UPRIGHT
ROWS
CORRECT FORM
1) Grasp a bar
with your hands slightly less than shoulder-width apart, palms facing
your body. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart, with your knees
unlocked (as always).
2) Pull the bar upward
along the abdomen and chest toward the chin, keeping the bar very
close to the torso. At the top of the motion, the wrists and elbows
are higher than the shoulders.
3) Lower the bar slowly
and under control, keeping the bar close to the body.
4) Inhale as you lower
the bar, Exhale as you lift it.
MUSCLES
USED
SAFETY
CONSIDERATIONS/PRECAUTIONS
Upright rows have been included
in this series for completeness. On the whole, it is not a very safe
exercise for a number of reasons.
1. Raising a bar up that high with your shoulders turned in this manner
will create a large impingement force under the acromion (the roof
of the shoulder). This can be damaging to the rotator
cuff and bursa of the shoulder.
2. Upright rows create an enormous amount of shearing and strain force
stress on both the wrists and the elbows.
3. Upright rows do not simulate a movement that resembles anything
we do in real-life. If you wanted to pick something up and bring it
to your chin, you would reach underneath and lift it up overhead as
if you were doing a military press.
EFFECTIVENESS
Although upright
rows do indeed work the deltoids, so do a number of other exercises.
Upright rows are basically the same movement as a lateral
dumbbell raise, and not nearly as effective as a military
press which goes through a much larger degree of range-of-motion.
Given that upright rows are unsafe for a number
of reasons, and that other exercises are simply more effective,
upright rows are generally not recommended.
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