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Barbell Row

intermediate · pull_horizontal

Barbell Row

Setup

Stand hip-width apart with the bar over the middle of your feet. Grip it slightly wider than your shoulders and deadlift it to standing. With a soft bend in the knees, hinge at the hips until your torso is about 45 degrees to the floor, the bar hanging just below your shoulders.

Execution

  1. Set your shoulder blades down, open your chest, brace your belly and lock the torso at that angle.
  2. Breathe in, then exhale and pull the bar toward your navel with the elbows tracking close to your ribs.
  3. Pause for one beat when the bar reaches your lower belly and squeeze your shoulder blades together.
  4. Inhale and lower over 3 seconds until the arms are straight, with the torso refusing to move.
  5. At the end of the set bend the hips and knees together to put the bar down instead of dropping it.
  6. If the torso starts bobbing with every rep, end the set and put the bar down.

Breathing

Exhale as you pull the bar in, inhale as you lower it. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, a hernia or you are pregnant, do not hold your breath: exhale on the pull and use a lighter load.

Quick cues

  • Lock the torso at one angle.
  • Pull the bar to your navel.
  • Elbows brush your ribs.
  • Three seconds down every rep.
  • Imagine folding the bar into a V.

Common faults

  • Fault: Standing up a little more with every rep

    Fix: Film from the side and lower the load until the torso holds a single angle for the whole set.

  • Fault: The lower back rounding as the bar gets low

    Fix: Raise the torso closer to 45 degrees, brace the belly and shorten the range if it still gives way.

  • Fault: Pulling the bar up toward the chest, which pinches the shoulder

    Fix: Aim the bar at your navel or lower, with the elbows tracking along the ribs instead of flaring.

  • Fault: Cutting the lowering short, with the elbows still bent at the bottom

    Fix: Lower until the arms are straight and the shoulder blades stretch forward; if you have to cut the range to finish the rep, drop the load.

Equipment

barbell

Muscle groups

back, arms, shoulders