Inverted Row

Execution

1. Stretch your legs out with your heels on the floor, or bend your knees and plant your feet to make it easier.
2. Squeeze your belly and glutes until your body is one straight line like a board.
3. Exhale and pull your chest to the bar, with the elbows traveling down along your ribs.
4. Hold one beat with the chest at the bar and the shoulder blades squeezed together.
5. Inhale and lower over 3 seconds until the arms are straight, with the body still in line.
6. To make it harder, set the bar lower; to make it easier, raise it.

Quick cues

• Straight as a board.
• Chest to the bar every rep.
• Squeeze the shoulder blades together.
• Crush the bar like wringing a towel.
• Squeeze your glutes like holding a coin.

Common faults

• Fault: The hips sagging so only the arms work

  Fix: Squeeze the glutes before you pull and raise the bar one setting for two weeks.

• Fault: Reaching the chin to the bar while the chest stays far away

  Fix: Use chest-to-bar as the target, and raise the bar if you cannot reach it yet.

• Fault: The shoulders creeping to the ears at the bottom

  Fix: Start each rep by sliding both shoulder blades toward your back pockets.

• Fault: Pushing off the heels to launch the body up

  Fix: Rest both heels on a low box and cut the reps to what keeps the body straight.