So which row is best for building muscle?
Today we're going to pit three of them against each other in the Iron Face-Off.
We're going to go over the pros and cons of each to come down to the one decision.
If I can only choose one, which would it be?
What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
So today, the Iron Face-Off has arrived.
We are going to pit exercises against each other in a scenario where I'm going to give
you pros and cons of each so I can determine for you, if I could only choose one, which
would it be?
If we're looking for hypertrophy, not strength at the moment.
That's coming, but right now, for hypertrophy.
And we're looking at three variations of the row.
Now, I love all these variations of the row, guys.
We program all these variations of the row, but each of them does have its own set of
pros and cons.
If we pit them all up against each other, is there one that wins out?
Hopefully we'll determine that today.
The three exercises we're using, again, are going to be the one-armed dumbbell row, a
barbell row, and a one-armed cable row from a high position.
So let's start looking at this, right off the bat.
I'm going to tell you right now, my number one con for this exercise is actually the
setup that most of us use.
Again, we've used this exercise in this form as well.
But this is the issue for some.
When you're in this position right here, you have your staggered stance back here, and
it puts us in a position of vulnerability here in the groin.
I've covered this in a previous video where hernias can occur from this exercise.
As a matter of fact, both times that I incurred a hernia, it came from doing this exact exercise
in this position.
It was in this bottom position when I'm here, I have the stretch, and a little bit of weakness,
and vulnerability in there, and I come down, and I feel the burn, right in here.
So I've given up doing it from this position, but it is one of the problems.
I'm going to give you another reason why it's not so great.
It's because we don’t get a chance to get a good stretch here of the lats.
We know that the lats, in order to be stretched, can't be here, relative to our body.
They have to be up here, out in front.
Just like in a lat pulldown.
Your arm has be out, in front of your body, and up high.
So even when I show you this different position that we can use with this tripod position,
we basically prop up the bench, and then do it from this squared off position here.
Being squared takes away a lot of the vulnerability from that, and it allows for the pros of the
exercise.
When I'm here, one thing is I can address any imbalances I might have because we're
training one arm at a time.
You're going to see that's going to play itself as a detriment to the barbell row.
So I have to work with the strength I have here, but as I come up, because I have one
arm free I can get, not just up, but back, and across.
When we talk about the exercise here, if you want to fully contract the lat you have to
get an adduction of the arm, not just extension back here, but adduction closer to the spine.
So bringing your upper arm closer to your spine so the lat can maximally shorten, given
that its origin and insertion are there, and there, they need to be able to come toward
each other.
You can do that with a dumbbell, which gives us – you can see the difference here.
If I stay right here on extension, versus if I come up, and I pull in I can get that
tighter, stronger contraction.
That leads to the one other con of the exercise.
That is: if I'm going to do this right and take advantage of that pro, then I'm limited
to my strength in that range.
In that extended, and retracted position because I'm at a mechanical disadvantage at that point
in the exercise.
So if I started with an 80 pounder that I could – even right here, I have a 55 – that
I could lift down here with no problem; that's fine.
But I can't get it into extension, and then back into adduction.
Here, I actually can, but most of us, if we went heavier might lose the ability to do
that.
So you're going to be limited to the amount of weight that you can use on this exercise
if you're doing it correctly.
Now, let's come over to the barbell row.
On the barbell row, right away a con is imbalances.
We can hide imbalances because one arm could take over for the bar and d more of the work
without the other arm knowing.
So we can hide imbalances because the one bar has two hands that are contributing force
to it, but it doesn't demand that it's contributing equal force.
The next thing is, I don’t have the ability to do that adduction of the arms back, toward
each other – the elbows across the body – because I'm fixed here, by the bar.
So you can see here, once again, as I come up the bar actually makes contact with my
lower torso here, and doesn’t allow me to get further back into extension.
But certainly, I can't bend my hands around.
I need to be able to bend the bar and pull it back in order to do that.
However, what's the benefit here?
