Breaking Down the Dumbbell Row

So apparently there was a football game on last night? I stopped really paying attention after about 10 seconds into the second half. I’ll admit, I’m a fan of Peyton Manning. The fact that the guy has smashed every possible offensive record out there, come back from potentially career ending (and possibly life altering) neck surgery, played at a high level into his late thirties, and actually has a sense of humour make him incredibly likeable. Games like last night make it easy to take the wind out of him though, as that was atrocious. Being in Canada, I didn’t even get to see any of the much-lauded commercials either.

The halftime show was actually way better than the actual game, which doesn’t happen very often.

[embedplusvideo height=”477″ width=”600″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1kAZmCs” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/0bgmcRcImhM?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=0bgmcRcImhM&width=600&height=477&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep1203″ /]

As a result of that, plus I’m sure everyone losing on the prop bet to start the game with a safety (except Mark Cuban. Jerk), people will probably be hitting the gym with a little extra rage and wanting to smash some serious weights, yell like Xena Warrior Princess, and take out their aggressions while working off the 7,000 calories of animal fat they ate the day before.

One place to take out all that pent up aggression would be with a dumbbell row. However, approaching it with all the vigour and intensity a virgin on prom night would probably only wind up with you having a head ache, a sore arm, and the bitter sense of defeat wafting through the air. Instead, follow along with some of the handy tips I drop in today’s coaching video to help you get the most bang for your buck when it comes to a dumbbell row, and not look like a raging tool in the process.

[embedplusvideo height=”365″ width=”600″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1kAZBNI” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/6J2H88q5hYw?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=6J2H88q5hYw&width=600&height=365&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep2553″ /]

Some things to note about this video:

1. My hair is looking fresh to death these days
2. setting up on the bench is more about a position of power than about leaning on a surface, so approach it like the Denver O-Line should have approached the game last night.
3. The lats are under the shoulder blade and attach to your butt, so if you feel your neck doing all the work, you’re doing it wrong.
4. If you can do a chin up with full body weight, you should be able to row half your body weight for the same number of reps. It’s math.

Hopefully this helps you to get more action from your dumbbell rows, and might actually lead to some growth to rival wide screen televisions.