Since I just did this movement tonight it’s fresh in my mind. This is killer on it’s own or as a type of pre exhaust before chins rows deads etc. This is a description from the person I learned them from…
First up–do you know that position that is at the bottom of a stiff leg deadlift if you do it very deep (some people dont)–remember that position because that is key here ok?
Ok-Your on a seated cable row with a close grip parallel handle–your legs are slightly bent–your aiming for the greatest amount of stretch possible at the very beginning of the pull ok so remember that you should be in that “position” above or close to it (I talked about earlier) thruout this whole movement. With your back rounded and you leaning forward (huge stretch) you pull the handle to right about 3 inches above the kneecaps, thats it.
At no point do you stick your chest out and arch your back and pull the handle into your midsection and sit straight up as in a seated pulley row, what you do instead is flare your lats at the stretch at the very beginning and keep your lats flared till you pull right over your kneecaps and then control the return to the stretch and repeat. Because your bent forward in a position that doesnt put your back in a precarious safety position you will have no worries with a rounded back. I guess a simple way i could describe it is
a)huge stretch at beginning
b)do half a pulley row movement but dont lean your torso backward or arch your back–keep it stabilized maybe only moving a few inches the whole movement
c)keep your lats flared outwards the whole way thru and dont crunch your scapula together–pull with your lats and pull the handle 2-3 inches over your kneecaps and return
Use medium to high reps, 10-20 and you will feel your lats screaming at you from the stretching.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
Since I just did this movement tonight it’s fresh in my mind. This is killer on it’s own or as a type of pre exhaust before chins rows deads etc. This is a description from the person I learned them from…
First up–do you know that position that is at the bottom of a stiff leg deadlift if you do it very deep (some people dont)–remember that position because that is key here ok?
Ok-Your on a seated cable row with a close grip parallel handle–your legs are slightly bent–your aiming for the greatest amount of stretch possible at the very beginning of the pull ok so remember that you should be in that “position” above or close to it (I talked about earlier) thruout this whole movement. With your back rounded and you leaning forward (huge stretch) you pull the handle to right about 3 inches above the kneecaps, thats it.
At no point do you stick your chest out and arch your back and pull the handle into your midsection and sit straight up as in a seated pulley row, what you do instead is flare your lats at the stretch at the very beginning and keep your lats flared till you pull right over your kneecaps and then control the return to the stretch and repeat. Because your bent forward in a position that doesnt put your back in a precarious safety position you will have no worries with a rounded back. I guess a simple way i could describe it is
a)huge stretch at beginning
b)do half a pulley row movement but dont lean your torso backward or arch your back–keep it stabilized maybe only moving a few inches the whole movement
c)keep your lats flared outwards the whole way thru and dont crunch your scapula together–pull with your lats and pull the handle 2-3 inches over your kneecaps and return
Use medium to high reps, 10-20 and you will feel your lats screaming at you from the stretching.[/quote]
I played around with this exercise the other week while I was taking a mini cruise. You can also hold the start position for an alternative lat stretch.
The problem I came across though was that my hamstring flexibility is too good. So I end up bottoming out if I go to a full stretched position. I’ve actually gotta come up on my toes (with legs completely straight) if I want to get the weights off the stack in the bottom position (not too practical when I start getting into higher weights).
I had thought about maybe trying to place something under my feet to increase the range of motion, but it’d have to be pretty wide to work. I guess this one just isn’t going to work for me unless I can figure something else out.
Still, seemed like it could be a good exercise though.
I can’t use the foot pad and still do the movement or else I can’t get the deep stretch in the bottom. For me I have to walk the handle out and crouch on the very end of the seat. Guess that comes with the territory of having longer arms and torso but short legs haha. If it was up to me I’d install a 2x4 or something sturdy or the floor to plant my feet on. Staying with the 15-30RP range keeps the weight light enough that I’m not getting dragged forward, when I was pushing 11RPs I was really having to fight to stay in position. 20RP(so like 10-12 straight setted) works best for me at this point.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
I can’t use the foot pad and still do the movement or else I can’t get the deep stretch in the bottom. For me I have to walk the handle out and crouch on the very end of the seat. Guess that comes with the territory of having longer arms and torso but short legs haha. If it was up to me I’d install a 2x4 or something sturdy or the floor to plant my feet on. Staying with the 15-30RP range keeps the weight light enough that I’m not getting dragged forward, when I was pushing 11RPs I was really having to fight to stay in position. 20RP(so like 10-12 straight setted) works best for me at this point. [/quote]
Cool thanks for the advice.
That probably wouldn’t work on the row cable set up at my gym (as it’s set up so that you’re sitting on a bench off the ground, not on a pad on the ground like the set up in the DC video). But, I could try using it with the adjustable cable and just setting it on the lowest position. Next cruise (or supposing that I lose one of my current lat movements) I’ll give that a shot.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
Since I just did this movement tonight it’s fresh in my mind. This is killer on it’s own or as a type of pre exhaust before chins rows deads etc. This is a description from the person I learned them from…
First up–do you know that position that is at the bottom of a stiff leg deadlift if you do it very deep (some people dont)–remember that position because that is key here ok?
Ok-Your on a seated cable row with a close grip parallel handle–your legs are slightly bent–your aiming for the greatest amount of stretch possible at the very beginning of the pull ok so remember that you should be in that “position” above or close to it (I talked about earlier) thruout this whole movement. With your back rounded and you leaning forward (huge stretch) you pull the handle to right about 3 inches above the kneecaps, thats it.
At no point do you stick your chest out and arch your back and pull the handle into your midsection and sit straight up as in a seated pulley row, what you do instead is flare your lats at the stretch at the very beginning and keep your lats flared till you pull right over your kneecaps and then control the return to the stretch and repeat. Because your bent forward in a position that doesnt put your back in a precarious safety position you will have no worries with a rounded back. I guess a simple way i could describe it is
a)huge stretch at beginning
b)do half a pulley row movement but dont lean your torso backward or arch your back–keep it stabilized maybe only moving a few inches the whole movement
c)keep your lats flared outwards the whole way thru and dont crunch your scapula together–pull with your lats and pull the handle 2-3 inches over your kneecaps and return
Use medium to high reps, 10-20 and you will feel your lats screaming at you from the stretching.[/quote]
I need to tweak my homemade low row outfit for this. I tried it out and saw some potential, but I kept having to sorta shrug a little for my elbows to clear my knees. Hard to explain. I have a couple ideas.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
Tirib is your pulley really low to the ground? I’m trying to picture why you’d be having that problem. [/quote]
I think I may have been just pulling back too far. After rereading the post I saw that it said to just come back to around your kneecaps. My low cable is too low as it was built, but I have come up with a rig that fixed that.
I did a little better this week, but I think the foot stop/5 foot bar is too high in relation to the seat for this movement to be done optimally. This rig works great for regular rows, but that’s what I designed it for. As you can see the idiots that originally designed the damn thing put the low pulley practically on the floor which had my arms dragging up and down my legs.
I think I got it. This week I lowered the the foot rest and kinda groped around for the groove. I wound up with a sort of slight reverse shrugging motion, shoulders toward my lower body staying rounded and pulling back like you said to just above the knees and it did flame my lats pretty good. The last set I did regular seated rows and upon failure went to stretch and this movement which REALLY slammed my lats as well.
The stretching especially immediately after the set is brutal and really seperates the men from the boys haha. Once you get it down adding a 2 second pause in the stretch position cranks the pain(and results) up a notch. This is one of Dante’s go to moves for bringing up advanced trainees back width and you can definitly see why.
