Reverse-Grip Bent-Over Row
Trains the Rhomboids and Middle Trapezius.
- Equipment
- A barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Stand holding a barbell with an underhand grip about shoulder-width apart.
- Push your hips back and hinge forward until your torso is somewhere between forty-five degrees and parallel to the floor.
- Set your back flat and brace your stomach — this position is held for the whole set.
- Let the bar hang at arm's length below your shoulders.
- Pull it to your lower ribs or upper stomach, driving the elbows back along your sides.
- Lower under control to straight arms without letting the back round.
Common mistakes
- Standing up a little on each pull. The torso angle is set before the first repetition and held; rising as the bar comes up is the hips helping, and it hides how much the back actually did.
- Pulling to the chest. The underhand grip keeps the elbows close to the sides, so the bar meets the body low — pulling high fights the grip and puts the shoulder in a position the grip did not set up for.
- Assuming the underhand grip makes it a biceps exercise. The biceps work harder here than with an overhand grip and they are still not what moves the bar; if the elbows are bending before the shoulder blades move, the order is wrong.
- Rounding the back to reach lower. The hinge is held with a flat back at whatever depth allows it, and a bar that will not reach the shins with a flat back is simply a bar being lowered too far.