With the recent posts on the relationship between the bench and bent-over row, I’m curious about a few things.
Is it harmful to be able to row more than you bench since it seems like they should hold some sort of optimal balance?
If I’m at a point where I can row more than I bench, will working on my bench increase my rows indirectly?
I row on the crew team, so I target most of my weight training on applicable techniques such as rows, deadlifts, cleans, squats, good mornings, etc.
I’m 6’2" and a 185 lbs with 7% body fat. My 3RM on bench is 205 and my 3RM on the bent-over row is 220. For the row, I’m at 15-20 degrees above parrallel and use an overhand grip. Thanks!
I don’t think there’s any particular “optimum balance” because a great deal of strength depends on where the muscle inserts on the tendon, relative to the joint. If the insertion
is far from the joint, you have tremendous
leverage for strength, but from the standpoint
of speed, lousy leverage; and vice versa if
your insertion is unusually close to the joint. In other words, the same sort of muscular development will give different strenghts in different individuals. So there’s no “one”
formula.
I don’t think that improving your bench will
improve your rows. Maybe in theory that could
be true with someone who was tremendously
imbalanced in terms of pitifully underveloped pecs/delts and
strong back, but I’ve never seen that.
I can’t give you an exact figure for my
own lifts, since I don’t do barbell benches
anymore and do Yates rows (leaning over
only about 20-30 degrees rather than as
much as you are) but my rows are about 25-30%
more than what I’d estimate for my bench.
However, I’m built for speed rather than
force when it comes to the bench, so my
bench is low, whereas I’m good at pulling.