What is the correct form when doing bent-over rows? Do I bring the weight to the bottom of my ribcage or even with my nipples? I’ve heard both are the “correct” form.
Both are correct, but different. Bringing the bar to your ribcage would mean that your elbows are “in”. This means your are performing extension of the shoulder joint OR Narrow Bent Row. Theoretically, your grip is supinated (palms up). This works the “lower Lats”.
Bringing the bar to your chest is Horizontal abduction of the shoulder joint or the opposite motion of the bench press (Wide Bent Row). Your grip is pronated generally (overhand, palms down).
A good test is can you Bent Row Wide the same weight and reps as your bench press? I use bent row wide mostly because “extension” exercises are a dime a dozen (narrow chins, Dumbell Rows, pull-overs, etc). Also the help correct “rounded shoulders” and other postural problems.
if you are doing them for back development just keep the elbows in and your lower arms perpendicular(sp?) to the floor the whole time. peace
I figured we’d cross paths again. I relish the healthy debate.
Are you saying that Bent row wide doesn’t work the lats? I use it as a core back exercise. I know Ian King has perscribed it for Posterior deltoid but I find it hits my lats hard.
For “lower lat” development, I agree that “elbows in” or narrow grip is best, but what about upper back? Isn’t bent row wide the better choice? I tend to combine both movements ie shoulder extension and horizontal abduction. Peace.
well the closer the elbows are to the body the less the rear delts work (you can not take them out of the movement, you should not want to either) every muscle in the back WILL be worked and it will happen regardless of the “style”, the lats are involved, as is the teres major and minor, romboids,ect… I believe that done strictly (which FEW people do) most can handle more wt. with the elbows in, or atleast 45*, I also think most people have a hard time keeping the chest out and shoulders back when they take a wide grip. If you haven’t guessed by now I think the object is to overload the muscle as much as possible, if someone is naturaly stronger in one over the other I do not think they would ever notice any difference in overall development over their lifetime. just use the movements that you can handle the most weight in STRICTLY, as long as the exercise either streches or contracts a muscle as much as safely possible. I do not think it will make any difference. as always peace
I tend to agree that most are stronger with elbows in and that we want posterior deltiod involvement, but I disagree with the notion that back development is the same. I did mainly Extension type back exercises (as with elbows in bent rows) and found my back development incomplete. Adding wide rows and movements of that nature and wide chins/lat pull-down and really brought my upper lats up to speed. Form is key and momentum is the enemy! Peace brother.
the higher up on the chest you bring it, the more difficult it is and you hit higher up in your back. this is excellent to counteract muscle imbalances due to strong bench movements. laters pk
BigRob, how do you know it was the exercises that caused the growth? by that I mean you say you had a weekness in your back, I am assumeing that was because some muscle in your back were “takeing over” when you did your rows, maybe the growth you experienced was due to the other muscle in your back becomeing the weekest link, which would make them work the hardest? just a thought. anyway when I say there will be no overall diff. what I mean is I am not going to win the Mr. O, I’m just trying to add as much muscle as possible to my body, so even if there is some diff. I’ll still choose the exercise that allows for the greatest overload and to me that means the greatest GROWTH. peace (gee I guess they took that one thread off, I kinda liked it;-)
Hetyey, sorry about the lack of reply. I kept skimming past this post thinking it was dead. Anyway, I come from the school of thought that all muscles need to be hit from different angles because of the different fibers responsible for diferent movements. The way I was taught and have found to be true through personal experience is that if lower lats are lagging, extension exercises need to be performed. Conversely, if upper, outer lats are lagging, wide grip rows are best.
I was lagging in upper outer lats and used them to bring myself up to speed. Garnted I can't do the same poundages (close though) in wide rows as narrow, it overloads a different "section" of the lats and upper back.
As far as there being a weak link, it was my upper lats, and I tried to expose it and correct it with wide rows. The weak link became stronger because it had a more mechanical advantage when doing wide rows. therefore in that exercise, due to angle and line of pull, my stronger, lower lat became the weakest section of the muscle, or more accurately, the least active section.
I hope this makes sense. It is too bad the “To flat or not to flat” thread has gone to the Forum graveyard. Maybe we should fire it up again. Healthy intelligent debate is one of my favorites. Peace.