The benefit of the barbell row is, number one: it's a very athletic exercise.
I love being able to be strong in this position.
This is the breakdown position.
It's the athletic position.
I'm on my feet, and I have the ability, and awareness to be able to move from this position.
So if I can get stronger here as an athlete then I have the ability to be strong anytime
in this position.
The other thing is, we can load up more weight here than we can on that exercise.
Given the fact that the additive effect of the two arms together, it's not 1+1=2.
It's more 1+1=5 here.
Again, the greater stability from having our feet on the ground, the more sturdy position
here, and being a little more upright.
Now, that leads to my final con here.
You have to have a very strong low back to be able to perform this exercise.
A lot of us don’t and we jump into doing this with the heavier weights, and our body
can't stabilize it.
And if we don’t hurt our back, then all we do is turn the exercise into a shit form
of the exercise by taking this up here, which is supposed to be a good, strong row.
And we start standing, and cheating because we're trying to get the bar up, and we don’t
know another way to do it, as we lack the strength, and stability of the low back.
However, one last pro: if you do the exercise in that position you're going to strengthen
your lower back, if you continue to do it right.
So now, we move on over here.
We kind of settle here with the red-headed stepchild of rows.
That is the one-armed high cable row.
What you're going to see is, this is a great version of the row.
What are we addressing here?
The first thing is, look at the position.
Just like the barbell row, yet another con, we didn't get that full, stretched positon
of the arm.
We were never able to get our arm out in front of our body to get a good stretch.
Right here, we have that opportunity.
Right off the bat we have a good stretch.
Even if start from a squared off position, we have a great stretch of the lat here.
Because we have a great stretch we can take advantage of the stretch reflex that will
increase our strength output on the exercise.
The second thing is, we have a greater range of motion on the exercise because we have
the ability to go into this entire eccentric range of motion.
And because of that we can add the eccentric overload.
When it comes to hypertrophy, guys, the eccentric overload is a very valuable portion of the
lift that we can't ignore.
So not only do we have this throughout every, single rep, but even when I reach failure
here, I can actually go from here, and go two hands assisted in, and now eccentric overload.
Concentric assist, and eccentric overload.
Concentric assist.
So I can take it beyond failure for even more hypertrophy and gains.
Come around the back, you'll see I still have the opportunity here to do that same thing
because we're unilateral.
No imbalances.
We can fix those and I can come back, and around as I did on the one-armed row.
Back, and around at the full contraction on the one-armed row.
Then again, we have that final benefit of it still being a very athletic exercise because
I'm grounded, I'm in a good, square position.
Again, feet on the ground is always going to be – to me – a better, athletic position.
So now, what is the con?
I've got one con here, guys.
I do think you can still load up the weight here for sure, because of all those extra
benefits of the eccentric, but you don’t necessarily have any low back targeting.
With the low back here, it's kind of out of play, it's not being trained the way it was
in the barbell bent over row.
But we have a lot of other options we can use when we're trying to target the low back.
So I would opt for that.
So if I could only choose one, this would it be it right here because I can do all the
things I want to do to get the benefits of this exercise, by minimizing the cons, and
the detrimental effects that come from the other versions of the rows.
But, let's clarify one time again.
The barbell row makes its way into a lot of my programming for specific reasons, at specific
times.
The one-armed row makes its way into my programming for specific reasons, at specific times.
But if we had to pit them all head to head – watch that damn thing – if we had to
pit them head to head the one I'm going with is this one, right here.
Guys, I hope you liked the Iron Face-Off.
Leave your suggestions below.
Let me know what else you want me to cover, what exercises you want me to pit head to
head, and I'll do my best to break them down for you, putting the science behind the strength,
and to help you make the best decision for you.
And I'll have the reasons why so you can argue with your gym buddies because, yes, there
will be some arguments.
All right, guys.
If you're looking for a program that puts it all out for you, and lays it all out step
by step, head over to ATHLEANX.com right now and get our ATHLEANX training program.
I'll see you guys back here again in a few days.