Ground row standard

I am currently doing ground rows and have just noticed the athlete demonstrating the exercise touches his hands to the anterior deltoid.

Is it ok to touch the rib cage or does the hand have to touch the deltoids?

My thumbs touch the sides of my chest.

That's what I am doing as well.

5x10 is turning out to be a real ball ache, but i'm getting there.

God, I hate this movement. Going to reset back to 4x4 to work on form and specially tempo. Seriously these are more difficult than chinups for me.

dritar said:

... God, I hate this movement ...

 

  

I spent 2 mini cycles on it then I did mastery quite easily - although touching my shoulders in later sets was such an issue that I just went for another two mini cycles. 4 x 4 lets me maintain perfect form rather than 4 x 8.

 

Bringing the hands to the ribs rather than shoulders should be fine. 

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

 

These, Arch Body Holds, and even pushups have conditioned me to relish repeating weeks and striving for perfect form.  I've gone from the habitual overreacher to the consummate conservative when it comes to progressing from a movement or upping volume.   

My upper arm muscle gets in the way, it is physically impossible for me to go that far, but I go to where my arms are as close as they can get to this position.

Joshua Naterman said:

My upper arm muscle gets in the way, it is physically impossible for me to go that far, but I go to where my arms are as close as they can get to this position.

Can't you just let your elbows flare out a bit? 

Sorry for, yet again, hijacking a thread, but I have some questions with regards to the Ground Row Standards.

 

I've noticed that the in the start position, the position of the shoulders relative to the rings has a bit of an effect on the difficulty of the movement. I was before starting with shoulder under the rings, so almost vertical arms and today I've corrected so it has a slight angle like the video shown and I felt the movement to be slightly easier and more natural, feeling like actually rowing (still, by God, hate it though). Are there any cues you use to make sure the start position is ok, as I suppose this can vary a bit ?

 

Since I often have to travel and not all hotels have gyms, this movement is a bit of a pain sometimes (I'm planning on buying some extreme rings, so atleast that will be a bit easier in the future). I've used a lot of subbing on this one, sometimes using a smith machine or any bar that's clear underneath and more or less the right height or even the edge of a table. I've also used once those TRX thingies. The difficulty also varies, so I'm assuming mastery is on rings and on rings only right ?

 

In particular, I've felt the movement is much easier on the TRX thingies, don't why though. Maybe it's the fact that the handles are connected to each other, unlike rings where each ring strap is independent, that less strength is "wasted"...

Hari_Seldon said:

Can't you just let your elbows flare out a bit? 

No. It's literally a forearm flexion thing... my elbow can only flex so much before my forearm and bicep muscles meet, and that's that. Doesn't matter what I do.

 

Some people have it worse than me, back in the day Sergio Oliva apparently had such huge forearms and biceps that he literally couldn't flex past like 110 degrees, which made his arms LOOK smaller than Arnold's even though they were over an inch larger, even in that position. 

 

Thank God I don't use steroids, I would probably have a similar issue. Always had big arms.

Joshua Naterman said:

No. It's literally a forearm flexion thing... my elbow can only flex so much before my forearm and bicep muscles meet, and that's that. Doesn't matter what I do.

That reminds me interview with some bodybuilder, where he said that he has a special toothbrush, with a long handle .

Also I think that correct way to do rows is to concentrate to pull elbows (and upper arm) behind your back, trying to avoid just pulling with forearm towards biceps (as much as possible of course). This should reduce elbow flexion required, but of course big muscles will get in the way at some point .

This would also imply that that rings may go to rib cage/etc depends how well such movement is executed and upper arm length.

Personal measurements make a big difference. Not everyone can put their hands at the same place. I just showed a kid this a few days ago... he asked me to help him with his workout, and asked me some questions on how low the bar should go when he's benching.

 

I showed him how my upper arm is several inches longer than his, yet his lower arm is several inches longer than mine, and how the exact same shoulder and elbow angles would look completely different in terms of where the bar was, and even where the elbow was.

 

The point of this short story is simply to remind everyone to focus on observing correct form, and not to worry about something like how close to your chest or stomach your hands get. While form does affect this, your personal anatomy does as well, and you can't change that.

 

So, focus on what you have control over: form.

Good day today, i've just done 5x10 for the third time this week, all smooth and controlled without any grinding reps.

 

The first time i did it i thought it might have been the double espresso i had before training doing the talking,

the second time it happened i thought "Hang on, i think i'm actually doing this!", 

and the third time confirmed it.

 

Looking forward to the next progression after my deload week 

Well done Peekay

What I've done to make sure that I'm doing full ROM rows relative to my anatomy is to do the move standing with my hands empty. I just pull my elbows back and retract my shoulder blades fully with no resistance, doing that I can almost touch my wrist to my ribs. Once I establish what my ROM is with no resistance, that's my personal minimum standard for when I do rows.

I am currently up to 5x10, but got 10, 10, 8, 7 and 5. Even though they are hard I am loving them. I finally have some rhomboids and the bicep workout is far better than curls. The gyms need to sell the preacher curl machines and put in gymnastic rings. They may need to move the mirrors on the ceiling though

Mark Collins said:

I am currently up to 5x10, but got 10, 10, 8, 7 and 5.

I got stuck here too. It took me two more mini cycles to get there, the first was a repeat of weeks 9 and 10 (4x8 and 4x10) but i found week 11 was still too much of a jump. So then after another deload i tried a week of 5x8, then a week of 5x9, and 5x10 came quite easily after that.

Mark Collins said:

I am currently up to 5x10, but got 10, 10, 8, 7 and 5. Even though they are hard I am loving them. I finally have some rhomboids and the bicep workout is far better than curls.

How's it going with these? Well i hope. I'm loving the elevated ones right now.

Peekay said:

How's it going with these? Well i hope. I'm loving the elevated ones right now.

How much harder do you find them? How many sets/reps are you at?

Joakim Anderson said:

How much harder do you find them? How many sets/reps are you at?

I bit off more than i could chew on the first session 

I attempted mastery but failed towards the end of the third set, i wasn't too surprised to be honest but i just felt like going for it that day.

So then i decided to start at week 5 (4x4), and this week it was 4x6 which felt like a better workout but nothing too taxing.

Five sets next week followed by a deload, then things will become a bit more serious again  

 

How about you? 

Nice, keep it up. My wrists are injured so I'm just doing the progressions that don't involve them at the moment.

Thanks, and sorry to hear that, hope you have a speedy recovery. I've just had knee surgery so i know what it's like to not be able to do everything. Good luck 

I just got 10, 10, 10 and 8. This week I am up to week 11 and I will try 5x10. I am better each four weeks and feel this exercise is key for me, so I do not mind that it is taking a while. I have noticed my mid back and lower biceps have really developed with the horizontal pulling. I find pull ups ok, so I will make up some time on these.

What I like about this program is that it highlights your weaknesses. I get the feeling that once these weakness get addressed my body will advance a lot quicker. I am starting to feel the beginning of that now. Everything is inter-related.