How To Perform The Barbell Row

As you go about designing your upper body strength training workout routine, one exercise that you need to make sure you’re getting into place is the barbell row. The barbell row is one of the top strength building exercises that you can perform and is going to be ideal for anyone who wants to build up more lean muscle mass tissue.

The barbell row is going to target the back, lats, as well as the biceps, and even work the lower back to a very small degree as it contracts to keep you stabilized.

Let’s go over some of the main things that you’ll want to note about how to correctly perform barbell rows so that you can make sure you’re doing this move correctly.

How To Correctly Perform The Barbell Row Exercise

To perform the barbell row, you’ll want to start by putting the feet about shoulder width apart or slightly wider – whatever is most comfortable for you.

Once in that position, you’re then going to place a barbell down by your feet and bend over at the waist, until you’re at a 90 degree angle with the hips.

Reach the arms downwards until you’re able to grasp the barbell and then slowly begin to pull it upwards towards the body, thinking of squeezing the middle of the shoulder blades as you do so.

The most common hand position when doing barbell rows will be the overhand grip, however you should note that you can change this to an underhand grip for variation if you prefer.

Furthermore, your hands should also be about shoulder width apart or slightly wider if you really want to hit the back and lat muscles.

As you go about this exercise, the feet should stay stabilized at all times, helping ensure that you maintain your balance.

Common Errors To Avoid When Performing The Barbell Row

So now that you can see how to perform the barbell row, what errors must you avoid?

If you make a few slip-ups while performing this exercise you could definitely set yourself up for an injury over time that could potentially take you right out of your workout program.

1) Don't Allow The Weight to Touch the Ground

The very first error to avoid with the barbell row is to make sure that you don’t let the weight touch the ground between your reps.

Some people will make the mistake of allowing the weight to rest on the floor, essentially ‘breaking’ before they do their next rep *Avoid doing this*.

If you want to keep that maximum tension on the muscles at all times in order to see the greatest degree of training stress, you must make sure that you keep the barbell off the floor at all times.

2) Make Sure That You Never Jerk The Barbell Upwards

Doing so will likely have you coming up with the lower back as you do that, which will then place a great deal of strain on that lower back region.

Instead, keep the lower back completely flat and stationary, never moving it until you’re finished with the set.

So there you have the key facts to note about barbell rows. Make sure you add this to your workout program and ensure that you are executing it properly.