How to: Do The Seated Row

Seated Row - Good

Name:  Seated Row

Also known as:  (If you know these by any other name, please leave a comment below).

Main muscles used:  Upper and lower back.

Other muscles used:  Biceps, back of the shoulders.

Top tips:

• Sit tall.
• Keep your back straight and push your chest out.
• Hands should be a bit wider than shoulder width.
• Pull with your shoulder blades and elbows.
• As you pull, squeeze your shoulder blades together at the back.
• Think of drawing your elbows back as you pull.
• Keep your shoulders down throughout the move.
• Start and end the move with straight arms.

Seated Row - Bad

Common mistakes:

• Slouching forwards when sitting.
• Letting your shoulders hunch forwards at the beginning and end of the move.
• Leaning waaaay back when pulling.
• Hardly moving your arms at all and making the arm move very small.
• Pulling with your arms, instead of pulling with your shoulder blades.

Comments:

Seated Row - Good

The basic rowing move should be one of the fundamental parts of anyones training programme.  Doing it properly helps keep the back half of the body strong and when done properly, can help improve peoples posture.

It also helps keep shoulders healthy by balancing the huge amount of “pushing” exercises that most men do (to give themselves nice pecs).  Too much pushing and not enough pulling is a recipe for injured shoulders.