How to Avoid Lower Back Pain from Barbell Rows
Mar 3rd, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: Barbell Row, Lower Back, Weight Lifting
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Arnold Schwarzenegger doing Barbell Rows. Image credit: d_vdm
In The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding Schwarzenegger recommends standing on a block or bench when doing Barbell Rows using 20kg/45lbs plates. This way you can lower the weight without the bar touching the floor.
As you can see on the picture above, your lower back rounds if you do Barbell Rows that way. The results: lower back pain and weight lifting getting a bad reputation. Here’s how to avoid lower back pain from Barbell Rows.
Start Each Rep on The Floor. Barbell Rows bent over at 45° or Barbell Rows on a block/bench force your lower back to stay contracted at all time. Your lower back gets no rest for the duration of all your reps.
The correct way to do Barbell Rows is to start & end each rep with the weight on the floor. Like for Deadlifts. This way your lower back gets a break between reps and you can use hip extension on the way up.
Keep Your Back Straight. Bending your back stresses your lumbar vertebrae, which increases the risks of back injuries like hernia.
- Look 45° Forward. Looking forward will hurt your neck. Looking down will round your back. Look about 45° forward.
- Chest up. Shoulder-blades back & down and chest forward. Do Shoulder Dislocations if you lack mobility.
Stretch Your Hamstrings. Tight hamstrings will make your lower back round on Barbell Rows just like they do on Squats. Tight hamstrings will pull your lower back down when you bent over.
If you feel a deep stretch in your hamstrings when doing Barbell Rows, work on hamstring flexibility. Do the 7 Dynamic Stretches to Improve Your Hip Mobility. Especially Leg Swings will help.
Persist. While Barbell Rows are an upper-back exercise in the first place, lower back stress is normal because of the horizontal torso position. But your lower back will be safe as long as you keep it straight at all times.
If your back is straight and you keep feeling soreness, you have a weak lower back. Best way to strengthen your lower back is by keep doing Barbell Rows & Deadlifts. Soreness will go away as you get stronger at them.
Remember that all weight lifting exercises can cause back injuries if you do them incorrectly. Lower the weight when necessary to practice technique. Increase the weight as you improve.
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Should the barbell row touch the chest?
Yes always touch your chest on Barbell Rows. Just like you need to touch your chest on the bench press.
That 3D stretching link from Fridays post is great for hamstrings as well.
Shouldn’t the barbell touch your upper belly area, right below the rib cage?
Xihpoid Process is where you should be targeting - yes upper belly area directly below the ribcage where the two halves of the rib cage join
Mhedi knows what he’s talking about!!! All of the things that are usually explained in this RSS feed can be found in these books:
Starting Strength
Practical Programming for Strength Training
They do a great job of explaining training very thuroughly and are a must if you plan to do any type of training that is related to the 5×5. It seems like these are the bibles of this web site. Thank you Mhedi for spreading the truth of weight training!!!!
I understand why rounding the lower back can cause problems, but does anyone understand why too much arch (ie opposite of rounding) causes a problem when doing rows/deadlifts/squats?
I read about it here:
http://thelowback.com/why.htm
and would like opinions from others.
The short version is that once the load is in front of the hip socket, the hip bones will rotate forward unless the abs can hold them in place. Once they start rotating forward, ligaments can get stretched, etc, until the hamstrings stop the rotation. I suspect this is why my back always gets sore and takes a long time to recover. I’m working on ab strength to help. I suspect using your glutes helps somehow, but haven’t figured out exactly how.
This seems to agree with hamstrings that are too tight causing rounding, as they would cause the hips to rotate backwards.
@Stringy
Great question. Hyper-extension is as bad as rounding: it also puts pressure on your lumbar vertebrae (posterior pressure instead of anterior when rounding).
Your lower back supports your torso from the back, the abs from the font. If your abs are weak, you’re lower back takes all the load. Squats, deadlifts, oh press, turkish getup, but also planks/birddogs would help.
