[quote]kimbakimba wrote:
Bent over BB rows
Bar 1 x 10
55# 2 x 10
Honestly, I’m not sure I’m doing these right. Any pointers appreciated.
[/quote]
I do these after my high-rep benching day and love 'em. Maybe a video to critique?
When I do em, I bend at the waist to where the barbell is just below my knees and I pull towards my tummy…really trying to squeeze the shoulders together.
How come you don’t feel your doing them right?
i’m having some trouble with rows (with lat activation more generally) these days. i was comfortable with them once, though, so thinking back to how i got them feeling good last time…
what I found helped was taking more time to warm up the movement. really focusing on pulling the elbows up and back squeezing my lats / shoulder blades together hard for a couple seconds at the top of the movement. 2-3 sets of 10. eventually potentiation kicks in and then i’m ready to put the weight up. before potentiation kicks in it doesn’t feel like i’m activating what i’m supposed to be activating.
i had some angst about them with respect to what the back angle should be… with respect to how much i should be pulling up vs up and back… i think those things can vary, though, depending on how exactly you want to hit the lats.
but… i don’t even know if lat activation is what is problematic for you with them. so disregard if this doesn’t seem to fit. and buckets of salt because i can feel i’m not really doing them properly these days.
Veggie posted this video in her log–or someone did. I do my rows as demonstrated in the first example–the less good way–the bad way.
Edited to remove honey badger vid
DCA, one more reason to eat up I see. My food intake is very, very consistent. I ordered a Sprite at lunch yesterday (I always get water) and my husband just about fainted with shock.
JM, super humid is a killer! I’d way rather run in the rain than have that.
Snap, a video is a great idea. I have no idea what I look like doing rows.
Betty, I’m largely unschooled in the ways of BB rows. I hadn’t made the effort to learn about them, but its PW to my rescue!and
alexus, thanks for the tips!
Nadia, that was a SUPER helpful video. Back angle was my major question, and that video sure answered it!
Being that my body was still sort of yearning for a lower-body deload, I decided to tackle squat form issues today.
Squats to 3 risers/step with band around knees
Bar 2 x 5
I remembered that I was supposed to “sit back like I mean it” but that so far I hadn’t delivered. I thought to use the “sit back” exercise in the video skye posted.
That definitely felt different. So, onwards to translate that into my squat.
55# 2 x 5 <–sitting back with bands sort of sucked
55# 1 x 5 <–took off the band, still struggled with sitting back
65# 1 x 5, 1 x 3
Maybe some progress, maybe not. I found it hard to focus on two remedial programs at once: the bands for the knee cave and the sitting back. So much to remember!
RDLs
95# 1 x 10
115# 1 x 10
135# 1 x 8 <–butt and hammies were all done
Bench Press (3s week)
Bar 1 x 5
68.5# 1 x 3
78# 1 x 3
88# 1 x 3 <–rep PR +1, butt WAY off bench for the last rep but I’m counting it anyway
BBB 67# 5 x 10
The volume was challenging today. Even another .5 pound might be too much right now.
supersetted with
Cable hip ad/abductions
7.5# + plate 2 x 12
Dips
BW 3 x 10 <–upper body now thoroughly fried.
In the joegood training method bb rows are ditched for t-bar rows.
I recently had a guy at my gym show me how to do BB rows. I’m trying to keep my shoulders down and back and pulling the bar more toward my belly, rather than up to the chest, partly because I’m trying to keep my traps from taking over. I was shrugging my shoulders up too much on them. My natural way of doing anything is to find a way to get around using my lazy lats.
Your persistence on squat rehab is impressive.
And your bench is coming along!
hmm… that vid was interesting.
i started out doing the Pendlay version (thinking it was the ‘right way’ when i still believed in such things) but switched to the first version when lumbar spine recovery became an issue for me.
The less vertical and more horizontal the back the more torque on the lumbar spine.
If one wants to train the lumbar spine then I see how Pendlay rows are good. If one wants to minimize torque to the lumbar spine (e.g., because of danger of overtraining it) then the first way of rowing would probably be a better exercise for the upper back.
but i hear there was a massive controversy over this somewhere… so i should probably just leave it alone.
I think pendlays are meant to target the upper back more, no?
I’m stuck on regular bb rows myself. Or t-bars/chest supported rows like Joe mentioned.
