Why upright rows are bad for you

It's extremely difficult to maintain an arch in the lower back when you are stretching down as far as you can towards the floor with a barbell pulling you down. Without the arch, as a natural result, the spine will flex and the supporting muscles of the spine will relax. This places much of the tension of the exercise directly on the connective tissue and bones of the spinal column rather than the supporting muscles, which are stabilizing the spine.

In an effort to get more stretch on the hamstrings, you instead compromise the support structures of your lower back. If you enjoy having a pain-free lower back, the regular floor sit-up is a good exercise to avoid. When you do a sit-up, the mechanics of the movement and position of your body throw much of the torque of the movement onto your lower back.

Your hip flexors pull directly on your spine in order to raise your torso off the floor when you do the exercise, leading to strain in the lower back area. To top it off, the abdominal muscles the real target of the exercise are only worked isometrically. This means they don't actually contract and move, they just work to hold the torso steady while the hip flexors do the pulling. This is not a very effective abdominal exercise. You will be far better off performing direct abdominal- training movements such as crunches , ball crunches , cable crunches , etc.

These exercises directly target the abs without throwing excessive tension on the lower back. An excellent exercise for the abdominals that is similar in look to the regular sit-up but focuses on the abs is the abdominal sit-up. The exercises you do have a profound effect on your training and your health. Be sure to choose exercises that will help you move forward towards your goals and not set you back through injury.

Nick has a degree in physical education and psychology and has been a personal trainer for the past decade. View all articles by this author. About the Author. Nick Nilsson Nick has a degree in physical education and psychology and has been a personal trainer for the past decade. When you do this movement, a crest of bone at the top of the humerus the upper arm bone hits a bone projecting outward from the scapula also known as the shoulder blade.

When these two bony prominences come together, impingement occurs, and this can create shoulder pain. Shoulder impingement is a direct result of the technique used. If your hands are too narrowly placed your shoulders will be internally rotated as you raise the bar up. Not only will it look ridiculous, but it will also increase the chance of impingement — the internal rotation as you lift will bring those two bony prominences together.

Lifting your elbows above your shoulders is another road to increase the likelihood of shoulder impingement. A high pull is simply an upright row performed at speed. The high pull uses the same action as described above, however, you focus on driving out of the knees and hips and raise up on the toes to help generate more speed on the bar. When we coordinate the lift out of the upper body with the force generated from the legs, the bar will feel almost weightless as it reaches the top of the movement.

This high pull is the exact movement you need for a well-executed clean and press. When the bar reaches the lower ribs in the high pull — at the point it feels weightless — you simply bend the knees and drop under as you clean the bar to the collar bones.

The combination of the high pull with a heel lift and squat is called triple extension , where there is extension at three joints; the hip, knee and ankle.

At the bottom of a squat, all three joints are flexed. We hear you. Wide grip upright rows are just like the standard upright row, but with a wider grip. This seems like it would be better for your shoulder joint. It allows for a greater range of motion as well as freeing up valuable real estate in the shoulder region.

But the problem lies in the weight and the rigid bar setting your hands into a position unfavorable for your body. Gravity and the anatomy of your arm are unavoidable. This wider grip does nothing to prevent your arms from turning inwards. Close grip upright rows are, again, going to run into the same problems. Even though you can trade out the bar for a kettlebell the issue still remains.

Taking in your grip is going to turn your arms even further, and here we find ourselves wrestling with the dreaded interior rotation.

Remember when we tested our range of motion earlier? Imagine focusing that downward force into an even sharper point. This is something you want to avoid. The banded upright row is going to be a variant that allows for the most leeway in your upright rows. But again, the awkward motion of the upright row remains in when we do the banded upright row.

So you know what an upright row is, you know how to do it, what it does to your body, and why common mistakes can lead to disaster. The upright row has several cousins and disguises, that are essentially the same exercise with a different stance. The real question now is: what can you do instead? Lots of aerobic exercise and cardio along with our supplements are great options for that.

The most simple alternative is replacing the barbell with dumbbells. The dumbbell upright row has the benefit of working the same muscles as the barbell upright row, but removing that bar in the middle allows for a more natural range of movement, which we now know is the biggest issue with the upright row. The dumbbell upright row still tends to create an internal rotation of your arms, again because of the weight and the position you have to be in to get those muscles working in an upright row.

The real solution is to eliminate the risk of injury. We want to work with your body and make healthy habits, and breaking the upright row into a series of simple and effective exercises is going to do exactly that.

Assign a dumbbell to each of your hands, allowing your elbows to lie at rest at your sides. Your arms should be turned so your forearms are extending out towards the front of your body. Bring the dumbbells up to your shoulders, and once you arrive hold it there for about a second.

Lower the weight back to the starting position, and repeat as many times as you need for your workout. The bicep curl is a simple exercise that targets some of the same muscles as the upright row, with essentially none of the risk, and nearly everyone has a set of dumbbells lying around somewhere. The bicep curl is a simple way to start your workout as well. The front raise is another simple isolation exercise that targets another set of muscles that the upright row sets its sights on.

We can do the front raise with either dumbbells or the barbell.