with 500 pounds, barely bent over, with very little range of motion. Stick to the form that Dave describes in the article above. Use a fairly wide grip, keep your trunk pretty much parallel to the ground, and pull the bar to the lower chest. With heavy weights, a little thrust might be okay. A little.

For some more fine tuning on rowing technique, I have had good results with the form described on the MadCow site. (Don’t blame me, I didn’t name it.) The main differences described are starting each rep with the bar resting on the ground, with acceleration, and emphasizing arching your UPPER back.

If you aren’t rowing with the bar, give it a go. Don’t make me send Dan Martin over there.