Demonstration
Watch the Form Demo
Technique
How to Do the Bent Over Barbell Row
- Set up standing with the bar over your midfoot, feet about hip width apart.
- Hinge at the hips with a soft bend in the knees until your torso is roughly 45 degrees to the floor, and grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder width.
- Brace your core and set your back flat, chest proud, eyes on a point on the floor a few feet ahead.
- Pull the bar toward your lower chest or upper stomach by driving your elbows back, not by curling with your arms.
- Squeeze the shoulder blades together for a beat at the top.
- Lower the bar under control to arms length, keeping your torso angle fixed, then repeat.
Anatomy
Muscles Worked
Do This
Form Cues
- Lead with the elbows. The hands are hooks, the back does the work.
- Hold your torso angle constant. If your chest rises as you pull, the weight is too heavy.
- Keep the bar close to your legs on the way up rather than swinging it away from you.
- Brace as if you were about to be pushed sideways, and keep that brace for the whole rep.
Avoid This
Common Mistakes
- Standing up into every rep so the row turns into a partial deadlift.
- Rounding the lower back under load, which is the fastest route to an injury on this lift.
- Rowing to the chest with the elbows flared wide, which shifts the work to the rear delts and away from the lats.
- Dropping the bar back down instead of lowering it, giving away the eccentric half of the rep.
More to Explore
Variations & Related Exercises
Variations of this lift
Pendlay Row
Single Arm Dumbbell Row
Seated Cable Row
Trains the same muscles
Assisted Chin-Up
Assisted Machine Pull-Up
Barbell Deadlift
Barbell Rack Pull
Barbell Shrug
Barbell Upright Row
Put It Into Practice
Workouts Featuring This Lift
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