Using your glutes is going to be hard, as they’re in a stretched position.
Thank you very much for doing great service by hosting this website. The information in this very helpful. While at GYM I somehow feel that most of members are following your guide. May be because I started looking for people doing either DeadLifts or Barbell rows.
Mehdi,
What are your thoughts on wearing the protection underwear they sell which are meant to be worn while doing any excercies. These underwears are mesh kind and hold tight. Are they helpful? Do you recommend them?
Also is it true that lifting heavy weights either in the form of DeadLift of BenchPress, are not good for “Manhood”? Any comments or thoughts on this?
Thanks,
- Prasad
Are you seriously trying to contradict one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time? Not to mention you pull the bar into your stomach area when performing a bent over row.
I’m sorry but I’ll take advice from the guy who won 7 Mr. Olympias.
it ain’t bodybuilding site, if you want advice off a mr banana hammock, go ask one of them.
I have to agree with Steve here - that was advice from a professional trainer who had a shed load of success, to question his advice would be like arguing with Bill Gates about business. He wasn’t the only one to perform them this way either, you get any pics of trainers from his era and beyond they trained the same way - must have been something in it.
Also, to touch on the BB argument there - BB or strength training, it’s the same exercise regardless. Also, Arnold was a strong athlete…
the picture above says it all it self, it may look all well and good, but bending your back like that just isn’t good for you.
Arnold’s still looking pretty healthy to me.
@Steve/Russ
The reason you should pull against your xyphoid process is that you can lift more weight that way (this is strength training).
If you want to do Barbell Rows with a bent back like Arnold in the picture above, then do it. It’s your lower back.
I’m not saying that I want to do them the way Arnold is displaying, I just think it’s mad to argue with someone who’s had major success… Compared to all those forum dwellers who have none yet know everything ’cause they’ve read a couple of books.
Arnold made mistakes like the rest of the human race. indeed he was a brilliant body builder, but that doesn’t mean he knows everything, back in his day, he was basically experimenting with exercises to see what worked, thats his words. that weight probably wasn’t heavy for him, its more than likely he was pumping out alot of reps and therefore am sure his lower back could take it. its likely if he did up the weight to his five maximum reps for 5 sets, then it would start to hurt using that technique
When I deload the weight after each rep i find that i have more pain in my lower back than if i dont deload. The problem is i have short legs so if i fully deload the weight my back has to bend past 90 degrees. What would you recommend doing? Not deloading or deloading?
If it hurts to deload… Then don’t
I once tried these pendlay rows u always recommend, but i couldn’t even touch my chest, just hard to pull it that close to body. Probably was doing something wrong, but most people do Yates row around here and it’s not too bad in my opinion.
I don’t like ‘em myself - went out with the arc in my opinion.
As you said, Jason, I do rows ‘Yates’ style also, you can pull much more weight and target the back a lot better, I find. Each to their own though.
i just had a look on youtube for the yates row, and it just looks like a half hearted atempt of a proper row. or even a upright row. its like a shrug with a little bend in the arms.
@phil what do you mean about deloading after each rep? do you have to take weight off after each set because your back hurting? if so you should just drop the weight all together and start light and practice correct form whilst you increase the weight.
He probably has the best back in history and a very strong one at that - remember that this topic is very much biased, due to the nature of this website and its teachings. There are more techniques out that there than what’s been read in Rippetoe’s books.
What about the grip width? I feel my lats work more if the grip is wider than the bench prees grip.
This is a necessary article for me, it took me some time to adapt to this exercise technique… I’m tall and I have no flexibility on my hamstrings so I don’t know if its a bad idea but I feel more comfortable using a wider foot stance. That way it doesn’t matter if my hamstrings are not flexible… I have no lower back pain if my stance is wider than my shoulder width.
