Seated Rope Row (Troponin Rows)

Coached by Justin

Also called: Troponin Rows · DC-Style Seated Rope Rows · Seated Rope Row

Primary: lats
Secondary: middle back
Equipment: cable
Mechanic: compound
Force: pull
Category: strength

Blood Volume (back) — the back fry.

Execution

High rep, short rest. Deep stretch at the bottom — let the shoulders round forward and the lats lengthen. Keep a forward-leaning position throughout the movement, upper back almost slightly rounded, like a pullover even. Keep the lower back arched as much as possible, and pull the handles all the way down to your hips, leaning forward with the upper back slightly rounded the whole time. When you find the correct positioning for your body, you will know it from the lat pump. Drive blood into the lats. Most people, if you're strong at all, can stack the seated cable row at any gym in the world and bang out 15 or 20 reps. But make it a complete lat isolation row — a DC row, a way forward leaning row — and that's a really pure lat isolation, and you'll only be able to do about 30% of the weight. I 100% credit Dante with his DC rows: more than anything else, that was the first movement that made me really learn how to contract my lats and build my lats, and I think that carried over to other movements.

The cue that matters

Forward lean the whole set, lower back arched, upper back slightly rounded like a pullover — pull to the hips and chase the lat pump.

Common mistake

Short, heavy, half-range yanks; the pump lives in the full stretch and the full contraction, not the load. Actually targeting the lats is pretty hard, because in a lot of positions the lats are the weak link of the movement. In a row it's much easier to let your lower traps, rear delts, teres major, rhomboids — all those muscles — take over and pull, and not make the lats do the actual contraction. That's the hard thing about back: you can be really strong on back and not work your lats, and everyone sees how strong you are. Or you can work your lats, and then everyone thinks you're weak.

Power Bodybuilding Bro Split — Day 2 (Back).