If you haven’t figured out, I take pride in building a kickass back, and helping others do the same. I’ve written about why you need to worry about building a big back before, but just know that having a well developed back separates the men from the boys.
Everyone can do chest all day every day and have decent pecs. It takes some fucking work to build a back, but when your physique looks better in everything from t-shirts to parkas, it’s all worth it.
One of the greatest back exercises known to man is the row. It comes with a ton of variations, but at the most basic form the row is just pulling a weight from a fixed point to your body, repeatedly.
It works so well because the row targets your lats, rear delts, rhomboids, and lower traps. There’s a reason why “you’ve got to row to grow” is a phrase that jacked ass dudes like to throw around. If you row, you will grow.
But you’ve got to row correctly, and unfortunately that’s not as easy as you may think. Here are 3 ways you’re fucking up your row, and how to fix them.
- You’re pulling too far behind your body.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when performing any kind of row is letting their elbow drift way behind their body. This often happens when people try and get some momentum to help them pull the weight, and they wind up with their elbow drifting 6 inches or more behind their body.
Without getting too much into the anatomy of your shoulder, doing this causes the humerus to slide forward in the ball/socket joint of the shoulder and can wind up irritating your biceps tendon and “loosening” of the anterior shoulder capsule.
All fancy terms for basically saying that too much of that, and your shoulder will be fucked.
When rowing, let your elbow get to the midline, or the middle of your body, and stop there.
- Don’t just bend your arms.
This point goes hand in hand with point 1, but it bears touching on. Far too many people try and row using weight that is way too much. Because of this, they turn the row – a kickass exercise for back development, into some fucked up looking lovechild between a hammer curl and a row after they stayed out too late doing cocaine and drinking absinthe.
When rowing, the entire point is to work your back. Your biceps and forearms function to assist the movement, that’s it.
One cue I love to use that I stole from Eric Cressey, the shoulder genius, is to let your shoulder blade work around your rib cage. This works, because most people who just do excessive arm bending are keeping their shoulder blade locked in place.
Instead, let that shoulder blade work around your rib cage, initiate the pull with your lat, pull until your elbow is at midline, and understand what the contraction of your lat really feels like. It’s a game changer.
- Don’t pull in a straight line
This is a tip I recently saw from Lee Boyce, who is one of the smartest bros in the strength-training world. It speaks specifically to 1-arm dumbbell rows, but it’s pure gold.
The fibers of your lat don’t run horizontal, and they don’t run vertical. It’s more of a diagonal path, so you should be training your lats within this motion. Performing dumbbell rows where you pull in a straight line robs you of the ability to target the lats properly.
Instead, what you should be doing is pulling in a sweeping “J” motion. Start the dumbbell out slightly ahead of your shoulder, and pull towards your torso. This way you’re now pulling parallel to the fibers of your lat, leading to more activation and more growth.
Who the hell knew rowing could be so complicated? It’s not as simple as just pulling some weight. If you take that approach, you’re setting yourself up to wind up with shoulder injuries at some point. Learn how to row well, target your back better, and start growing with rowing.