Now I am sure many people have cheated a barbell row before, but this is different, this is a row with a purpose. I don't want to claim to have invented this movement and I am sure many people have already done this, but this is something I came up with on my own in order to fix some issues I had. I always like to visualize a movement, even an isolation movement to see how it would carry over to the lift I am trying to improve. If hypertrophy is your goal that’s fine but normally people look to increase a main lift and base their assistance work around doing so. The best way to make your isolation work improve your main lift is by having similar motor patterns and similar muscle recruitment this will lead to a higher chance of carry over.
Bodybuilding Row (barbell row) VS Power Row.
A bodybuilding row is standing at roughly a 45 degree angle and pulling the bar into your belly button area and then controlling the bar back down while keeping a neutral spine. For as long as I can remember this was a staple in the 'back day' for nearly everyone. The weight you can handle on this movement is quite low because of the strict nature of the movement.the higher you stand upright the more traps you engage, the more over the bar you are the more lats and upperback with an increased loading on the spinal erectors
People use barbell row's to improve the deadlift but I have a few counter arguments on why not to.
Disadvantages of Barbell Row
Disadvantages of Barbell Row
If you are handling a large weight in the deadlift for example 200kg how much benefit will you see from a roughly 100kg barbell rows in the muscles that are used to moving and holding double the weight?
The traditional barbell row movement is slow and controlled by nature in contrast to a deadlift where you want to generate as much force as possible and move the bar quickly or as quick as possible given the resistance(weight). Moving the weight slow like in a barbell row feels counter productive.
The positioning in a barbell row is also a position you do not want to find yourself in when deadlifting. A traditional barbell row puts your shoulders over the bar significantly which is teaching you a bad habit and a bad motor pattern by strengthening your muscles to be in a disadvantageous position
You are generally bent over a lot especially if your at 45 degree's. This teaches you a bad habit and motor pattern of being over the bar, and it is strengthening the lower back and other muscles in an angle that is not indicative of a good deadlift.
One of the things that people do in the deadlift especially as the weight gets heavy is they shoot there hips up, or they let their chest start caving, pointing down to the floor and end up over the bar. This puts most of the weight on your spinal erectors and hamstrings. We can practice perfect form on the lighter weights but more than likely the weight will pull you more over as you get heavy, especially if you have already built strength in that position and your muscle memory sends you there.
Imagine if you could do upperback work that allows you to be Explosive Create Force Overload upperback Ingrain correct motor pattern's.
The Power Row (Cheat Row)
The cheat row or power row is almost a deadlift and row combo, you start in almost a deadlift position (normally slightly less leg bend), generate force off the floor with a little bit of leg drive but mostly upperback, start standing up and row the bar into your belly button, then return the bar back down to the floor. When it gets heavy you will naturally tend to stand up more this is fine, but try to aim for at most 65%. Make sure not to stand up then try and sink back down to meet the bar, this is silly and works against everything you are trying to do.
The weight you will be able to handle on Power Row's will be approximately 20-30% more. This will allow you to overload the upperback muscles, learn to generate force, and keep you leading with your chest up (correct motor pattern) which will hopefully carry over to the deadlift. Do not worry about using straps, because the weight will be significantly more than what you can normally row, straps are fine we are not looking to be training grip, also when the weight gets heavy and grip gets taxed you will pull too much with your forearms and biceps, so putting straps on allows you to focus on your back.
The only downside is they are not an isolation movement, and will be less likely to build hypertrophy mass in a particular area but if your intent is to increase your deadlift this is the variation for you, and you will still get upperback benefits in terms of size just not as much.
Just because its a Power Row doesn't mean you can be slack on form, there is a very specific way to cheat these rows anything outside that will have a negative effect on what we are trying to achieve.
This would be best added in on your back day after your main deadlift exercises. What I like to do is work up to a 3-5 rep max for a few sets then drop back down the weight and do a few sets of 10 with a more strict form, this allows me to hit all bases.
Try these out, and let me know what you think in the comments below, these are a staple in improving my deadlift.