I seriously need to improve my technique on this exercise, Sometime I don’t feel my back working.
i very much doubt he has the best back in history. have you even read the topic, it informs on how to help prevent lower back pain when doing rows. not cure the bloody common cold. its a strength training website, first and foremost. Arnold wasn’t the strongest guy in the world, or even the closets, all be it he maybe alot stronger than most of the so called dwellers on here. which its not surprising since alot are beginners.
read the back cover of rippetoes starting strength book and it’ll shit all over your argument.
by deloading i mean letting the weight rest on the floor in between each rep like Mehdi talks about in this article and his eBook
Thanks for this Medhi and for your answer on my thread. One more question here: I’ve seen a variation in the execution on the bb row. Should I be accelerating the barbell up to my chest/upper ribcage as fast as I can and lowering it down (almost dropping it near the end) quickly as well? Or is it more effective to lift the bb up and down with a relatively slow and steady approach?
To be honest, I’d say that for your upper back, I’d do power cleans. You get the leg work, you get the upper back work, trap work, and most of all, the explosive power that helps you with all lifts. You might disagree, but I get the feeling the barbell row is more technical than the power clean (I prbly feel this way since I was actually shown by actual powerlifters at my school how to power clean)
no way in hell a barbell row is anything close to a power clean in terms of technique
in a barbell row the only thing you worry about is keeping the back angle constant, and manipulating the shoulder and elbow joints
in a power clean you manipulate the knees, hips, shoulders, and elbows in a complex sequence that spans less than a second … things like knee and torso angles are dynamic throughout the entire movement, not static as they are in a barbell row
as for the bodybuilding aspect, power cleans develop the upper trapezius muscles and hip extensors to a high degree but don’t have a significant effect on anything else … barbell rows encompass much more of the back. the power clean is a skill-based movement in which the speed of contraction is important, barbell rowing is actual strength-training and bodybuilding, where muscle fibers can actually be taxed to a degree of failure. you don’t fail on power cleans, you just start moving too slow
@Phil
The solution is to bend more at your knees, so your hips end lower.
@Jason Papillon
If you can’t touch your chest on Barbell/Pendlay Rows, the weight is too heavy. Lower the weight.
@Caim
If you lack hamstring flexibility you need to work at. You’ll get problems on other exercises anyway, and you’re not doing Barbell Rows correctly right now. Grip should similar to a middle grip bench press (bit wider than grip for deadlifts).
@Gdon
The faster you lift on the way up, the more weigth you can pull. Yes accelerate on the way up. Make sure you read the article about the barbell row. Technique is explained there.
Maybe it’s because I’m only doing 35kg on the BB row, or maybe my technique is alright. But so far, my back (upper and lower) is the only part of my body that isn’t complaining. *touches wood*
I think the argument is moot considering that with Arnold’s back development as shown in the picture, he could probably do any movement with heavy weight and incorrect form WITHOUT getting injured. A novice, intermediate level strength trainer is way more likely to get injured due to a lapse in form.
Tarun - If you learned how to power clean from power lifters you might want to check your form. The few “powerlifters” I see power cleaning in my gym have the worst form. They always pull prematurely with bent elbows using their biceps as opposed to initiating the second pull with the combined plantar flexion of the ankles and upward shrugging of the trapezius. I no longer power clean, but rather clean the barbell into a full squat position.
This article really comes at the right time for me. Yesterday I was doing BB Rows, putting the barbell on the ground after each rep. So one of the gym instructors came and told me to let it hang from my arms. I told him that it would make no difference as the barbell would hit the floor anyway. Then he suggested doing them while standing on a platform. I guess he is more concerned for his precious floor than the health of my back.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is a genetic freak of nature, probably one of the biggest freaks the world has seen a long time. That being said, he could grow doing just about any thing. While he was a knowledgeable guy who had great bodybuilding success, that doesn’t mean that the majority should take the same steps or do things the same way he did. For most of us, an injury is bound to happen if we neglect sound biomechanics and posture while we lift. Arnold was a big dude, but just because he did it one way doesn’t mean it’s the safest or most prudent way for you to do it.
@ Mehdi
if i bend my knees more than my knees get in the way of the bar traveling up towards my chest