THE BARBELL ROW

THE BARBELL ROW
by Greg Pickett

The barbell row is one of the core movements in my training. I did barbell rows earlier in my training career, but foolishly neglected them for many years. I did pulldowns to the upper chest, seated cable rows, and one dumbbell rows with the opposite hand and knee braced on a bench. Unfortunately, very bodybuilder-like stuff. None of these moves is worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as barbell rows.

Brad Steiner, the great Iron Man magazine writer, has credited the barbell row as being one of the three best upper body moves in existence. The barbell row has advantages in terms of strength building that lat pulldowns, seated cable rows, and other machine/pulley type moves can’t touch. They are:

You Can Use Very Heavy Weights

In my years in commercial gyms (up until 1990) I only saw one person do barbell rows. He used 225x5 and was a thick, stocky lifter. My thinking was limited at the time in terms of poundage as I
thought that 225 was a heavy weight. The revelation came with a conversation with our editor and publisher. Brooks Rubik. Brooks has handled 350-360 pounds for five singles in rowing movement.
No straps, no wrist wraps were used either. Reg Park used 450 pounds for barbell rows. With this type of poundage, you don’t stand on a bench with your legs perfectly straight and pull the bar to the chest. This is the type of form depicted in the bodybuilding mags by perfectly sculptured, buff “models” but it is worthless for strength building. This leads to the second point.

You Use the Whole Body in Barbell Rows

This will make some of you curse and sneer with indignation, but for strength, you use a coordinated body effort with barbell rows. Go back to the examples of Brooks and Reg Park and their rowing
poundages. Do you think they kept their legs straight and pulled the bar to their chests, with the upper body set perfectly parallel to the floor? Come on. In his excellent book, Of Stones and Strength,
Steve Jeck addresses proper rowing form for strength. Namely, the upper body is above parallel, the bar is pulled just above the navel, and we don’t worry about a little body English as the weight increases. I like to keep a bend at the knees, which I believe distributes the weight of the barbell much better. I set my grip at shoulder width or a bit wider.

Even with this coordinated body effort, rows hit the upper and middle back HARD. This is not an appearance oriented newsletter, but barbell rows produce not only power, but the by-product of serious muscle in the upper back. A strong man is THICK. The magazine ads and TV commercials which portray strength as having a flat, washboard stomach and being LEAN bastardize manhood. A man who trains with heavy weights is going to build size in his waist, hips, sides, and the entire back.

You Can Train Barbell Rows for Single Rep Sets

Closely related to the use of heavy weights is the fact that you can train barbell rows for single rep sets. Single rep sets allow you to use very heavy weights, the name of the game in strength building. In my own training with the barbell row, I will do two warmup sets, then 5-6 singles with a working weight. I look to take about a minute between pulls. There is no pump in the bodybuilding sense. This is a departure from the normal set and rep thinking, but it has been very effective for me.

Barbell Rows Build the Arms and Challenge the Grip

As of this writing, I have not done barbell curls or any direct bicep work in about two months. I haven't lost any arm size or strength either. This is due to barbell rows. When you think about
it, barbell curls are a pulling movement. Barbell rows, though not a direct bicep move, build the biceps because you are pulling a much heavier weight than you could ever curl.

The booklet, entitled The Training Programs of Louis Abele, is a collection of training letters from Louis Abele to Chester Teegarden. Therein, it is evident that Abele’s training centered around the then three Olympic lifts and various leg and back work. Abele wrote of having arms of 18 inches or more and was hoping to push them to 19 inches. Here’s the kicker. In increasing his arm size, he did not mention doing a single curl in his training. One of the movements in his back specialization program was the barbell row. Abele managed to build 18-inch plus arms with heavy pulling movements, in the late 1930s and 40s, and without steroids.

The grip is challenged with the barbell row, especially when you row without straps and wrist wraps. There is possibly a connection between the grip and upper back strength. I read a comment in the
“Readers Roundup” section of the old Iron Man magazine where a reader expressed the opinion that the grip breaks loose from the bar when deadlifting not just because the grip is weak, but because the upper back is weak. There is an interrelatedness with compound, basic movements, such as the barbell row, that you don’t find with inferior movements. Straight leg deadlifts help your squat because of the stronger hamstrings and lower back. Overhead presses strengthen your shoulders, upper back, and triceps for a powerful, secure lockout on push presses. Barbell rows are an excellent means to shore up the weak link of deficient upper back strength.

Barbell Rows are a Heavy Partial Movement

I’ve never heard of this idea put forth, but barbell rows are really a heavy partial movement. It is a limited range movement, arms length in the bentover position to a point just above the navel level. I’ve never heard of anyone, with the exception of the steroid using “elite," using the type of poundage on pulldowns that a STRONG man uses on barbell rows. A serious guy, in the same manner as other partial moves, can really pack the poundage on the bar and go for it.

Becausc of the heavy poundage potential, barbell rows are worth of a real iron man’s attention in training. Basic movements and heavy poundage.