Smith Machine Upright Row

How to do it

1. Set the Smith machine bar at about mid-thigh height and stand close to it.
2. Take an overhand grip about shoulder-width apart and unhook the bar.
3. Stand tall with the arms straight and the bar in front of your thighs.
4. Pull the bar straight up along your body by driving the elbows up and out.
5. Stop when the upper arms are level with the floor.
6. Lower under control to straight arms, and re-hook the bar at the end of the set.

Common mistakes

• Standing in the wrong place. The bar's line is fixed and vertical, so where you stand decides whether it travels up your body or away from it.
• Pulling to the chin. Above shoulder height the upper arm is rotated inward at the top of its range under load, and nothing the movement is for happens up there.
• Gripping narrow. A narrow grip forces the elbows higher and the wrists into a sharper angle; shoulder-width or wider is more comfortable for both.
• Loading it heavily because the balance is removed. The fixed path takes out the wobble and not the load through the shoulder.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Traps

Secondary

• Biceps
• Rhomboids
• Middle TrapeziusTraps
• Shoulders