Photo by Cathy Pham
The one arm bent-over dumbbell row is one of my favorite back exercises. This exercise is a little more difficult to do and requires more effort, but I feel it’s an excellent exercise for building your lat muscles. It also exercises your rear deltoid muscles, your biceps and the gripping muscles of your forearms.
I like to do this exercise with slightly lower weights compared to what I would usually do on a seated rowing machine or with pull-down back exercises, but you can use heavier weights too. It all depends on the type of weight training you are doing and your overall strength training or bodybuilding goals.
For women interested in strength training, you may want to use lower weights and do higher repetitions say 12 to 16. This is also a fabulous exercise for women to help in eliminating the body fat that may build up around that area.
I have included a couple of videos to demonstrate this exercise that I filmed over the years.
Method of Performance
Find a flat bench and place a dumbbell by the right side of the bench. If this is your first time doing this exercise, I recommend that you begin with very light weights to get a feel for the movement and proper balance.
Your left right arm and hand will be placed on the bench and your left knee is also placed on the bench to give you support on your left side while the opposing right leg is pressed against the floor and a little outwards. Your back will be flat but not perpendicular to the bench and a little more than 45 degrees from the angle of the bench. It basically follows the linear progression of you leaning your arm/hand against the bench and your knee against the bench.
Grab a dumbbell with your right hand using a parallel grip and pull it up to your rib cage/torso. Make sure to keep your elbow close to your side. You don’t want your elbows flying outwards, then the movement would be all wrong.
Slowly lower the dumbbell in a slightly forward motion until your arm is more-or-less straight except for a slight bend in your elbow.
Repeat the movement for about 8 to 12 repetitions or however many you desire.
Once you have finished, do the same for your left arm.
Do about 4 to 5 sets of this exercise.
