today you're going to learn the top three inverted row variations everyone needs to
try these are super effective because they offer a lifetime of progress from beginner to advanced
it's time to decrease asymmetry increase horizontal pulling strength and grow a bigger back
before we dive in and discuss further what's your favorite inverted row variation comment
and let me know what you think let's begin with one of my favorite inverted row variations the
single arm row i like it so much because it can be programmed for absolutely all levels this section
we're going to talk technique let's start with the grip you've got three different choices you've got
the pronated you have the neutral grip and also the supinated grip what you choose depends on your
preference all of them target the back muscles at large those of you that choose the pronated
grip you can go ahead with this one if your main goal is improving pull-ups just thanks to the grip
and specificity of the pulling pattern for those of you that want to get some more size on those
biceps doing a supinated chin up grip is going to preferentially target the bicep muscle for those
of you that can't decide which grip you should use i recommend the neutral grip the reason for this
is we don't use it that much in our calisthenics practice and it targets different muscle groups
in our arm specifically the brachioradialis and the brachialis of the upper arm it's a great way
to complement your calisthenics practice and add some variation let's discuss the question that
is on everyone's mind what should my scapula be doing during rows you've got two options
you've got the active or the full range of motion disengaged to engage row neither is right or wrong
personal preference is huge but let's have a look at what both look like in action the first one is
as i said straight arm scapular engaged row you keep this position between repetitions the
alternate variation is a full range of motion so here at the bottom you allow yourself to relax at
the shoulder and engage so you're resetting that between repetitions neither is better or worse as
long as if you're using globally successful rowing technique elsewhere it's all good
i'd like to share with you a pro tip to get more from your inverted rose it's what you're doing
with the non-working side i find it helpful when i'm doing my rows to straighten the arm
squeeze the fist and also push it in towards my body the reason why i do this is it creates more
full body stability through your entire kinetic chain and it feeds into stronger rows and all the
gains that come from that as well next up let's talk about the posture for inverted rows and this
is important for all levels beginner to advanced you want to keep your hips extended like this
and your abs braced this midline stability allows you to actually use your back muscles
what i don't want people to be doing is flopping around using momentum during their inverted rows
you want to stay tight through the glutes use your hamstrings and also your abs because we're
doing a single arm exercise our base of support is also very important i recommend a shoulder width
apart foot placement for maximum stability so if you're doing one of the more beginner variations
having your feet and legs at 90 degrees is going to be excellent but as you get more advanced when
you straighten your legs keep the hips extended keep the legs straight keep the ab engaged between
every single row that you do next up is full range of motion when it comes to rowing the
exercise is challenging because it's a descending strength curve exercise this means as we pull
and towards the top the difficulty increases this just means we need to pay even more attention
to using full range of motion to get the full benefits what that looks like in practice is as
i come up i'm aiming to get my elbow at least meeting my side if not a little bit further
a nice thing to aim for is at the top of the ring row you want to try and touch your chest
to the ring that's a good tactile feedback that you're using a full range of motion the most
common mistake that i see with rose is people doing half reps and this just robs you of the
opportunity to make gains in the back and scapular department how many people do you see doing this
coming up just like this exercise is probably too hard or you're just not using the correct
technique you really want to use that full range of motion to get all the elbow flexion benefits
and the scapula engagement that comes only when using a full range of motion because
single arm rows are a unilateral exercise always start with your non-dominant weaker arm first
rest 30 to 45 seconds then use the other arm doing a equal number of repetitions that you did
on the previous arm our body weight inverted row progression is very straightforward it all
relies on our body position in relation to space beginners you want to start more of a
incline posture like this as you get more advanced you progressively walk your way
further and further down towards horizontal and this increases the load going through your
upper body to continue increasing the difficulty keep working yourself closer towards horizontal
and then you can progress towards elevating the feet this is going to reduce even more of
the assistance from your lower body from your legs and make your upper body do so much more
work it's pretty intense and it's perfect for those that are more advanced single arm rows can
