How to Do a One-Arm Dumbbell Row CORRECTLY

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The one-arm dumbbell row, when performed correctly, is one of the best upper body exercises to have in your workout.

The dumbbell row is one of our most favorite types of rows because it's simple, easy and highly effective. When doing one-arm dumbbell rows you are working the whole lat, the upper back, and the trap muscles.

Sometimes if you use a barbell row you put too much stress on your back. A row using a machine is going to trap you into one plane of motion.

With the dumbbell row you get his free plane of motion and it's very safe and highly effective.

Here is how to properly do the exercise:

Choose a flat bench and place a dumbbell on each side of it. Place the right leg on top of the end of the bench, bend your torso forward from the waist until your upper body is parallel to the floor, and place your right hand on the other end of the bench for support.

From here, we reach down with our opposite arm and grab the weight off of the floor keeping our chin tucked and core turned on. You want to make sure you are in a fully protracted position to start. Think protraction but strong back.

From here simply pull the weight directly up to right underneath the shoulder. Notice that my scapula gets all the way to protracted when I come down but I keep a strong back and then as I pull up and pull that shoulder blade back and pull that arm back tight.

You can mess around with the arm angle if you want, but most people when they are first starting out, putting that elbow straight back is going to be most beneficial.

Another great thing about the dumbbell row is you can do it a little bit lighter weight and do more reps or you can use a heavier dumbbell for a more challenging workout and do maybe 5 or 6 reps.

Putting this exercise into to your training program is going to strengthen those back muscles that sometimes get very neglected in the modern day lifestyle...when we're sitting so much.