Instructions

  1. Load a barbell with one 45-pound plate on either side, or bumper plates that are the same size as standard 45-pound plates. This ensures the bar is the proper height off the floor.
  2. Stand in front of the bar, position your feet so your heels are about six inches apart with your toes pointed slightly out, and move the bar about an inch from your shins.
  3. Bend over and grab the bar with a double-overhand grip (both palms facing down) just outside your shins.
  4. Flatten your back by pushing your hips up and your belly forward, pull your shoulder blades “back and down,” and push your upper arms into your sides.
  5. Start the pull by extending your legs (raising your hips) to “pop” the weight off the floor, then pull your elbows toward the ceiling to keep it moving upward. Keep pulling until the bar touches the bottom of your rib cage; the bar should travel up your shins and pass easily over your knees as your legs straighten.
  6. Reverse the motion to return the bar to the floor, reset, and begin your next rep. The videos show a continuous variation in which the bar stays off the floor between reps.

Expert Tips

  • Avoid “whipping” the weight upward by heaving your torso back and forth. While this makes each rep easier, it reduces how much tension your back and arm muscles need to produce, which reduces the effectiveness of the exercise. A little upper body movement is fine to help finish the rep at the top, but otherwise your legs and torso should remain fairly stable once you begin bending your arms.
  • During each rep, keep your shoulders rising with your hips and your back flat and neutral (no “whipping” your torso backward to lift more weight or get more reps).
  • You should feel considerable tightness in your hamstrings and hips as you get into the starting position. This is desirable because as soon as your hips rise, your shoulders will be able to follow, and the weight will immediately start coming off the floor.
  • A good cue for keeping your upper back tight during the setup and initial pull off the floor is to imagine “crushing oranges in your armpits.” This is also a good cue for deadlifting.
  • If 45-pound plates are too heavy and your gym doesn’t have bumper plates, start with the barbell on the safety arms or hooks of a squat rack. Pick up the bar, step clear of the rack, position your feet, and bend over. Row the bar as described above, keeping it off the floor between reps.
  • If your grip fails before your lats or arms do, use lifting straps. This prevents you from having to end your sets prematurely due to your grip giving out, allowing you to train your back, traps, and biceps more thoroughly.
  • Before each set, take a deep breath of air into your belly (as opposed to your chest), bracing your abs as if you were about to get punched in the stomach. This is known as the valsalva maneuver, and it’s a useful technique for maintaining a stable torso during many compound exercises like the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, and barbell row.
  • Try to keep the bar on as vertically straight of a path as possible because any deviations are just going to slow you down and make it harder to maintain good form. In other words, the bar shouldn’t move noticeably toward or away from you.

Workout Programming

Typically, I like to program the barbell bent-over row as part of a pull, back, or upper-body workout, generally as the first or second exercise. The bent-over row is a physically and technically demanding exercise, so you don’t want to do it when you’re fatigued.

A good default is 3 sets of 4–6 or 6–8 reps with 2–3 minutes of rest, taking each set 1–2 reps shy of failure.

Mike’s Take

The barbell row can be an excellent back exercise for some people, but for others it’s not the best option.

It trains your lats, traps, spinal erectors (the muscles along your spine), and biceps simultaneously, which is why I include it in my programs for men and women, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.

Now, why did I say the barbell row can be an excellent exercise for gaining muscle and strength?

Well, for some people it is, but for others it does very little.

In general, I think it’s a good exercise for people relatively new to weightlifting, because it’s a time-efficient way to train most of your upper-body pulling muscles. It also allows you to add weight in small increments and keep progressing for a long time.

And while it is harder to learn than many other barbell exercises, most people can master it on their own in a few weeks.

Once you’re an intermediate or advanced weightlifter, though (typically after 1–2 years of proper resistance training), what often happens is your lower-back fails before your lats, traps, and biceps.

At this point, it’s generally best to focus on pulling exercises that aren’t limited by your low-back strength, like one-arm dumbbell rows, chest-supported machine rows, lat pulldowns, and so on.

Another problem with the barbell row is that it’s easy to “cheat” by aggressively extending your legs and whipping your torso backward, making the exercise easier but less effective.

For example, if you add 5 pounds one week, is it because your muscles actually got bigger and stronger, or because you used a bit more leg drive and momentum to swing the weight upward? It’s often hard to tell, and it’s hard for most people to resist this temptation.

Barbell Bent-Over Row Alternatives

  • Seated Machine Row. My favorite alternative. It has an excellent resistance curve and range of motion and allows you to train your biceps, traps, lats, and rear delts (and completely takes your lower back out of the equation).
  • T-Bar Row. Another outstanding alternative, especially if it’s a chest-supported version.
  • Seated Cable Row. This is a great alternative, but many people still find their lower back gives out before their traps, lats, and biceps.
  • One-Arm Dumbbell Row. One of my favorite back exercises and a great alternative to the barbell row.
  • Chest-Supported Dumbbell Row. Another pulling exercise that takes your lower-back out of the equation, but most people find it limits their range of motion more than the single-arm dumbbell row, which I prefer.
  • Barbell Seal Row. This removes your lower back as a limiting factor and makes it impossible to cheat, but it also has a very challenging resistance curve, can feel awkward, and few gyms have one.
  • Yates Row. The Yates row is a kind of bent-over barbell row that uses an underhand grip (palms up) and a more upright posture. I generally prefer this over the bent-over barbell row because it doesn’t fatigue your lower-back as quickly and it trains your biceps and traps more effectively.
  • Meadows Row. These are similar to one-arm dumbbell rows, and a good alternative if you’ve outgrown your gym’s dumbbells. The main downside is they’re annoying to set up and it can be difficult to grip the barbell, but this can be largely overcome if you use straps.
  • Inverted Bodyweight Row. This is a suitable stopgap if you can’t train with dumbbells, barbells, or machines, but it’s impractical to overload and thus isn’t optimal for gaining muscle and strength over time.
  • Two-Arm Bent-Over Dumbbell Row. This is basically a barbell row, with dumbbells. It comes with all of the same downsides and is even more awkward to perform. Skip this one.

3 Barbell Bent-Over Row Workouts

Here are three sample workouts that show how to program the barbell bent-over row on a back day, a pull day, or an upper-body day.

Back Workout with the Barbell Bent-Over Row

Barbell Bent-Over Row: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Machine Rear Delt Fly: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Barbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

Pull Day Workout with the Barbell Bent-Over Row

Barbell Bent-Over Row: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Pull-Up: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Curl: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min rest
Incline Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 1–2 min rest

Upper-Body Workout with the Barbell Bent-Over Row

Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Bent-Over Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 2–3 min rest
Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest

To progress these workouts, use double progression: use a weight that allows you to work within the given rep range, take each set 1–2 reps shy of failure, and once you hit the top of the range for your first set, add weight.

Muscles Worked by the Barbell Bent-Over Row

Back anatomy showing the lats, trapezius, rhomboids, rear delts, and spinal erectors

The barbell bent-over row primarily trains your lats, traps, and biceps, with your rear delts, spinal erectors, hamstrings, and glutes contributing as well. Many of the smaller muscles on your back like the infraspinatus, teres major and minor, and rhomboids are also involved.

More Back Exercises