[The Art of Rowing] The Science Of Superior Back Building
If you liked this deep dive about back muscles, you might enjoy: Why everyone is wrong about Triceps Long head training.
SUMMARY
- The key difference between bent over rows and pendlay rows is plane of motion.
- Bent over rows operate in the sagittal plane.
- Pendlay rows operate in the transverse plane.
- Bent over rows have higher stabilization demands.
- While pendlay rows are less demanding.
- In general, bent over rows are better for lat development.
- Whereas pendlay rows are better for upper back “belt”.
FOREWORD
Originally, I planned to make an extensive analysis of the Latissimus Dorsi (for a wide back) muscle only to realize how much more complex proper back development is. Down I went the rabbit hole — dozens and dozens of studies, multiple Ph.D. theses and a few books later, I concluded that analysis and training of separate back muscles are pointless. All was not lost though. I also realized there is another way to look at the issue, which also made much more sense. This happened when I started to look at exercises from a planes of motion perspective. That, however, didn’t mean there will be less work. More, actually. But now I at least saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Science of Superior Back Building is not about some magic trick to change your back musculature in 4 weeks. There is plenty of this nonsense on your favorite bodybuilding website. The point of the series is to make sure we cover ALL angles of back training while also understanding how and when we should shift focus not from muscle to muscle, but from plane to plane.
I hope you will enjoy this series and learn something about how to bring your back development to the next level! If something doesn’t seem clear, I also invite you to ask in the comment section (or directly), I will do my best to answer your inquiries and improve the articles!
DEFINITIONS
- Coronal Plane — divides your body vertically into front and back parts. (Fig. 2).
- Sagittal Plane — divides your body vertically into left and right side (Fig. 2).
- Transverse Plane — divides your body horizontally into top and bottom parts (Fig. 2)
- Shoulder Abduction — raising your arms in the Coronal Plane. (Fig. 3)
- Shoulder Adduction — lowering your arms (from Shoulder Abduction) in the Coronal Plane. (Fig. 3)
- Shoulder Flexion — raising your arms in the Sagittal Plane. (Fig. 3)
- Shoulder Extension — lowering your arms (from Shoulder Flexion) in the Sagittal Plane. (Fig. 3)
- Shoulder Horizontal Abduction — flexing your arms to 90° and then bringing them back to your sides in the Transverse Plane. (Fig. 3)
- Shoulder Horizontal Adduction —abducting your arms to 90° and then bringing them in front of you in the Transverse Plane. (Fig. 3)
- Supinated Grip — palms facing up/forward. (Fig. 4)
- Pronated Grip — palms facing down/away. (Fig. 4)
- Neutral Grip — palms facing medial side.
- Wide Grip — At least 1.5x shoulder width.
- Narrow Grip — Approximately 1x shoulder width.
- Bent Over Row — Supinated Grip Shoulder Extension in the Sagittal Plane. (Fig. 1)
- Pendlay Row —Pronated Wide Grip Shoulder Horizontal Abduction in the Transverse Plane. (Fig. 1)
- Seated Row — Pronated Wide Grip Shoulder Horizontal Abduction in the Transverse Plane. (Fig. 1)
DEFINING THE EXERCISES
There are as many Bent Over Row (BOR) variations as there are people doing it. And that’s a problem. While, I will not propose a standardized definition I have to make it clear for this article. So, BENT OVER ROWS from here on onwards will be an exercise that is done by gripping the bar supinated at around shoulder width and performing an extension towards your lower abdominal area at a bent over position as horizontal as possible. (Fig. 1 left)
PENDLAY ROWS will be performed with a wide pronated grip with the goal, not to extend the shoulders, but to horizontally abduct them. So instead of trying to touch lower abdominal area, the goal will be to touch upper chest. Another important key difference will be the full reset — weight put down on the floor after every repetition. (Fig. 1 middle)
As for SEATED ROWS, instead of a bar, cable will be used and instead of bending over, a vertical seated posture will be taken. Similarly to pendlay row, a wide pronated grip will be taken. (Fig. 1 right)
Working angles of BOR are from around 75° of shoulder flexion to -15° of shoulder hyperextension giving us 90° of total Range of Motion (ROM). Pendlay rows (and seated rows) are operating from 60° of horizontal adduction to -15° of horizontal abduction which is 75° of total ROM. Neither of the exercises operates in the full range of motion for shoulder extension or horizontal abduction. A thing to keep in mind for future references!
INTRODUCTION
“Do your rows” they say, “it will build your Lats” they say. Well, they are not wrong, but then they tell you to go for this back angle, with this grip position, to use momentum, to pull high, providing all kinds of rationale for all of that. But where is the science of that? Do we really need to make an exercise so complicated?
Indeed, when looking at an exercise through the perspective of planes of motion, everything becomes much clearer. This way we can learn the Why’s for the How’s and critically analyze any proposed variation. Later on, you will see why Yates row is a complete and utter nonsense for the rationale it has.
