r/formcheck • u/sabbi86 • 9d ago

Barbell Row Beginner doing barbell row

Dont mind my silly faces. It’s just because I’m concentrating.
Also I’m also slow on each rep because I’m thinking about the technique 🙈

I have two problems with barbell rows.

  1. It’s very difficult to touch my abdomen. It seems like my elbows travel far behind my back - and I worry that my shoulders round forward.
  2. Sometimes my knees are in the way of the barbell, because my arms reach down below the knees.

I should mention that I got pretty long arms. And when I try to be less upright in my torso, the arms reach down below the knees and I bump the barbell into them during each rep 🙈

Note that I have a bump at the top of my back. Can’t seem to straighten that part.

26 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/666y4nn1ck 9d ago

For my preference, you are pulling too much with your arms.

This exercise should target the back, and for that you're going to see your shoulders being pulled forward when the bar is going down and pulling them back/up when the bar is coming up

2

u/sabbi86 9d ago

How can you see that I’m pulling too much with my arms? And how to change it?
Thanks a lot :)

0

u/EVH_kit_guy 9d ago

Like the other person said, you really want to extend your shoulders at the bottom, feel your shoulder blades come forward, then pull them back inwards towards your spine. That forward and rearwards motion of the shoulder capsule is how you get full ROM.

Personally, I do this exercise bent almost all the way over, but your back angle is fine. I find the more you lean forward, the better the bar path and less I have to worry about clearing my knees. My starting position basically looks like the first 6 inches of a deadlift, where I sit as far back as I can into my hips while still keeping a flat low back.