Barbell Row Form

Prop up your phone and RepSensei counts your barbell row reps and flags some visible issues, right on your device. Video never leaves your phone.

How to do it

1. Pick the bar up as for a deadlift, with a grip just outside your knees, palms facing you or down.
2. Soften your knees and hinge forward until your torso is at about 30 to 45 degrees above horizontal. Keep your back flat and braced.
3. Let the bar hang under your shoulders with straight arms.
4. Pull the bar towards your lower ribs or upper stomach, leading with your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together.
5. Pause briefly when the bar touches you, then lower it under control to straight arms without changing your torso angle.

Coaching cues

Elbows to the back pockets

Driving the elbows back rather than pulling with the hands puts the work on the lats.

Freeze the torso

If your chest lifts on every rep, the hips and lower back are doing the rowing.

Brace like a deadlift

You are holding a hinge for the whole set, so the trunk must stay tight.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Standing up as you row

The torso rises to help the bar up, turning the row into a shrug. Fix: Use less weight and keep your chest pointing at the floor at the same angle for every rep.

Swinging the weight with the hips

Momentum lifts the bar, so the back muscles get less work and the lower back takes jolts. Fix: Pause with the bar on your body before each lowering, and lower slowly.

Rounding the lower back

Holding a hinge with a heavy load is tiring, and the spine gives way first. Fix: Brace harder, reduce the weight, or switch to a chest-supported row.

Pulling to the chest with flared elbows

This shifts the work to the rear shoulders and upper traps. Fix: Pull lower, towards the belly button, with elbows at about 45 degrees.

Short, choppy reps

Not straightening the arms at the bottom cuts the stretch on the lats. Fix: Let the arms reach full length each rep while keeping the back position.

Muscles worked

Main: Lats, Traps. Also: Biceps, Shoulders, Lower back, Forearms, Hamstrings.

Who should take care

If holding a bent-over position bothers your lower back, use a chest-supported or cable row instead. Stop and see a doctor or physiotherapist if you get pain that lingers.

Variations

• One-Arm Dumbbell Row: Easier on the back: one hand on a bench supports you.
• Seated Cable Rows: Easier: seated with the load coming from in front.
• Inverted Row: Home option: row your body up to a bar or table edge.
• T-Bar Row with Handle: Alternative: a fixed arc that is easier to stay braced for.
• Reverse Grip Bent-Over Rows: Variation: palms up brings in more biceps and lower lats.

Filming your barbell row

Film from the side at about hip height, two to three metres away, so you can see your torso angle stay put. You can track it with the RepSensei camera, which counts reps and can flag some visible issues from one angle; it cannot see everything. See how to film your form.

Questions

Overhand or underhand grip?

Both work. Overhand tends to hit the upper back more, underhand brings in the biceps and lets some people pull heavier.

How bent over should I be?

Somewhere between 30 and 45 degrees above horizontal suits most people. The more upright you are, the more it becomes a shrug.

What is a Pendlay row?

A strict version where the bar returns to the floor each rep and the torso is roughly parallel to the floor.

See the Bent Over Barbell Row exercise guide with a 3D figure.

More form guides

• Pull-Up form
• Lat Pulldown form
• Face Pull form

General guidance, not medical advice. Stop if anything hurts. The camera can miss things, so no issue seen doesn't mean perfect form.