I have always followed very strict dumbbell row form and I never really noticed much from it. I kept my body pretty much still and lawnmowered it.
Last night I finished my heavy squats and power cleans and did some dumbbell rows.
I picked up a 80lbs dumbbell and started to row and used a bit of momentum and focused on pushing my back muscles forward and pulling back the shoulders and moving the dumbbell up to the hip.
I woke up this morning and my traps, lats and middle back are aching and feeling really exhausted.
I was wondering if anyone feels rowing movements more with less than perfect form.
[quote]Paradise Lost wrote:
I have always followed very strict dumbbell row form and I never really noticed much from it. I kept my body pretty much still and lawnmowered it.
Last night I finished my heavy squats and power cleans and did some dumbbell rows.
I picked up a 80lbs dumbbell and started to row and used a bit of momentum and focused on pushing my back muscles forward and pulling back the shoulders and moving the dumbbell up to the hip.
I woke up this morning and my traps, lats and middle back are aching and feeling really exhausted.
I was wondering if anyone feels rowing movements more with less than perfect form. [/quote]
Yeah. They used to have a name for lifts done like that, called “The Cheating Principle”. Just one of many techniques to use. To some extent, it’s like the difference between a military press and a push press; use some momentum, use more weight, get a different response.
On a personal note, I’ve found it useful to build a mental catalog of lifts in the vein of “if I use this form, I get these results”. Once you get past the form arguments about the “right” way to do something, you can start seeing how to adjust your form in an exercise to reach a certain goal.
For instance, if squatting is part of your program, and you realize you need more quad development, you can just switch to a more Olympic-style squat without having to really change your exercise selection or program.
Rows don’t seem to have anywhere near as clean of lines as far as the different styles. There are a lot of different factors to play with, and I’m still trying to work out some of the “which to use when’” things for myself: momentum or no momentum, flared or tucked arms, pull to the hip or chest or stomach, unilateral or bilateral, dumbbell, barbell, kettlebell, etc. It’s kind of neat how many variations there really are.
A quick clarification. The momentum used was very small, just enough to be able to really focus on trying to push the back muscles through your chest and raise the db at the hip. I got a really deep contraction. I wasn’t just cheating the form.