i tend to do bent over rows with a barbell, much more satisfying. I usually use one of those really high flat benches and have the bar underneath, otherwise do them standing.
i tend to do bent over rows with a barbell, much more satisfying. I usually use one of those really high flat benches and have the bar underneath, otherwise do them standing.
I've thought about doing them one a bench as I didnt fancy doing it standing. Do you not find it hard with you're face in the bench tho!?
Apologies if you're already doing some or all of this.
With one arm rows the start position is, for example, your left hand and lower left leg on the bench, and the dumbbell in your right hand.
Right foot will be on the floor and your right knee will be slightly bent. From there, you have to work out the details yourself.
Your left hand should be somewhere underneath your left shoulder. I like to put mine a little in front of my shoulder as opposed to directly underneath it, if that makes sense. As long as your torso is parallel (or pretty close to it!) to the floor, you'll be ok.
As far as performance of the row is concerned, there are 2 main points.
1. The shoulder joint and the elbow joint that move, nothing else. Twisting at the torso does nothing more for the target muscles. Keep your torso parallel to the floor, facing the floor. If your left hand is on the bench, and your right hand is holding the dumbbell, then your right shoulder should NOT drop below the level of your left shoulder at any point during the set, other than when you pick the dumbbell up and put the dumbbell down at either end of the set.
If someone was stood at the end of the bench where your head was, they should be able to look at you and see that you shoulders are level with each other. Hopefully that makes sense.
2. When you pull the dumbbell, pull it back in an arc to your hip. Do NOT pull it straight up.
This is what made the biggest difference for me.
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Do not focus on your hand holding the dumbbell. Do NOT think about pulling the dumbbell upwards in a straight vertical line. Ignore your forearm, wrist, hand and the dumbbell. They all just sit there, and get pulled along for the ride.
Focus on your elbow instead.
The shoulder, elbow and wrist should all be in a straight line at the start.
Imagine that your upper arm is a hand on a clock.
Your shoulder is the point in the middle of the clock face where the hand is attached to the body of the clock.
Your elbow is the end of the hand the isn't attached to anything and points at the numbers on the clock face.
Your elbow, when you perform the rowing movement should move, from 6 o'clock, to either 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock. Basically to the point where it is just above parallel with the ground.
The shoulder is merely the central point around which the upper arm rotates, as far as it can, in a circular motion.
You could look at it like this.
Stand up and imagine that you are holding 2 dumbbells with your palms facing each other, and your arms straight out in front of you like they were in the top position of a dumbbell front raise.
Move your elbows down and back whilst keeping you forearms parallel to the floor. Keep moving your elbows until the are down by your side, directly underneath your shoulder. From there, keep moving them back as far as you can comfortably go.
That is basically the path of motion that your arms should take during the one arm row, but you've just done it whilst your torso is in a vertical position, rather than a horizontal position.
Thanx for the post GI, but it wasnt form tips I needed. I know how to perform it and to pull through the elbow, kepp back flat/not to twist etc, it is just that I cannot get comfortable and set-up correctly so have to keep changing position and therefore negating the effectiveness of the exercise.
Anthony has now swapped it for a seated one arm cable row anyway, which I much prefer.
Routine C
DB Rear Delt Raise / DB Rear Delt Raise / Machine Row
Seated One-arm Cable Row (rest/pause set)
Dips
Cable Lateral Raise
Cable Shoulder Press
Ab Crunch
Then after this week (week 4 on Ants routine) I think things maye be changed / switched round a bit.
Weight on Monday was 147.4lbs (so 0.5lbs up from last week). I've increased the cals a touch this week (now on 3725) to hopefully keep the gains coming at about 1/2lbpw.
Routine A (for rehab) is coming along nicely; lunges are a very new exercise for me and the physio had me start at 3kg db's! and wanted me to increase weight every 2-3 sessions so I am currently only on 6kg on the 3rd set. With SLDLs and Squats I used a similar approach but have been doing these longer so I am on heavier weights (17.5kg on SLDL and 12kg dbs on Squats). After 3 sets of each and 4 on squats, I felt like I was actually nearing failure on the squats last workout (don't laugh! I havent done leg work for so long so strength has obviously dropped! :-P). I will not increase the weight yet as last workout I stopped for a few secs after every few reps to re-adjust form-wise. So I will try to cut that down and keep the form spot on before increasing to 14kg dbs when I am happy. And use a similar approach on SLDLs. It does mean that I may soon(ish) be able to go to failure on a few leg exercises (which will greatly help my bulking); but I need to check my form is 100% and do it slowly so as not to increase the weight too fast and gradually loose form.
Body-wise I have good and bad moments. I looked in the mirror last night which is right under the landing light (after getting changed for bed) after eating and thought! omg; skinny arms and a bit of a belly and poor posture! Whereas other times I think; hmm coming along nicely; lean and pretty muscular. I would love to get a bod something like Cristiano Ronaldos; just a lean muscular good beach bod but nothing too big. Reckon I'll need another stone off muscle to get near that though.
