Adjust the seat height so the top of the chest pad is level with the top of your breastbone, and grip the handles with your arms straight. If the handles are adjustable, set them so they’re just out of reach when you extend your arms.
Grab the handles and let the weight pull your arms straight and your shoulder blades as far forward as they’ll go.
Staring straight ahead, retract your shoulder blades and pinch them together as close as you can, without bending your elbows.
Once your shoulder blades are pulled back as far as they’ll go, bend your elbows and pull the handles back as far as you can (generally until your hands are level with your chest).
Pause briefly, then reverse the movement to return to the starting position: straighten your arms and let the weight pull your shoulder blades as far forward as they’ll go.
Expert Tips
Keep your chest against the pad throughout each rep. Let your shoulder blades move forward at the bottom, then pull them back before bending your elbows. This ensures the exercise thoroughly trains your midback and traps and not just your biceps and lats.
Concentrate on getting as deep of a stretch in your shoulder blades as you can, and pause for a moment when you retract them. If your shoulders never move, you aren’t effectively training your traps.
If possible, adjust the handles so that the weight never rests on the machine between reps—you want tension on your back muscles throughout every set.
Try to avoid shrugging your shoulders up during this exercise. Focus on pulling them straight back and together.
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.
Workout Programming
Program the seated machine row as the first or second exercise in a back, pull, or upper-body workout. And if your primary physique goal is to develop your midback muscles and traps, you can also do this exercise first in your workout.
A good default is 3 sets of 6–8 reps with 2–3 minutes of rest, taking each set 1–2 reps shy of failure.
Mike’s Take
The seated machine row is one of my favorite back exercises because it trains your biceps, traps, lats, and rear delts, it has an excellent resistance curve (it isn’t significantly easier or harder at certain portions of the repetition), you can add weight in small increments, and it’s safe and easy to learn.
One of the main reasons I prefer this exercise over the barbell row, seated cable row, and standing T-bar row, is that it isn’t limited by your low-back strength. The chest-pad supports your torso, which means you don’t need to waste energy keeping your torso stable, and can better isolate your biceps, lats, traps, and rear delts.
Typically, a chest-supported machine row and a V-grip lat pulldown are my go-to pulling exercises. When performed properly, this combination trains basically every muscle in your back (and your biceps).
Seated Machine Row Alternatives
T-Bar Row. Basically the same exercise performed face down instead of seated. I prefer the chest-supported version.
One-Arm Dumbbell Row. One of my favorite back exercises and a great alternative to the seated machine row. Has the advantage of training each arm independently, but also takes longer to finish each set.
Seated Cable Row. This is a great alternative, but most people still find their lower back gives out before their traps, lats, and biceps. Seated cable row machines also often force you to add weight in very large increments, which makes progressive overload harder.
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 Bent-Over Row. 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. That said, it’s also harder to learn and perform and most people’s low-back gives out before their other muscles.
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 Seated Machine Row Workouts
Here are three sample workouts that show how to program the seated machine row on a back day, a pull day, or an upper-body day.
Back Workout with the Seated Machine Row
Seated Machine Row: 3 sets | 6–8 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
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 Seated Machine Row
The seated machine row primarily trains your lats, biceps, and your midback (the middle portion of your traps and the other smaller muscles nearby, like your rhomboids and teres major and minor). Your rear delts also assist.
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