ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR WAY TO A BIGGER BACK—THE 3 ROW VARIATIONS YOU NEED

ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR WAY TO A BIGGER BACK—THE 3 ROW VARIATIONS YOU NEED

By Shane Robert

Nothing is a better indicator of a strong person than a wide and thick back. It’s pretty hard to fake having a big, strong back. Sure, you can do light-weight pumping and build some muscle that is a little bit bigger, but to have a truly thick, broad, and imposing back requires you to do a lot of heavy lifting for a lot of sets. Specifically, it requires rowing heavy weights for a lot of sets.

Vertical pulling variations, like pulldowns and pullups, are fine and dandy and will work your back; that’s true. They don’t, however, seem to build the kind of strong and dense back that turns heads. No one ever looked at Dorian Yates, aka The Shadow, and thought, “I bet he can do really heavy pulldowns.” No, they looked at him and knew, instinctively, that the barn doors hanging on either side of his spine could row a heck of a lot of weight. They were right. Dorian famously did rows in his somewhat upright, underhand style, aka the Yates Row, with north of 600 pounds!

The number of row variations that exist is vast and varied. Many were developed for a specific need, such as emphasizing one muscle over others or getting a better mind-muscle connection. A perfect example of this is a Meadows Row, named for the late bodybuilder John Meadows, who used the t-bar to do a variation of single arm rowing, which allowed him to recruit/feel his lats working better than other movements. Whereas John stated that more traditional movements never built his back effectively, for the majority of people who aren’t competitive bodybuilders, the kind of size and strength that John did manage to build with more traditional movements would still be incredible. It just wasn’t enough for the nit-picky requirements of the bodybuilding stage.

The converse would be powerlifters. Many of these lifters’ back training consists of heavy deadlifts and stupid heavy row variations. As an example, the lifter Dave Shaw stated that he never did more than deadlifts, barbell row, and dumbbell row. These powerlifters may not have the ‘shape’ that wins bodybuilding shows, but they have the size and strength to prove that their training works.

Despite all of the available row exercises to choose from, I tend to find the best results come from 3 simple variations: The barbell row, the dumbbell Kroc Row, and inverted ring rows.

**A few technical points that apply to all rows before we dig deeper into the above 3 movements. The point of all rows is to train all of the muscles of your back. Since this means more than just the lats, it’s important to get a stretch through your upper back by letting your shoulder round forward a bit at the bottom of each rep and, as you lift the weight, pinching your shoulder blades together and thrusting your chest out as you lift your chest up. Doing this will engage not just the lats but the upper and lower traps, teres, rhomboids, etc., as well.

BARBELL ROW

This is the tried and true original back builder for a reason. It allows you to handle a lot of weight and really provide overload for all the muscles of the back, from the erectors to the Splenius muscles of the neck. Emphasis can be placed on different muscles depending on where the bar is pulled, more lats for below the belly button and more upper back for above the belly button, and how the bar is gripped. Being more or less bent over can also change the muscle recruitment and difficulty.

For my money, the best way to do it is to bend over to around 45 degrees and pull the bar into the crease of the hips, letting the bar dip below the knees at the bottom of each rep. I prefer the Yates underhand style grip, but overhand is perfectly fine as well.

KROC ROW

The Kroc Row is named after Janae Kroczaleski, aka Kroc, a former world record-holding power lifter and heavyweight bodybuilder. After finding the 200-pound limit of their gym's dumbbells too easy for normal dumbbell rows, Kroc decided to drive the reps up, throwing on straps and going for max reps, pushing them up to 40+ for a set.

Kroc Rows start like a normal, strict dumbbell row. As the reps start to get hard, you begin to put more and more body English and explosiveness into the movement and push the reps as high as you possibly can, 20-50. By the end, you have turned this row into a bit of a full-body movement and will completely work your whole back, in addition to your abs working overtime to help prevent excess twisting.

INVERTED RING ROWS

Inverted rows are one of the most versatile variations that exist and probably the best movement for improving posture. The difficulty can be changed simply by adjusting the angle of your body—easier the more upright you are, and harder the less upright. Being fully horizontal (or more) would be the hardest, and the muscle emphasis can change simply by pointing your elbows in different directions. Using rings or TRX-type straps allows your hands to move freely, rotating through the movement, if desired, for a more natural execution.

If you are strong, to get the most out of inverted rows, you have to put your feet up on a bench and possibly, if very strong, add weight with a weight vest. However you set up your inverted rows, the key is to keep your body in a straight line, like a plank, and don’t let your hips dip. Keep an eye on your hands as people tend to start wrist curling to get range of motion as their back fatigues.

Most people lead busy lives and have to make an effort or sacrifice to find the time to exercise. If you are a bodybuilder with few other obligations outside of your training, then by all means, do a 30-set back workout with 8 different exercises. For the rest of us, we need to find exercises that give us the biggest bang for our buck. Any or all of the row movements above will cover just about all of your back training needs in a short amount of time. No muss, no fuss, or need to complicate things, just simple movements and heavy weights.