Monday, July 4, 2011

How To Do Two Arm Dumbbell Rows

by

healthy_blogging

I've devoted a lot of time to rowing because these exercises are essential to any serious strength training program. Your progress will stall if you don't develop whole body strength. Last week, I presented barbell bent over rows. Today I'm going to show you how to do two arm dumbbell rows. This compound exercise is very similar to the barbell bent over row exercise and shares many of the same benefits including:

  • strengthens and develops your back muscles
  • tones and strengthens your arms
  • tones and strengthens your core
  • tones and strengthens your chest
  • strengthens your shoulder muscles
But barbell bent over rows have a huge disadvantage because in that exercise, stronger muscle groups will compensate for the weaker ones, but using dumbbells will force every muscle to carry its own weight. Therefore, this is an exercise that you must learn so let's get started.

How To Do Two Arm Dumbbell Rows

You'll need a pair of dumbbells for this exercise. Begin with a warm up set, so grab a pair of light weight dumbbells. Use pronated grip and make sure to space your feet shoulder width apart. Bend your knees and lean forward until you're at a forty-five degree angle. Keep your neck and back in the same plane, arching your back could cause spinal cord injury. Pull your shoulder blades back. Now, use a rowing motion to pull the dumbbells toward your stomach then lower the dumbbells down. That's one rep. Do nine more reps to complete the warm up set.

After the warm up, choose heavier weights. If your goal is to develop strength, you need to perform 4 - 6 reps. Go for five sets and then do another exercise. If you can rowing in the 8 - 12 rep range, it means the weights are too light for you. On the other hand, if you're unable to do more than 1 or 2 reps per set, you need to use lighter weight dumbbells. (If your goal is pure body building, do high reps with lighter weights.)

In another article of the rowing series I showed you how to do dumbbell bent over rows. There are several distinctions between that exercise and the one I showed you today. First of all, the dumbbell row exercise discussed in this article requires two dumbbells not one. Second, both feet are firmly planted on the floor, in the other exercise you support part of your body weight on a bench. Third, the exercises target different muscles i.e. the one arm dumbbell bent over row hits the lats, whereas the two arm dumbbell row targets the lower back.

Each week increase the weights while keeping the number of reps and sets the same. Rows have a direct carryover to dead lifts, pull ups and chin ups all of which require tremendous back strength. They also boost testosterone production and muscle growth which will help your bench press. So stick with them. Don't overtrain because this leads to stalling and injury, but do make rowing part of your regular strength training routine.

Listen, dude, you know that you're on this blog to learn about strength training and weight lifting. Well, summer's here. It gets me to thinking about a song about time. Don't let time slip away, and miss out on opportunities to become stronger and to get into shape. You can't play it cold and expect good results. Stop dreaming about what you want to do. Just DO. Now.

"Great Chest Workouts: How To Do Two Arm Dumbbell Rows" copyright 2011 Great Chest and Whole Body Workouts. All Rights Reserved.