Machine Row
Trains the Lats.
- Equipment
- A machine
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set the seat so the handles sit level with the middle of your chest when you sit down.
- Sit with your chest against the pad and your feet flat on the floor.
- Take one handle in each hand — the two arms move independently, which is what the machine is for.
- Pull the handles back by driving your elbows behind you, letting the shoulder blades travel back with them.
- Stop when your hands reach your ribs and hold for a moment.
- Let the handles travel forward until the arms are straight and the shoulder blades have come apart again.
Common mistakes
- Pulling with one side harder than the other. Independent arms exist so each side does its own work; if the strong side finishes first the machine will let it, and the weak side stays weak.
- Finishing the pull at the hands. The repetition ends when the elbow is behind the body and the shoulder blade has moved, not when the handle touches the chest pad.
- Letting the chest come off the pad to pull harder. The pad is what stops the lower back doing the row, and coming off it turns a supported row into an unsupported one at a weight chosen for the supported version.
- Setting the seat high so the pull runs downward toward the hips. That is closer to a pulldown; the lat gets it and the middle back does not.