Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

Barbell rows start on the floor and end on the floor, each and every rep. The bar does not hang from the arms between reps. Each rep is separated by a breath and a reset of the lower back. Starting from the floor enables the hamstrings and glutes to help get the bar moving, so that the lats and scapula retractors can finish a heavier weight than they could from a dead hang in the arms. Done this way, the exercise works not only the lats, upper back, and arms ? the muscles typically associated with rowing ? but the low back and hip extensors as well.


When rowing from the floor, the most critical factor in technique is the position of the lower back. The lumbar spine must be held in extension, just like it is in a deadlift and for exactly the same reason. A major difference between rows and deadlifts is the fact that the back angle changes as the bar comes off the floor; the knees are already extended and are not really involved much, so the hip extensors contribute to the initial pull from the floor by raising the chest through the locked back, transmitting this force to the bar. The finish occurs as the elbows bend and slam the bar into the lower ribcage area. The bar will leave the floor from a position directly below the scapulas, just like a deadlift; unlike a deadlift, the back angle will never become vertical, and in fact will not rise much higher than where it is just after the bar leaves the floor, just above horizontal at the shoulders.


Approach the bar with a deadlift stance, but don?t get nearly as close. Since the bar is going to be pulled through the air to the belly and not dragged up the legs to a standing position, the feet are further away from the bar, as with the SLDL. The toes might not even be close enough to be under it, and will probably be just behind the bar as you look down. The grip can vary quite a bit, but about the same as the bench press width is perhaps the best place to start. A hook grip is useful at heavier weights, or straps can be used. Eyes should be fixed on the floor in front of your position a few feet, not looking straight down but also not attempting to look straight forward, which would place the neck in too extended a position.

From the correct stance, take the grip on the bar, take a big breath, raise it from the floor with straight elbows to get it moving, and continue it on up by bending the elbows and slamming the bar into the upper part of the belly. This movement leads with the elbows, and you should think about slamming the elbows into the ceiling. The most important part of the technique of the barbell row is the back position while the bar movement takes place: the spine must be locked into extension, with the chest up and the lower back arched the whole time the bar is moving. After the bar contacts the belly, it is dropped back to the floor, the air is exhaled and a new breath taken, and the back is reset before each rep. Don?t attempt to hold it against the belly at the top or lower it slowly; the barbell row is like the deadlift in that the work is intended to be mainly concentric. Since it will be dropped, bumper plates are good to use for rowing, or use rubber mats under your standard iron plates.

This technique requires that the bar be started off the floor with a hip extension, not a knee extension. The knees will be almost straight, just unlocked, before the bar moves up, so that there is little chance the quads can be used anyway. The movement starts with the chest coming up, with straight elbows raising the back angle slightly as the bar leaves the floor, a movement performed with the hamstrings and glutes acting on the rigid back held in isometric contraction by the erectors. This initial hip extension starts the weight up, and the elbows catch the momentum and carry the bar on up with a shoulder extension and scapula retraction. The lats, triceps, biceps, forearm muscles, posterior deltoids, and smaller muscles around the shoulder blades are the prime movers here. The trunk muscles that stabilize the spine enable the trunk to act as a rigid platform against which the force can be generated. The hamstrings and glutes, after their initial action off the ground, act to anchor the pelvis ? and therefore the lower back ? during the final rowing motion generated by the upper body. As is so often the case in complex human movement, muscles change actions during the course of the activity, starting off with one function and ending with another, and the function of the hip extensors during the barbell row is a good example of this.

Rows are not useful at weights so heavy that form is hard to maintain. The finish position when the bar touches the belly is controlled by the some of the same factors that limit a clean, in that a weight that can be rowed correctly may only be 15 lbs. lighter than a weight that cannot be rowed at all. A row that is not finished might as well be a partial SLDL if you?re not going to engage the range of motion that is unique to the exercise. For this reason, sets of five or more reps are used, since weights that can only be rowed for a triple probably cannot be done correctly anyway. Much better to get good reps with a lighter weight for sets of 5, 8, or 10 and do several across that to lose the benefit of the exercise with a weight that is too heavy.

The first few reps will only use a slight ? maybe less than ten degrees ? amount of hip extension, but as the set progresses and the upper body becomes fatigued more hip extension gets thrown in to get the reps finished. Be sure to continue doing rows and not deadlifts. The back should never get much above horizontal, and if the chest comes up too high on the last reps, the bar is hitting too low, the range of motion for the target muscles has shortened, and the weight is too heavy.

As the weight gets heavy, there will be a pronounced tendency to allow the chest to drop down to meet the bar, completing the rep from the top down instead of from the bottom up. When this becomes excessive, the weight is too heavy. And excessive is a rather subjective concept here. It might be decided that no chest drop is allowable, in which case heavy weights cannot be used in the exercise. Or it might be decided that as long as the chest can be touched with the bar, the rep counts. This degree of variability is one of the things that distinguish an assistance exercise from a primary exercise: if a large degree of variability is inherent in the performance of an exercise, it cannot be judged effectively or quantified objectively. For this reason, the barbell row makes a very good ancillary exercise but a very poor contest lift.