Bentover Row

Directions:

Preperation/body position

1. Load bar with correct weight. Put on safety collars.
2. Place barbell on low rack, or on the floor.
3. Bend knees, learn forward keeping a straight back, and grasp barbell with a wide overhand grip.

Excution/Movement

1. Maintaining good posture whilst bent over, pull the bar up to lower abdomen area.
2. Keep elbows relatively close to torso during execution.
3. Once peak contraction is reached, control the weight back to starting position.
4. Repeat for desired amount of repetitions.

Comments

A great compound movement to stimulate the general back muscles, also recruiting the likes of the biceps brachii and brachialis during elbow flexion, and the posterior deltoid.

It is important to work with a weight in which you can control, and execute the exercise through a full range of motion for the desired number of repetitions. It is a common sight to see trainers at the gym load the bar with an excessively heavy weight, followed by quick, hip driven partial reps. Our goal is to stimulate the target muscle. Decrease the weight and perform the exercise under perfect form, relying on the target muscles to contract the weight up.

For hypertrophy 6-12 reps will likely yield the best results, providing optimal time under tension. This will provide adequate stimulation for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and acute response to anabolic hormone concentrations, compared to that of lower rep ranges.
For strength and power 1-5 reps is optimal for stimulating the type iiB fibres and neural adaptations of the nervous system.