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What about a landmine kroc row?
Meadows are indeed an option. If you can get even on it at my gym - it’s busier than the Smith machine. Not sure when that became the trendy thing to do for emerging junior meatheads?
Meadows are a different animal from kroc rows. Just because you’re using a landmine doesn’t mean it has to be a meadows row.
True enough. But I’d hoped to do Krocs from a bench since easier access, and personal preference.
This^^^^
Love the Meadows row!!!
Yeah, they’re pretty versatile too. You can change your positioning, elbow angle, etc. and make it a completely different motion. Sometimes load it up heavy and blast the lats, sometimes pull it up to neck level with my elbows flared out to really nail the rear delts.
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I bought a kettlebell handle, took it to the gym, loaded 135 pounds on it, watched it immediately collapse the first time I lifted it. Now ordered stronger kettlebell handle.
The kettlebell handle is a good solution if it is sturdy enough. I got one which holds 3-4 Olympic plates and is rated to 1200 lbs. It weighs six pounds and cost $60. It does a good job for one-arm rows when loaded to 135 lbs; will start there and see how much I can increase. I doubt you could get more than 180 lbs. on there due to the handle length.
I don’t recommend plastic handles or ones kettlebell handles rated to around 200 pounds unless using fairly light two digit weights. Not sturdy enough.
The kettlebell handle is good. You can do an adequate one arm row with 135 pounds, maybe more if using very thin plates. But I bought a cheap landmine handle and tried one arm rows using that. There was enough space to load 225 pounds on the bar and one-arm row, but the handle was only about 2/3 on the bar since its shaft was pretty long. You could do it but it felt marginal.
I wondered about adding a T-screw to the handle, but saw one online which had a shorter shaft and already had a T-screw. So I’ll try that. Because I could do 100 pounds easily, I did not know I could one-arm row these amounts. I’m even more eager to add heavy rows to my program.
I now agree the Meadows row is better than the dumbbell version. But I think it is worth it to use a handle, at least for heaviest weights, rather than just the bar. I worked up to 270 lbs. on single arm rows which surprised me.
But there are different handles. You can only put so many plates at the end of a standard bar. The first handle I bought took up a lot of shaft and was secured by a spring collar. You could get five medium plates on the bar.
The second handle only takes up under 2” of bar, and is better secured with a T-screw, which will allow me to get up to eight medium 45” plates on the bar. Future goals!
I put a bench beside the landmine, and use a handle that attaches to the bar and looks like the top of a curling stone. Then I kneel on a thick piece of incompressible foam (like yoga blocks) to compensate for the height of the handle and loaded bar.
It feels like a dumbbell row. Works really great. I’m not quite at Kroc’s levels - he said he did 300 for 13 reps with each arm. His maximum is higher than that.
But getting there. I’ve done 225 for 30 (in groups of 10), 270 for 10 and 295 for 3 (with both arms). I’ve done both arms for 20,000 pounds in one workout a few times. I hope this translates to my deadlift but time will tell…. It’s more than I expected since the maximum available dumbbell is much less.
Trying to bench a day or two later… only a non-lifting anatomy professor concludes you don’t use the lats while pressing. It really makes it hard when the upper back is smoked, and you have to drop plates.
Kneeling on yoga foam turns out to be a bad idea; very hard on the knee when rowing heavy.
But I’ve worked my way up to some impressive volume on one arm rows. Today I did 47,000 pounds worth. Hopefully some of this will eventually show up on my biceps.
Hate to brag but…
I am also limited to 100s in my garage gym so I get creative when doing chest. I think of my log as a good reference for anybody that trains with limited equipment but loves exercise variation.
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What I found most helpful is one of these. The best ones have short tubes to allow more weights on the landmine, have little height to maximize range of motion, and use a T screw so that there is no space-taking collar required.
Love this thing. Cheap. Portable. Practical. Might be the best gadget I have purchased for lifting (though the one pictured differs from the one I use by the details above.)
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I have had some success doing Kroc rows with a landmine handle. I have done 315 pounds for five, but generally get less guff and better results doing high volume sets with between 160 and 225 pounds. I broke a handle going heavy. I broke my bicep (well, small strain) the first time I went heavy and took two weeks off to let it heal.
What I did not realize is that Kroc rows are an amazing bicep exercise. I guess any vertical pull works the biceps, but these work very well. I like heavy preachers, but Krocs really hit the bicep peak and seem to selectively increase muscle tone there. This was not something I anticipated at all.