Mistake: Using traditional dumbbell pullovers, which only engage the lats for a small portion of the exercise.įix: Do decline pullovers using a cable machine to keep tension on the lats for the whole lift. As long as the low back stays in a slight arch, incorporating a well-timed, tight toprock to start the lift is both beneficial and necessary. There's a ceiling on just how much your arms can pull. It's difficult to do a 225-pound bent-over row while completely rigid and motionless. It takes practice to learn the timing and to understand just the right amount of toprock that can be used during heavy reps. The thing is, the development of the skill transcends learning the form of the movement. It would be a lie to say that "toprock" or body English isn't permissible when doing a heavy row. Mistake: Using spastic momentum which causes loss of tension in the muscles.įix: Learn to use the proper amount of "toprock" or body English so the back muscles are hit without the arms fatiguing first.īarbell bent-over rows often fall prey to the use of momentum, looseness, and the havoc that ensues from just "finishing the lift." There are just too many ways to compromise your form to get the reps up. To really hit the lats, pull the dumbbell using more of a "drag" pattern that starts slightly in front of the shoulder and finishes closer to the mid-torso. Using a neutral grip to pull a dumbbell from ground-level straight up to a horizontal body doesn't make these muscles work effectively. What's important to remember is that the fibers of many scapular retractors (like the rhomboids) travel in more of a horizontal pattern. The one-arm dumbbell row, performed with one knee and one hand supported on a bench, is often misused and mistaken for an upper back exercise to train the shoulder retractors. Mistake: Pulling the dumbbell straight up.įix: Pull in more of a sweeping "J" motion with the dumbbell starting slightly in front of the shoulder. If you want to hit the lats hard, shorten your range of motion by a couple of inches and arch your back. When it doesn't happen – as in the case of a pencil-straight pull-up – the biceps, traps, and teres muscles take over and the humeral head will also be encouraged to shift forward in the shoulder girdle at the top portion of the movement. Retracting and depressing the shoulders usually happens in pairing with spine extension (arching), and this position optimizes lat involvement. Lifters are often instructed to stay pencil-straight from head to feet on pull-ups, but doing it this way leads to poor biomechanics. Mistake: Keeping the body straight as a rod.įix: If you want to hit the lats properly during pull-ups, cut your range of motion by a couple of inches and arch your back. Check out these common mistakes and learn how to fix them. Do them on a decline bench with a cable attachment for better results.Įven smart lifters can misuse and abuse these four back exercises. Dumbbell pullovers minimally engage the lats.But as long as the back maintains a slight arch, a little English at the beginning of the lift is beneficial and necessary. Too much body English ruins the bent-over row. To use it to stimulate the lats, "drag" the dumbbell from in front of the shoulder to mid-torso. The one-arm row is often misused as an upper back exercise. Instead, you need to arch your back and cut your range of motion by a few inches to hypertrophy the lats.
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