Is doing dumbell rows bilaterally the equivalent of bent-over row

tech77

Hi.
I tend not to do the bent-over rows so much now and stick with dumbell rows on a bench instead (to work each lat. muscle individually).

But do bent-over rows actually work the lats/back muscles better to dumbell rows.
Should i really be doing both bent-over and dumbell rows or are they pretty much hitting the same muscles?

BossArky

I would be interested to hear thoughts on the above too. I guess one arm rows allow a greater ROM as you can pull the weight up further, i.e. you don't have the barbell in the way across the chest.

arybvtcw0eolkf

tech77 wrote: »

Hi.
I tend not to do the bent-over rows so much now and stick with dumbell rows on a bench instead (to work each lat. muscle individually).

But do bent-over rows actually work the lats/back muscles better to dumbell rows.
Should i really be doing both bent-over and dumbell rows or are they pretty much hitting the same muscles?

Horse's for course's.

A lot will depend on how far/close your hand spacing is and if you pull the bar to your chest (this will tend to hit your upper back more) or abs (works the lats a little more).

With dumbbells most people will find that they can lift a heavier weight with better form (ie a sawing motion giving an increased range of movement).

For example I'll happily rep away with 65kg DB's on DB row's with very strict form, but I'll cheat and tire easier with BB row's at 135kgs (same as the DB's weight X2).

A wide hand spacing on BB row's will tend to hit the full lenght of your lats, and close will hit your lats & rhomboids/traps.

If you have access to a T-bar row try that, you can still your the weight but some here will say that it mimics a machine in that your more of less restricted to a given range of motion. Plus alot of people are guilty of adding too much weight to the T-bar and turning it into a very poor row/DL.

tech77

Mairt wrote: »

Horse's for course's.

A lot will depend on how far/close your hand spacing is and if you pull the bar to your chest (this will tend to hit your upper back more) or abs (works the lats a little more).

With dumbbells most people will find that they can lift a heavier weight with better form (ie a sawing motion giving an increased range of movement).

For example I'll happily rep away with 65kg DB's on DB row's with very strict form, but I'll cheat and tire easier with BB row's at 135kgs (same as the DB's weight X2).

A wide hand spacing on BB row's will tend to hit the full lenght of your lats, and close will hit your lats & rhomboids/traps.

If you have access to a T-bar row try that, you can still your the weight but some here will say that it mimics a machine in that your more of less restricted to a given range of motion. Plus alot of people are guilty of adding too much weight to the T-bar and turning it into a very poor row/DL.

OK thanks.
TBH i'd prefer the dumbell rows myself- the whole sawing motion with greater ROM feels like i'm working the back more than with the BB row.
And it's not as tiring.
Anyone else with anything else to add.

Hanley

The main reason I prefer dumbbell rows is because they let my lower back recover quicker. But I'm only concenred about hat coming up to comps.

I think that heavy deadlifts + bent over rows have been building thick lumpy backs for decades. Notthing makes us so special that we can ignore this tried and tested combo.

tech77

"Thick, lumpy backs":
The "thick" part sounds good, not sold on the "lumpy" bit though:D
But yeah that deadlift/BB row combo sounds good.
Thanks.

arybvtcw0eolkf

One other thing, slightly off topic but I'll throw it in.

If you want to work your back, use wraps!.

I can't stand to hear people say not to use wraps or that its cheating.

Use the bloody things. The whole idea of row's, DL's, shruggs etc is to work/fatigue big muscles so don't sell yourself short by failing on the exercise because your grip goes before your back.

There's also a case for pre-exhausting your back too. But to post it here is a little complicated. But pre-hausting your back is fantastic as your back then tires before your grip and biceps.

Still off topic slight. If you want to add thickness do your rear delts on back day. Hit them hard with drop sets at the end of your back routine. They're a muscle which can take a lot of training.

Hanley

I have to agree on the wraps. I use them alot in training. In certain cases I won't but there's way too much to get into here about that (like high rep dumbbell rows mainly because I'm doing them as a back AND grip exercise).

The biggest and beefiest guys I know "cheat" by using wraps. Sure, you can claim the moral high ground and do it rawwwww but I'd rather have a big thick muscly cheaters back.