Overview
This is the upper body compound movement of horizontally pulling.
You’re probably coming at this from one of two places.
If you’re still starting out in the first two or three years of intentional lifting, the major movement patterns should be your bread and butter. The standout exercises listed here should be the core part of your programming, rotating every so often (we’re talking months, not weeks). At a certain point we likely get diminishing returns specialising in one or two exercises, but if it’s your first few years in of serious lifting, you are assuredly far, far away from that point.
If you’re an experienced advanced lifter, chances are you’re viewing things through 12 muscle groups or multiple movement slots within each muscle group. Even so, it’s still worth periodically checking your programs aren’t going so far as to neglect all the compounds, and occasionally cycling one of these exercises back in.
For everyone in between, take the middle point between those two parameters.
Description
We’re looking for a compound exercise that targets the traps, rhomboids and lats.
Either with the exercise selection or exercise form, we generally want all three muscle groups to get as close to failure as possible.
In this sense we have the opposite aim when dissecting things from a ‘muscle group’ perspective, where we generally want to isolate a certain muscle.
There are many specific exercises that can work here; there are tens or dozens (depending on how nitpicky you want to be with classifying a different exercise) of exercises. There’s not going to much value add in just listing endless options, instead we’ll stick to some key foundational ones that categorically work.
Yes, an eagle eye will spot the recommendations between pulling and pushing are different.
The simple practical reason is there is no straightforward barbell equivalent for back movements. The horizontal pulling plane has a barbell row, the vertical pulling plane has nothing.
Unfortunately the barbell row can’t be quite considered an equivalent staple as compared to the bench or OHP. While a great movement for enthusiasts and more advanced lifters, the difficulty in biasing enough traps and lats, as opposed to your spinal erectors, makes it a more situational exercise that works incredibly well for certain demographics. As a blanket recommendation however, it falls short.
Again, to repeat – if you’re around your second or third year into intentional lifting, your focus should be exactly here. If you’re advanced, you’ll be well aware there are endless variations and these may simply serve as a checkpoint to ensure you don’t have a gap in your training.
Standout exercises
For horizontal pulling, there are two standout exercises:
- Seated Cable Row
- Bodyweight Row
Seated Cable Row
This is an easy winner. Pretty much every gym has one, it scales for everyone (you can start with 1 pin), and trains the muscles we want to train.
You don’t ever get too strong for it either, most machines will have enough pins and you can always add on a 10kg plate onto the pins. So whereas with pushing movements there is a case to be made for a bodyweight exercise transitioning to a barbell exercise, here with pulling they should well and truly be considered alternatives to sub in and out.
A variety of grip attachments exist; broadly speaking all of them are good and should be used. To start off with, the common V grip is a good choice.
Form cues:
- Squeeze the hands tight, then focus on driving back with your elbows
- Keep pressure in your rib cage. As you pull back, take a breath in and expand your chest.
- As you lower the weight on the eccentric, allow your upper back to round a little but keep the focus on the elbow movement and intra-thoracic pressure.
Inverted Row
Using rings, TRX straps, or just a barbell on a rack, hold that as a handle to perform an inverted bodyweight row.
- Row regression: inverted row at a higher angle
- Standard row: inverted row
- Row progression: tuck front lever row
Inverted row regressions
Adjust the handles at a higher height to make the movement easier, as you have more leverage.
Think of adjusting the height at roughly 15 degree angles of your torso in relation to the floor.
Hang with straight arms, straighten your legs, and pull up with your elbows.
Standard inverted row
A standard row would be where with a dead hang from the handles, your back is an inch or two off the ground.
When you can perform one set of 10 reps under control, you’re probably ready to progress beyond this.
Inverted row progressions
The next step is to lift your feet off the ground in a tucked in, bent knee position. Starting out your knees will probably be on your chest; over time you may progress to a 90 degree angle from hip to knee.
This tuck front lever row is a very good point for most people.
There are a variety of calisthenics progressions, things like a full front lever row, beyond this but it becomes outside the scope here. These are advanced, high skill movements requiring high levels of specific straight-arm and core strength. While very impressive, and if it’s specifically your goal of course train for it, it’s not quite a foundational general strength movement.