Are one armed dumbell rows as good as barbell rows...?

[SeymourCuts]

...for back development?

I ask because sometimes I like to analyze observations. I worked out at Gold's Venice for years... at "The Mecca" I don't think I ever saw a pro... or almost anyone... doing bent over barbell rows. I saw MANY pros doing one armed dumbell rows. As a matter of fact... I saw EVERY pro do one armed dumbell rows.

I don't particularly think of pros as smart. (I know way too many.) But, I am interested in analyzing the pattern of results.

I consider bent over barbell rows one of the BIG 3 for back development. Where should I put one armed dumbell rows?

You probably don't see them doing them much for reasons along the same lines that I don't do them anymore: Bent-Over Rowing requires as much focus on and exertion from the posterior chain muscles that you're not even intending to work as it does the upper back muscles you're trying to focus on. That also means greater propensity to CNS overeaching/overtraining, and if you're doing significant focused training on the posterior chain muscles via Squats, Deads and what not, greater risk of localized overtraining/overeaching as well. I remove those inherent problems by rowing with a barbell or (usually) dumbells while laying on an elevated bench.

One Arm Dumbell Rows are okay, but they require so much attention to form that it's difficult to do them with any weight or speed. Easier just to focus on the same lat function/portion by laying on an elevated bench with dumbells palms facing each other and being kept close to your sides throughout the movement. I personally even prefer Seated Cable Rows over regular One Arm Dumbell Rows.

But Pullups are still number one for the upper back.

 

[muscledog95]

i did the elevated bench row last upper body workout. It destroyed my back. I love it. I use my barbell instead of dbs

 

[louden_swain]

Both are valuable, but I favor barbell rows.

 

[DeepZenPill]

Coleman does free weight barbell rows in his video, "ronnie the invincible."

I feel barbell rows to be better if you have the form right, and they are one of my favorite exercises.

-sk

What I don't get about that video... Ronnie doesn't do any specific lat work. No pull ups and no lat pull downs. You would think he'd be doing a ton of either to acheive those massive lats.

I think BB row is a much better overall exercise. It hits the lower back much more than one arm DB rows do. With the BB you can really load on the weight and bang out the exercise and still easily keep your form. With DB's it's much too easy to use the wrong form and cheat.

 

[SofaGeorge]

What I don't get about that video... Ronnie doesn't do any specific lat work. No pull ups and no lat pull downs. You would think he'd be doing a ton of either to acheive those massive lats.

I think BB row is a much better overall exercise. It hits the lower back much more than one arm DB rows do. With the BB you can really load on the weight and bang out the exercise and still easily keep your form. With DB's it's much too easy to use the wrong form and cheat.

Ronnie definitely does pullups. He and I used to swap out the chin station at Gold's. His form is absolutely beautiful.

He is a really big guy and he would pull himself up perfectly smooth and come down slow to a full hang... no jerking at all.

I've never seen anyone else his size work so smoothly... except Aaron Baker. Aaron was awesome... better build than Flex.

 

[blinddeafmute]

I havent done BB rows because of lower back problems, Ive been doing the DB rows, Tbar rows, and cable rows to the chin.

 

[guldukat]

...for back development?

I ask because sometimes I like to analyze observations. I worked out at Gold's Venice for years... at "The Mecca" I don't think I ever saw a pro... or almost anyone... doing bent over barbell rows. I saw MANY pros doing one armed dumbell rows. As a matter of fact... I saw EVERY pro do one armed dumbell rows.

I don't particularly think of pros as smart. (I know way too many.) But, I am interested in analyzing the pattern of results.

I consider bent over barbell rows one of the BIG 3 for back development. Where should I put one armed dumbell rows?

Hey, waitaminute. Some months ago in a "smartest pro" thread, you said Tom Platz was one of the few pros you'd met who had that "little yellow bus" pull up to his house?

Seriously though, I remember a pretty funny story Yates used to tell. He, Jamo Nezzar, Porter Cottrell, and Flex Wheeler were all hanging out, and the subject came around to barbell rows.

Someone asked Flex about his form, and he said, "I don't do barbell rows. They get me out of breath!" Everyone except him laughed.

He has asthma, but there are supposedly lots of pros with great genetics who avoid some of the heavy exercises like DL and BB rows; and as a result, most of their bodies are killer, but they lack a complete back. I've never heard of Paul Dillett doing BB rows either. Asthma or not, both those guys needed to do them.

IMO, DB rows are nice, but as you said, all the pros do them, and all the pros don't have great backs. Many who make the exercise their staple don't even have good backs. I would include Flex to a certain degree...his rear double biceps is awesome, but he's the first to admit he never had near enough lat thickness or width.

Guys who routinely hammer the crap out of BB rows tend to have good backs, though, all things considered: Yates, Coleman, Haney, Francois. Even Tony Pearson, who's famous (or infamous as the case might be) for using a very controlled 185 on his rows, had a killer lat spread IIRC.

I would make chins, deadlifts, and BB rows my top three. Believe it or not, I would rate a good machine pullover rather highly too, perhaps higher than DB rows. The latter would probably be near the bottom of my top five or six back exercises, but still comfortably ahead of many pulldown movements and the like.

 

[guldukat]

I see a lot of guys doing things in their videos. I'm just curios why I never see them doing in the GYM what they expouse in their videos.

If he built that back with rows... why doesn't he ever do rows?

Was he still doing his two separate back workouts at this time? He's often said that one of his back workouts is largely devoted to heavy, thickness oriented stuff; and the other, oriented more toward lat width.

When did you see him doing BB rows in the Smith machine? He might've changed his mind about that if years went by. He had definitely practiced some BB rows circa "The Unbelievable" given the way he snapped up 495 like it was nothing.

 

[SofaGeorge]

When did you see him doing BB rows in the Smith machine?

This was years ago... around the time he won his first Mr. O or just before... not really sure it has been so long.

I've acutally seen many people, pros and regulars, being put through Smith rows by Charles Glass. I think he is the source of the exercise.

None of them, though, were doing particulary heavy smith rows. I joke you not... maybe 225 max.

 

[guldukat]

This was years ago... around the time he won his first Mr. O or just before... not really sure it has been so long.

I've acutally seen many people, pros and regulars, being put through Smith rows by Charles Glass. I think he is the source of the exercise.

None of them, though, were doing particulary heavy smith rows. I joke you not... maybe 225 max.

Wow. Big Ron included?

*Dances a jig, sings, I can row more than Ron-nie can!*

Well, until "The Unbelievable," anyway...*groan*. Still haven't gotten over that.