continue being useful for a lifetime of progress if you use tempo successfully start off with by
lowering the negative or the eccentric slower take the time to really dominate and control
every single negative like this regardless of the progression that you're using in terms
of body posture apply that that's gonna be so much more difficult next up is adding a pause
or an isometric into your rose firstly doing that at the top at that peak contraction
increases time under tension increases the strength where it matters at that top position
next up is adding a pause in the bottom here like this doing that every single repetition takes
away the stretch reflex forces your muscles to do the work and you to get stronger single arm rows
have three key benefits number one is reducing asymmetry side to side because we're doing one arm
at a time we can reduce the inevitable differences that exist between our non-dominant and dominant
arms we can do this by performing equal reps on both sides and eventually this difference between
arms is going to not be so significant number two is concerning incremental intensity adjustment
if you walk the feet just a little bit further towards horizontal the exercise difficulty gets
drastically harder and this is heightened because we're doing a unilateral movement awesome awesome
that the intensity and the difficulty can be modified for a long time to come and point number
three is the rings are very friendly on the joints because they're free to move combined with the
exercise being on a single arm it's really really nice on your wrist elbow shoulder you're not going
to get the joint strain that is associated with using a fixed bar that's one of the pros
of rings as you can see rings are powerful for unlocking your calisthenics potential
download my body by rings program to learn how let's move on to a calisthenics compound classic
the weighted bodyweight row you've got two variations to choose from you can put the weight
plate onto your stomach or you can use a dip belt set up to add weight to this classic exercise
let's see how to do both the setup is a little bit of a pain but i can assure you the weighted
bodyweight row with the dip belt is awesome i really like it because the weight plate stays in
place and you have to worry about balancing it you can simply worry about getting the most from your
rows and progressing that load over time the setup is very simple you want to attach the dip belt
over your stomach you want to clip in and you want to choose a setup where there's not much
space between the weight plate and your back just so the plate doesn't touch the ground and then
over the middle of your body you can see here that when i'm doing my rows i'm loaded up
with the exercise but i can just keep linearly progressing this over time can elevate my feet
like i said it's an awesome exercise for long-term progression without worrying about balance for
those of you that want a quick and easy setup with your weighted rows you can't go wrong with simply
just putting the weight plate on your body the downside with this particular technique is once
you increase the weight a fair bit you have to be mindful of trying to balance the weight
so in a way this is bad because the weight plate could fall off in a way it's good because it
forces that strict technique here's how you want to do it so you grab the plate you get it onto
your stomach you set yourself up in the body weight row here all good body mechanics applying
you row up you row down i said this is really quick and easy for those of you that are a bit
lazy when it comes to your setup but you can't go wrong with weighted rows
for long-term growth weighted rows also have three key benefits number one intensity
you can linearly increase the load over time and continue progressing number two efficiency because
this is a bilateral compound exercise you can get the job done in a really time efficient manner
number three optimal rep range you can choose to continue getting results in the 8 to 15 repetition
range to build muscle and get stronger on to the next one let's finish with the third inverted row
progression everyone needs to try the front lever row this one is excellent for improving front
lever strength because we're combining bent and straight arm strength in every single repetition
what i also like about front lever rows is it affords a lifetime of progress through the
manipulation of body posture let's talk about technique because we're using rings we should
be using a rotational pulling pattern so you're going to start in pronation as you pull you're
going to go towards a neutral grip in terms of the range of motion it is a challenging exercise but
you have to strive to get that elbow to meet the side a little bit further is bonus points if you
can achieve it and lastly i want you to end every rep with a straight arm before you continue doing
more rows to continue making your front lever rows more challenging over time we need to manipulate
posture and change the leverage beginners you're going to start as i showed you in a tuck shape
so from here it's going to be easier to do your rows less demand on the back as you get stronger
you want to lengthen the lever until you're doing your rows in more elongated body shapes
this is why front lever rows are excellent for all levels because they offer that lifetime progress
they'll continue to be challenging and continue to produce results cheers everyone for watching
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