For as long as I can remember there has been a trend among the average gym goer of only working the muscles that they can see in the mirror. These muscles include the chest, the shoulders, the abs and the muscles in the upper arm. We often hear about the “bro” that never trains his legs but why does the “bro” that never trains his back get a free ride. Not only is this aesthetically unpleasing but it's also limiting your performance and taking away from your shoulder health.
Think of the muscles in the human body as opposing sets of rubber bands that pull at our skeletal system. When we do resistance training we strengthen the rubber bands used in that system. Imagine that the muscles in the chest are a rubber band that stretches between the shoulders on the front side of the body and that the muscles across the back are rubber bands that attach in the rear. Now imagine that we are pressing more often than we’re pulling. Eventually the rubber bands on the front side of the body will over power the bands in the rear and pull the shoulders forward. This can lead to poor posture (a condition known as kyphosis), shoulder discomfort and even possible injury.
So how do we train the back?
The best way to train the back is with some kind of compound movement that involves pulling. This includes both vertical and horizontal pulling. The most common type of vertical pulling is the pull-up but today our focus is in horizontal pulling. Specifically the barbell row.
The barbell row is often neglected in many people's programming because most strength programs focus on the squat, bench, deadlift and overhead press. It's an important movement however so I always include it as an accessory exercise for my bench days. In fact it's a good rule of thumb to be at least as strong in your bent over row as you are in your bench press. In order to do this you would write a workout that looked something like this.
A1: Bench Press x3x5; rest 60 seconds
A2: Bent Over Row x3x5; rest 90 seconds
Keep the same weight for both exercises on your working sets. I advise your weaker movement to be your limiter until it catches up to the stronger movement.
So how do you perform the Barbell Row?
There are two ways to begin the barbell row, from the floor or from a rack. If you pull from the floor then assume a stance as though you are about to perform a dead lift. With a double over hand grip grab the bar and do a Romanian deadlift for the first couple of inches. From here you do the row. I personally prefer to work off of a rack.
Before you lift the bar out of the rack you need to get as close as possible to the bar and take in a deep belly breath to get your bracing then death grip the barbell.
Pick the barbell up and carefully do your walk out. This shouldn't take more than three steps.
Hinge at the hips while keeping your chest up as though you're doing the negative portion of a Romanian deadlift until your back is perpendicular to the bar path. This puts you at a mechanical disadvantage and will therefore make you stronger.
From this position, with actively engaged shoulders, pull the barbell in toward the belly button. Ideally this position will keep the bar above your midfoot. It's important to squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement.
Lower the barbell back to the start position and repeat until the end of the set.
If you can try to do each rep on the first breath because in this position you'll never be as stable if you have to get rid of your original breath.
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Until next time,
Cameron
