Cable Standing Close Grip Row

Description

How to Do Cable Standing Close Grip Row

1. 1
   Setup

   Stand facing the cable machine with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent.

2. 2
   Setup

   Attach a close-grip handle, such as a V-bar, to the low pulley and grasp it with both hands, palms facing each other. Take a step back to create initial tension on the cable.

3. 3

   Hinge slightly at your hips, keeping your back straight and core engaged, allowing your arms to extend fully forward with a slight stretch in your lats.

4. 4

   Initiate the pull by squeezing your shoulder blades together and pulling the handle towards your lower abdomen, keeping your elbows tucked close to your sides.

5. 5

   Slowly extend your arms back to the starting position, controlling the weight and resisting the pull, to feel a full stretch in your latissimus dorsi.

Tips

• Focus on initiating the pull with your back muscles, specifically your lats, rather than relying solely on your biceps to maximize muscle engagement.
• Maintain a proud chest and keep your shoulders pulled down and back throughout the entire movement to ensure proper posture and prevent rounding of the upper back.
• Control the eccentric (return) phase of the exercise, allowing for a full and controlled stretch in your lats before beginning the next repetition.
• Keep a slight forward lean from your hips, not your lower back, to maintain constant tension on the target muscles and avoid using momentum.

Common Mistakes

• ×Rounding the back during the pull reduces lat activation and can strain the lower back; fix this by keeping your chest up and core tight, maintaining a neutral spine.
• ×Using momentum to swing the weight diminishes muscle engagement and can lead to injury; fix this by performing the movement slowly and with control, focusing on a strong muscle contraction.
• ×Flaring your elbows out wide shifts the focus away from the lats and can put stress on the shoulders; fix this by keeping your elbows tucked close to your body throughout the entire pulling motion.