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Dumbbell and cable row

Gym (women) / Popular

The missing horizontal pull for a strong back.

What coaches agree on

  • A row is a back-and-lat movement: pull by drawing your shoulder blades back and leading with your elbow, letting your arm work like a simple hook.
  • Take the weight through a full range on every rep: reach forward for a full stretch through the lats, then pull all the way in to a full squeeze at the top.
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  • Exhale as you pull the weight in toward your body, and inhale as you let it back out to the stretch.

Common mistakes

  • Letting the elbow travel back past the shoulder rolls the shoulder forward into a weak, irritation-prone position, a common fault in both dumbbell and cable rows.
  • Rounding or hunching the lower back to horse the weight up, pulling with the spine instead of the back muscles, shows up across both dumbbell and cable variations.
  • Leaning the torso back past the set position or yanking with body momentum instead of staying still and pulling with the arms and back is a common breakdown in the cable row as the weight gets heavy.
Dumbbell Bent Over Row
Beginner

Dumbbell Bent Over Row

Coach's take: Good hinge setup and a real common-mistake callout - solid teaching.

3.3