🔥 Row variations and When to Use Them

💪 Rows are arguably the best and most versatile back exercise; this is because it utilizes both shoulder extension and scapular retraction focusing on the lats and traps/rhomboids. We also get a great isometric contraction in the back extensors. The reasons rows are so versatile is because changing the angle of the shoulder can emphasize different muscle groups because of the line of pull muscles. For example if your shoulder is at 90degrees and you’re performing horizontal extension it would be hard for the lats to kick in.

✅ There are a lot of row variations but ill cover the most common ones, the dumbbell lat row (top left)is great at targeting the lat and traps, you can further isolate the lats by locking the scapula in place and focusing on the extension component.

✅ Next is the rear delt row which has the dumbbell at a higher position with the palm facing towards the body. In this position we are able to isolate the rear delt, we can incorporate more traps or less by varying the amount of protraction done by the shoulder blades. Be careful to keep shoulder blades tucked back and down as at higher angles the space in shoulder can be limited due to bony anatomy.

✅ Lastly the barbell row, there are two variations of this exercise over hand grip and under hand, my rules for this exercises is over hand is trap, underhand is lat. The barbell variation allows for more weight to be done compared to dumbbell variations. This leads to a greater isometric isometric loading on the back extensors.