I would like to note that I will not take into account arm muscles. Not because I think they do not contribute significantly, but because I would need to expand way too much. For all intents and purposes, you should assume that BOR, pendlay and seated rows gets a big boost from Biceps.
BOR and pendlay rows (and seated rows similarly) are two entirely different exercises and they will put different emphasis on different muscle groups. Broadly, the former will target Lats (especially superior part), Teres Major/Minor more, while the latter one will focus entirely on the upper back belt — Posterior Deltoid, Mid/Lower Traps, Rhomboids, Infraspinatus. We don’t have studies directly comparing moment arms of shoulder extension and horizontal abduction, though. So, we must extrapolate from separate studies and rely more on other methods, such as EMG (as inaccurate as it might be).
Another thing to note is that there are two kinds of moment arms here. The ones that attach to a humerus and the ones that attach a scapula/clavicle. The attachments to humerus are for moving your arms. The other attachments are for your scapula/clavicle retraction, protraction, elevation, and depression. This is important to understand since pendlay rows heavily rely on the scapula movement while bent over rows are not as dependent.
HORIZONTAL VS VERTICAL
Remember bros telling you to do horizontal AND vertical pulls? Did they explain, why? Here’s the thing, both a chinups and bent over rows are shoulder extension exercises. They both get harder the smaller the angle gets (at the top part of the motion). So, why even bother doing one over another?
If you recall from my article on Pullups vs Chinups, chinups have almost a full 170° ROM, while here bent over rows only have half of that. The starting positions also differ significantly. One starts at 170°, the other at 75° of shoulder flexion. BOR can also reach into shoulder hyper-extension (-15°), something a chinup cannot do.
So, by just looking at the total angles, it is clear, a chinup is superior. And since neither of the exercises will be limited by strength at the start, it would make sense to prioritize chinups in your training. Unless, you want to cover the hyper-extension angles, but do you really need to? Hyper-extension is where Lats stop working and other muscles (Posterior Deltoid, etc) take over¹. But as we will see later on, there are better ways to target those muscles.
Is there any other reason to do BOR then? Yes, there is. The forces at the starting position of the lift are different. Chinups will pull your shoulders up, while bent over rows — down (because, gravity) in relation to your body. This means that in the latter exercise, you will need to use scapular muscles for stabilization. Last, BOR will require Erector Spinae to work to keep you in a bent over position. So, there are significant differences even though both exercises work in the same plane of motion. But they are not as important as some make it to be.
Another thing worth mentioning is that BOR does not use Pectoralis Major and Subscapularis in the movement. That’s because at smaller flexion angles these muscles don’t have moment arms¹. Whether that’s a plus or a downside, depends on context, but since we are talking about back muscles, I will give myself the liberty to discuss the issue in other articles. So, let’s move on.
Let’s take a look at pendlay rows and compare them to seated rows. Similarly as before, the former is operating against gravity in a bent over position, while the latter one is working in an upright position with the force pulling away forward in relation to the body (Fig. 1). Next, pendlay rows do not require passive stabilization from scapular muscles or spinal erectors, while cable rows do, since there is a constant pull (unless you release the stack completely). You can also choose to actively protract your scapula during the exercise.
So, now, the one million dollar question is whether you should care about passive scapular muscle stabilization or not. Well, that depends. Isometric contractions also cause muscle growth⁴ — for a muscle, tension is tension. But the thing is, there’s not much of it. For example, in seated rows, you can hold a lot more than you can pull to your chest. And since exercise is dynamic and requires you to move the weight, anything that’s being held passively at the beginning of the motion with your scapular muscles, will not put high load on them to begin with. Some may argue, that by passively stretching the muscles we can achieve more growth, but that is not the case with Trapezius muscle. If one is hoping to get some stretch mediated hypertrophy, main scapular muscles Trapezius do not experience such growth². That’s because the working fiber lengths do not reach the descending limb of the length-tension relationship (more on that some other time).
THE ANALYSIS
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dig into the real meat of rowing. First, bent over rows. We can apply the same moment arm analysis as in my previous article of Pullups and Chinups since we are talking about shoulder extension. There are no major differences in muscles worked, except for the range of motion, which, as I mentioned earlier, becomes a lot shorter and a few muscles fall off. But look at the green cells (Fig. 11). All of those muscles are highly activated during pendlay row. And while we don’t have direct data for this exercise as described in this article, we have something that’s close and that’s any exercise that involves horizontal abduction. Such as bent over raises, reverse flies or any kind of row with elbows flared out. One such source is Inside the Muscles: Best Back and Biceps Exercises by Contreras (2010). EMG data in his analysis supports our preposition of what pendlay row is supposed to target, but to be sure, let’s also look at the anatomy.
