Bent Over Row – Barbell Rows

The bent over row barbell exercise is one that builds back thickness better than just about any exercise. The problem is that the biceps can lose power before the back gets worked. Here is a way to solve that problem.

Bent Over Row Barbell Video With Jeff Cavaliere

This next exercise is common, but we’ll do it using Athlean ElastX bands. You can get these training bands at AthleanElastX.com.

This is really great, we haven’t gotten to using the band for something like this yet…the bent over barbell row. The usual way we’ve explored the use of this band so far is just to assist us in body weight exercises by assisting us on more difficult moves like one arm pushups, or other stuff like that. This, however, is something unique to those.

This is how we do it: find a squat rack and place a barbell with the weight of your choice for a bent over row on the floor. Now wrap the band on either side of the barbell and tie or secure the other end to the bar at the top of the squat rack. Make sure you do this evenly in terms of distance on both sides of the barbell. This is going to greatly enhance the way you do this amazing exercise – the bent over barbell row.

The bent over row is tricky because if your form is off, you don’t fully work out your back or worse, you get injured. With bad form and posture, it’s easy to injure your lower back. Suppose you’re getting ready to do your bent over rows. One of the most difficult parts of this exercise is actually getting the barbell up off the ground safely. This is where the bands will greatly benefit you by helping your initial lift off the ground to your starting position. Once you’ve reached starting position, you can now start squeezing those reps and the band will no longer assist in the motion. This is perfect because you avoid the jerking and bad form of lifting it initially, but still get the benefit of having quality reps throughout the set. These bands are really perfect for these types of exercises.

Let’s take a look at the actual exercise. Straighten your back with only a slight arc and slightly bend down at the hips. In a straight movement going down, grab the bar, only slightly bending your knees and hips, keeping your back straight. Now lift it up slowly, letting the band assist you. Get to the starting position of the exercise, and pause a bit to check your form, before continuing with the exercise. Notice that when you are finished with your set and you place the weights down, the barbell might slightly bounce due to the resistance bands – this won’t be enough to make it come back up though.

This is just the right amount of tension to give you that extra assistance at the start of the movement. The benefit of this is you actually focus on the exercise – the actual rows and the reps, rather than compromising your form to be able to effectively bring the weights to starting position.

Go ahead and take a look at AthleanX. It’s a program that, within 90 days, you’ll be able to have that athletic ripped body you’ve always wanted. It’s available at AthleanX.com. Then about this band, you can use this to really increase the range of exercises at your arsenal to even beyond what you can see at AthleanX. The thinner, black band is used for assistance exercises. Then you also have a thicker red band for bodyweight assistance movements.