How do you row?
- Thread starter evolution
- Start date
It's actually only partially in French. Most of it's in English. I'd have used the other site but it gets pretty technical on some of the aspects and goes into other variations of movements, etc. This one (it's kinda ghey) works well for just a basic variation discussion with some pics.
Ummmm...with the exception of the headings and the following posts, the entire description of the Pendlay row is in English. I've checked on four computers, none of which translate from French to English and the entire description is in English
<---here is another site taht describes the Pendlay rows.
TOPIC 7: ROWS
Rows: Well, the best way to do them is to start with the bar on the floor every single rep. Your middle back will have slight bend to it. You pull the bar off the floor quickly with the arms, and by a powerful arch of your middle back. You finish by touching the bar to your upper stomach or middle stomach. At no time is there any movement of the hips or knees, no hip extension at all, all that bends is the middle back and the shoulders and elbows.
This is hard to do and you have to have good muscular control to do it, or you'll end up straightening up at the hips along with the arching of the back. But if you can master doing them this way you will get a big back. This works because the lats actually extend (arch) the middle back in addition to other functions, just like with glute-ham extensions compared to leg curls…you always get a stronger contraction when you move both the origin and insertion of a muscle, flexing it from both ends so to speak.
The bar returns to the floor after each rep. The bent row is actually best done as an explosive movement and the bar is moved fast. I have trained many people who could do this exercise with 350 or more lbs. I myself have done reps with 425, Ed Coan, who also knows how to do them properly, has done reps with over 500lbs without his back ever coming above parallel with the ground. That is stronger than Dorian Yates or Ronnie Coleman, by the way.
I did rows with Coleman once, actually, and I was far stronger than he was. He could not do more than 350lbs strictly although he could do over 500lbs by standing almost all the way up at the completion of each rep. Ed Coan is probably the strongest person on these, although one power-lifter I trained did manage 525 for a double done strictly.
Rows look at an anatomy chart. if the scapula and upper arms are held in a constant position, shortening of the lats WILL result in arching of the middle and upper back. i AM NOT saying that the lats are primarily responsible for upper back flexion... what i am saying is that they can assist in this.
i also HAVE done EMG work on various different rowing techniques... and there is not doubt that rows performed as i describe them will activate the lats more completely than done any other way i have ever seen. i have done EMG work on a large quantity of people for rows... and ive always found that these kind of rows activate the lats most completely. and besides, even if you dont buy the fact that they activate the lats better, hell, you can always be content with the fact that your getting an erector workout.
almost anyone whom i have gotten to do barbell rows right always comes back to them as the basis for their back routines... they get tired of them after a while and do other things, but always come back because they work so well. deadlifts, chinups, and lots of other things work for back, but in my opinion nothing works quite like barbell rows if they are done right.
it might interest you to know that we hooked an EMG machine up to people doing various kinds of back work, and NOTHING came close to rows for activating a large amount of motor units. i wouldnt "prescribe" exercises based on this alone, but it does back up the practical experience that i have had.
keep in mind that i mean rows with the back pretty much parallel to the ground, bar touching the floor on each rep, little or preferably NO hip extension during the row, a pause on the floor if need be, and the reps pulled fast and explosively.
rows done right are almost like a squat, they involve so much of your bodys muscle mass. you get real tired and hell ive been lightheaded and had to sit down after a set. they are a hard, hard exercise.
there seems to be some confusion on how to do them right on some of the other threads, so i will see if i can get a pic or two of them in the next day or so.
you drop your shoulders and round your upper back a bit at the start, but not the lower back. then in one explosive movement, you pull the shoulders back, "scrunch" or arch your upper back, and pull with your arms. it all happens at once, and the bar hits you hard in middle of the abs. this is not a slow exercise, its a fast and powerfull contraction of all the muscles of the back, which causes all 3 things to happen simultaneously. different people look a little differently, depending on their mobility in those parts of their body. most people can drop the shoulders and round out the upper back more than this kid. no matter how mobile you are in these areas, it is the EFFORT you make to do all 3 of these actions at once, and quickly and powerfully that makes it work really well
Use the pics from either site to give you a pic of how they should look performed.