First, Infraspinatus. Its actions are: external shoulder rotation and horizontal abduction. During pendlay rows because of pronated grip, our shoulders are internally rotated and since this muscle doesn’t suffer from passive insufficiency, having it stretched prior to movement is not a bad thing. But it’s not a prime mover. More like a synergist. That’s because it’s attached to scapula and humerus. And during horizontal abduction the scapula also moves! So, movement within a movement. I suspect that the best way to load this muscle is via horizontal hyper-extension — the range of motion behind the body.
Next, Posterior Deltoid — which is is very similar to Infraspinatus, except with much larger moment arms, but again, since it’s attached to scapula, it’s best worked at the top of the movement.
Moving on to Middle and Lower Traps. Anatomically , horizontal shoulder abduction is always accompanied with scapular protraction/retraction in which Trapezius plays a major role together with Rhomboids. The longest moment arm here is in protracted scapular position, but since, as I mentioned earlier, those muscles do not get any stretch-mediated hypertrophy, the actual position during the start of the movement is not that important. Another important note is that since we are internally rotated shoulder position, lower traps do not benefit as much as much as mid ones do. In fact, external rotation would be a much better position to target lower traps³.
I could say same about most of bent over rows variations and mid/lower traps. A lot of EMG studies show high activation, but the question here is how the exercises were performed. It is not uncommon to see some kind of mix between shoulder extension and horizontal abduction. Especially with dumbbells. So, if there is any kind of horizontal abduction, it will naturally activate traps. That’s why I am focusing so much on planes of motion. Muscle activation highly depends on what plane we perform the exercise in. And it’s more common to see a mix of those planes than isolated ones, partly because of anatomical reasons and partly because of an incorrect form.
CONCLUSION
Where does all of that leave us? Well, for one, chinups and bent over rows are similar, as they are both shoulder extension exercises. The latter requires more involvement from stabilizing back muscles such as Erector Spinae and Trapezius, while the former has a longer range of motion. Pendlay row is shoulder horizontal abduction exercise. This involves more of upper back musculature and actively uses scapular muscles while also limiting Latissimus Dorsi involvement. This mean it targets Posterior Deltoid, Infraspinatus, Middle Trapezius and Rhomboids to a much greater extent than BOR (even with hyper-extension).
Given this information, we can decide what to use based on our goals. Lats, Teres Major/Minor — BOR and its variations. Upper back “belt” — Pendlay Row or variations with elbows flared out, such as wide pronated grip seated cable rows.
REFERENCES
- David C. Ackland and colleagues (2008) Moment arms of the muscles crossing the anatomical shoulder.
- Garner BA, Pandy MG (2003) Estimation of musculotendon properties in the human upper limb.
- Boeckh-Behrens, W. and Buskies, W. (2000). Fitness Strength Training. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch-Verl.
- Adams GR, Cheng DC, Haddad F, Baldwin KM (2004) Skeletal muscle hypertrophy in response to isometric, lengthening, and shortening training bouts of equivalent duration.
APPENDIX
Elbow action vs no elbow action
Shoulder horizontal abduction is not only done with the elbow getting bent. It can be done with straight arms. Such exercise as bent over raises or reverse pec dec/cable flies are a good example of using straight arms. Are they better, though? Might be. First, it makes the resistance arm much longer, second it eliminates Biceps involvement (but requires Triceps to keep the arm from bending). A separate discussion is required about elbow action (compounds) and no elbow action (isolation), so I will not expand here, but will say, that those exercise are good. As long as you understand which planes of motion they are operating in.
Yates row
A butchered version of standard bent over row. Just by looking at the moment arms, you can see that there is no benefit of making the range of motion shorter. Dorian Yates himself said he used this exercise to lower lats. But lower lats peak at 60°, so if you make it 45° or even less, you, by definition, skipping on lower lat training. Someone will say that if you want to focus more on upper back (because shoulder hyper-extension works it more) you could use Yates row. But the thing is: the biggest shoulder hyper-extension is achieved at higher bent over angles, not the opposite. Try it yourself, you’ll see! Overall, pointless exercise.
Grip supination/pronation
While I chose supinated grip for bent over rows, it is more common to see it being done with a pronated grip. And that’s fine. Some people say that you can tear your Biceps with supinated grip. I do not see how that is any more different from chinups then. But if you want to use pronated grip, go ahead. As long as you can keep it a shoulder extension exercise, I don’t see a problem with that. From what I understand, though, supinated grip allows better control of planes of motion (very similar to chinups), that’s why I picked it.
Pendlay row, however, are a different story. You cannot do shoulder horizontal abduction with supinated grip — it will force you into shoulder extension. A neutral grip (as with a trap bar) might work though. But keep in mind: the more supinated your wrist is — the more Biceps involvement there is.
BOR in shoulder horizontal abduction
Possible but strenuous. Holding the bar above the floor with wide grip and far away from your center of gravity is not and easy task and it doesn’t have any benefit. It’s better to reset and pull from a dead stop. This will let you align yourself properly and execute the lift in proper form (Fig. 1)