I think we’re gonna need a topless pic of your back… no, several- so that the panel can decide which kind of rows you should prioritize.
its for your own good, really.
I should probably explain what I said. Let me use an example. Many years ago I was reading a combat manual from the late Middle Ages and the author made a point about swords that basically said swords are in some ways a trap because they are so easy and instinctive to use at first that a person tends to overestimate their own skill and get themselves killed.
To me bb rows are the same way. Its a relative easy lift to do but it is very easy to get sucked into piling on weight until you are having to perform some sort of full body spasm to move it all. Now I’m not a guy who thinks form needs to be 100% perfect all the time but I firmly believe BB rows are the single worst performed lift in every gym everywhere.
Meanwhile, if you have a chest supported t-bar machine you don’t have to worry about it.
And why I do DB rows instead. I’m not keen on BB rows - I’m old and my back doesn’t like being dicked around. Heh.
I’ve always done my bb rows the “bodybuilder way”. Sometimes a little lighter with a pause at the top, other times I just kinda go for it. I don’t think there’s only one right way to do them, but the bb row seizure is obviously wrong. I will say that doing them (vs. various row machines alone) has made my back thicker and seems to be helping to get my scapula down.
Cal- its funny your cranky back can handle DB rows better. I’m the opposite. I have to be careful with things that are weighted on one side with my cranky back.
Kimba- Nice work sticking with the squat rehab. I’m not sure what video you were referencing, so maybe you’re just following instructions, but you’re decent is nice and controlled to a certain point and then you end up plopping down onto the “box”. I would add a riser to the step because it’s unnecessarily low and try to focus on controlling the decent all the way down. You can only “sit back” so low before you end up falling over.
[quote]JoeGood wrote:
In the joegood training method bb rows are ditched for t-bar rows. [/quote]
I’ve recently made this change too, for similar reasons.
And I second the motion for topless pictures…even if they are from the back!
I’d be curious to see if you hit depth with another riser. Maybe you do. Film from the side, please.
And I thought about you just now as my daughter and I made delicious popsicles: 2 cups Greek nonfat yogurt, 1/3 cup (or less) raw sugar, 1/4 cup ground up almonds, 1/2 cup ground up graham crackers. Put in paper cups with a popsicle stick in the middle. Mmm. Yummy treat that’s slightly decadent but packs a lot of protein.
Joe, I LOVE chest supported t-bar rows. Sadly, my gym doesn’t have that machine. I could ghetto something up with a bench set to incline and dumbbells but its just not the same.
PP, I’m not at all interested in working my traps so I’ll have to watch this situation too.
alexus, I’ll have to play with the Pendlay v. bb-style rows to see which works better. Thanks for the info!
Betty, upper back v. lower back on different types of rows! Goodness, there is so much to try to figure out.
CBear, see the next post for picture.
Cal, I’ve always done Kroc rows when I want to row, or cable rows. I was just trying something different for the sake of variety. We’ll see if it stays or goes.
BG, skye put a video in my log of the glute guy (Contreras) doing an exercise to get into the mindset of sitting back. I’ll have to check if he plopped, but I think so because he shows rocking back onto your heels and going for it. Perhaps the purpose was to show yourself that nothing bad will happen if you sit back? I’ll have to watch that vid again. Needless to say, there will be no plopping on an actual squat!
ManfromMA, see next post.
Snapper, I’ll add another riser and show you. You can be the depth judge! Those popsicles sound delicious. Would they have tasted fine without the sugar?
RDLs always, always toast my hammies. Here it is Tuesday AM and my hammies are still screaming at me even after a full rest day yesterday. Usually I’d go for a run this AM, but I blew off hubby on the bike rides substantially this weekend so I’m saving my legs for a ride with him this evening.
looking great!
i’d like to put in a good word for inverted rows. apparently they are sometimes called ‘fat mans pullups’ but i prefer to think of them as ‘purdy much guaranteed to not fuck your back rows’.
Nice definition, Kimba, but whoa, your waist is tiny! And your hips!
Yes Kim, you got quite the V-taper going on.
I love how you oblige us with pics <3
I love that you work hard with the squat rehab.
And RDLs do the same thing to me. I’ll love (actually, NEED) to train legs more but if I do RDLS, gotta give me about 4 days to get back at it. Damn.