<---here is another site taht describes the Pendlay rows.
TOPIC 7: ROWS
Rows: Well, the best way to do them is to start with the bar on the floor every single rep. Your middle back will have slight bend to it. You pull the bar off the floor quickly with the arms, and by a powerful arch of your middle back. You finish by touching the bar to your upper stomach or middle stomach. At no time is there any movement of the hips or knees, no hip extension at all, all that bends is the middle back and the shoulders and elbows.
This is hard to do and you have to have good muscular control to do it, or you'll end up straightening up at the hips along with the arching of the back. But if you can master doing them this way you will get a big back. This works because the lats actually extend (arch) the middle back in addition to other functions, just like with glute-ham extensions compared to leg curls…you always get a stronger contraction when you move both the origin and insertion of a muscle, flexing it from both ends so to speak.
The bar returns to the floor after each rep. The bent row is actually best done as an explosive movement and the bar is moved fast. I have trained many people who could do this exercise with 350 or more lbs. I myself have done reps with 425, Ed Coan, who also knows how to do them properly, has done reps with over 500lbs without his back ever coming above parallel with the ground. That is stronger than Dorian Yates or Ronnie Coleman, by the way.
I did rows with Coleman once, actually, and I was far stronger than he was. He could not do more than 350lbs strictly although he could do over 500lbs by standing almost all the way up at the completion of each rep. Ed Coan is probably the strongest person on these, although one power-lifter I trained did manage 525 for a double done strictly.
Rows look at an anatomy chart. if the scapula and upper arms are held in a constant position, shortening of the lats WILL result in arching of the middle and upper back. i AM NOT saying that the lats are primarily responsible for upper back flexion... what i am saying is that they can assist in this.
i also HAVE done EMG work on various different rowing techniques... and there is not doubt that rows performed as i describe them will activate the lats more completely than done any other way i have ever seen. i have done EMG work on a large quantity of people for rows... and ive always found that these kind of rows activate the lats most completely. and besides, even if you dont buy the fact that they activate the lats better, hell, you can always be content with the fact that your getting an erector workout.
almost anyone whom i have gotten to do barbell rows right always comes back to them as the basis for their back routines... they get tired of them after a while and do other things, but always come back because they work so well. deadlifts, chinups, and lots of other things work for back, but in my opinion nothing works quite like barbell rows if they are done right.
it might interest you to know that we hooked an EMG machine up to people doing various kinds of back work, and NOTHING came close to rows for activating a large amount of motor units. i wouldnt "prescribe" exercises based on this alone, but it does back up the practical experience that i have had.
keep in mind that i mean rows with the back pretty much parallel to the ground, bar touching the floor on each rep, little or preferably NO hip extension during the row, a pause on the floor if need be, and the reps pulled fast and explosively.
rows done right are almost like a squat, they involve so much of your bodys muscle mass. you get real tired and hell ive been lightheaded and had to sit down after a set. they are a hard, hard exercise.
there seems to be some confusion on how to do them right on some of the other threads, so i will see if i can get a pic or two of them in the next day or so.
you drop your shoulders and round your upper back a bit at the start, but not the lower back. then in one explosive movement, you pull the shoulders back, "scrunch" or arch your upper back, and pull with your arms. it all happens at once, and the bar hits you hard in middle of the abs. this is not a slow exercise, its a fast and powerfull contraction of all the muscles of the back, which causes all 3 things to happen simultaneously. different people look a little differently, depending on their mobility in those parts of their body. most people can drop the shoulders and round out the upper back more than this kid. no matter how mobile you are in these areas, it is the EFFORT you make to do all 3 of these actions at once, and quickly and powerfully that makes it work really well
Use the pics from either site to give you a pic of how they should look performed.