Upright Barbell Row

How to do it

1. Stand holding a barbell in front of your thighs with an overhand grip about shoulder-width apart.
2. Stand tall with your arms straight and the bar resting against your legs.
3. Pull the bar straight up along your body by driving your elbows up and out.
4. Keep the bar close — it should stay within an inch or two of your torso the whole way.
5. Stop when your upper arms are level with the floor.
6. Lower under control to straight arms.

Common mistakes

• Pulling the bar to the chin. The higher the elbows go above shoulder height, the more the shoulder is rotated inward at the top of its range under load, and there is nothing above shoulder level that the movement needs.
• Gripping too narrow. A narrow grip forces the elbows higher and the wrists into a sharper angle; shoulder-width or a little wider keeps both more comfortable.
• Letting the bar drift away from the body. The bar travelling forward turns the movement into a front raise with a bent elbow, and it puts the load out in front of the shoulder.
• Treating it as either a shoulder exercise or a trap exercise. It is both at once — the arm is being lifted out and up while the shoulder blade is being elevated — and neither answer is the whole one.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Traps

Secondary

• Shoulders