This Dumbbell Row Tweak Builds More Back Muscle
Lee Boyce is a Toronto-based strength coach who helps clients and athletes reach strength and conditioning, sports performance, and hypertrophy goals. In his new column, Basics Made Better, he'll help you tweak classic exercises to squeeze out even more muscle gain. Follow him on Instagram.
When the time comes to build a bigger, stronger back, many lifters turn to the single arm dumbbell row. And yes, it’s a tried, tested, and true developer of back thickness. It’s also easy to sacrifice your form when you start going heavy with the dumbbell row. And that’s not something you want to do.
Here’s what happens when you go too heavy: You wind up doing haphazard partial reps with a 150-pound dumbbell. Except you’re no longer doing the move with your back musculature as the main driver. Instead, you’re using your abs and obliques to “twist” the weight upwards. On some level, sure, you’re still developing back muscle and strength.
But you’re also taxing your lumbar spine in ways that could cause issues in the long term. There’s a better, smarter way to challenge yourself with rows. And it comes from looking at your anatomy.
Dumbbell rows are lat developers, and your lats’ fibers travel in a mostly slanted, mainly horizontal pattern. It makes sense to follow that fibrous path if you really want to tap into the lats entirely when you do dumbbell rows.
Instead of trying to hoist bigger and bigger weights straight up, try grabbing a resistance band. Anchor it in front of you and grab a lighter dumbbell. You won’t need to go heavy.
What makes this better? Plain and simple – the addition of the horizontal force angle you’ve created by anchoring the band to the dumbbell, and to an object in front of you. Now you have a force pulling the weight forward as well as gravity pulling it downward. Using the same patterning you would in a typical dumbbell row (set the shoulder, pull through the elbow, and “sweep” the dumbbell toward the waist), you’re going to get way more bang for your buck for each repetition and a pump for the ages. Here’s how you make it happen.
A post shared by Lee Boyce (@coachleeboyce) on Aug 17, 2020 at 11:23am PDT
Set up your bench in front of any sturdy object around which you can tie one end of your loop band. Don’t use a thick band – one of your skinniest ones should work just fine for starters.
Loop the band around the base of the object, and loop the other end around your dumbbell. Remember – the dumbbell should be much lighter than your typical rowing weight. A smart starting directive is to cut the weight you lift in half.
Set up the way you normally would for your single arm rows. One hand on the bench with a flat spine and level torso. Row the banded weight to your waist, and squeeze for a peak contraction of the lat.
Allow the weight to travel slightly forward as it comes down to the start position. This will set you up perfectly to “drag” the next rep up to your waist. Think about a slight arcing or “sweeping” action with the arm.
Repeat for high reps. Focus on sets of 12 to 15 per arm, and keep them slow and controlled. Do 3 to 4 sets.
Sometimes it’s better to think about rep quality and technique before thinking about more ways to add weight to the effort. And this training hack is the definition of playing it smart. At the end of the day, your joints will be glad you did, and your back development will be thanking you – as you look at your annoying size plateau through your rear view mirror.
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