Muscle Ventures Video Analysis

The inverted row is frequently recommended as a starter exercise for people wanting to improve their pull-up performance. As such, it targets the latissimus dorsi.

The exercise has variants that range from easier to hard. The basic setup is as follows. You place a bar on a rack about three to four feet off the ground. Make sure you are using something that can support your body weight. You then lie under the bar, grab it overhand, and straighten your back using your feet as the lever point. You may place your feet, in order of increasing difficulty, on the floor, on a bench, or on a Swiss ball. Feet on the floor moves some of your body weight off your back and onto your feet. Feet on a bench focuses the weight more on your back. Feet on the Swiss ball adds a balance and stabilization component to the exercise.

Once you are set up, the exercise is performed as follows. Pull your elbows back until your chest touches, or comes as close as possible to touching, the bar. Then descend under control until your arms are fully extended. Repeat for at least 10 repetitions. Your ability to do significantly more than 10 repetitions is an indication that you should increase the exercise difficulty.

This high quality 4.9 MB Quicktime movie shows Nancy Arnold and I (Bud Gibson) performing the exercise (you may also watch the video without downloading it here on Google video). In the video, Nancy explains to me how to get into position, and I perform the exercise for the first time for twelve reps. Nancy then expertly performs the exercise for 10 reps (and I tease her about the lower number of reps). As you can see in the array of pictures below, Nancy and I perform the variant with the Swiss ball.

Note that neither Nancy nor I quite touch the bar at the top. I wasn't convinced it was possible as my elbows felt like they had gone back as far as they would at the height you see me in the picture. Obviously here, much as in pull-ups, the cheat is to stop before the muscle fully contracts. Note also that Nancy has a slight bend in her waist in the down position, as did I in subsequent reps. In my experience the bend in the waist made stabilization easier but gave poorer leverage in going up, so I don't think it is a real cheat. A final way to cheat in this variant would be to move the ball further up your legs giving you better leverage. Neither of us tried that one.

Additional Links

• The strength center at University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse has a brief video of the inverted row performed with feet on the floor.