Inverted row
A row done by hanging under a bar with your feet on the floor — the load is set by how flat you lie.
- Pattern
- Horizontal pull
- Equipment
- Pull-up bar
- Space
- Something to hang from
- Difficulty
- Foundational
- Load
- Leverage
What it is
Set a bar at roughly hip height. Lie underneath it, take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders, and hang with your heels on the floor and your body straight from head to feet.
Pull your chest towards the bar, leading with the chest rather than the chin, and letting your shoulder blades draw together. Lower under control until your arms are straight.
A sturdy table works if there is no bar. So does a suspension trainer, or a broom handle across two chairs — tested carefully first.
What it demands
Whatever you choose. This is the key property and the reason it is the most useful pulling movement for most people: the load is set by the angle of your body. The more upright you are, the less of your weight is on your arms; the flatter you lie, the more. Walking your feet in or out changes the difficulty continuously, from very easy to harder than a pull-up if you elevate your feet.
Trunk control, because the body has to stay in a straight line rather than sagging or piking.
Scapular retraction — the job of the rhomboids and middle trapezius — combined with the arm pulling back.
What usually goes wrong
The hips sag. The chest arrives at the bar and the middle does not. It becomes a partial movement with a bent body, and the trunk is no longer working.
Leading with the chin. Reaching the head up towards the bar rather than bringing the chest to it. The neck moves; the shoulder blades do not.
Not reaching straight arms at the bottom. As with any pull, the bottom of the range is the part most often quietly skipped.
Pulling to the wrong place. Aim the bar at the lower chest rather than the collarbone.
Where it sits
The most adjustable pulling movement there is, and the one that makes horizontal pulling available to anyone with something to hang under.
Its adjustability makes it the honest answer to "I cannot do a pull-up": set the angle where you can do several good repetitions and lower it over time. It is also the pulling movement most people's programmes are short of, since pressing is easier to arrange at home than pulling.