Male

Band bent over row

Muscles involved

Mastering the Band bent over row allows you to build upper body endurance and strength anywhere without straining your lower back. When looking to scale this exercise effectively without losing clean execution, start by anchoring the resistance band under your feet with a light tension level. Focus on keeping your torso hinge solid while pulling towards your torso using your back muscles. As you build confidence and core strength, you can increase the resistance simply by widening your stance or switching to a thicker band. Progressive overload here means maintaining a flat spine and focusing on a controlled squeeze at the top of each row rather than rushing the movement with momentum.

How to do it

1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, place the middle of a resistance band under your feet, and hinge at your hips to bend forward until your torso is nearly parallel to the floor, arms extended straight down. 2. Maintaining a flat back and engaged core, pull the band handles towards your lower chest by driving your elbows back and squeezing your shoulder blades together. 3. At the peak of the movement, pause and hold for a one-second contraction in your upper back, with your elbows pointing towards the ceiling. 4. Slowly and with control, extend your arms back to the starting position, feeling the stretch in your lats, without rounding your lower back.

Equipment required

Banda de resistencia

Muscles worked

Tips

- Maintain a flat back by hinging at your hips and pushing your glutes back, not by rounding your lower back. - Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the row, holding the contraction for a second to ensure full lat and rhomboid activation. - Keep your elbows close to your body; flaring them out reduces back engagement and increases stress on the shoulders. - Feel the stretch in your lats at the bottom of the movement before initiating the next rep.