Chest Supported Row Guide: How-To, Benefits, Drawbacks, Alternatives

Whenever we have an upper-body movement where our torso can move freely, we begin to recruit muscles that we didn’t initially intend to. This isn’t always a bad thing, especially if we’re focusing on athletic movements. However, if our goal is to get as much activation in our back, and therefore maximum growth, isolating these muscles is the best way to go. The support ensures that we cant use our core, legs or back extensors to crank the movement out.

If you’ve done two back exercises that require lower back stability in the same workout you’ll have probably experienced some lower back pain. There’s a limit to how much load the lower back can take and standing rows, deadlifts and other exercises require plenty of stability. Using this row allows you to give your lower back a break whilst still building your other back muscles, helping to reduce pain and injury.

Isolation is a double-edged sword. Whilst this exercise is great for targeting specific muscles, this may not always be in line with your goals. Compound movements have a range of benefits such as more muscles being recruited to perform an exercise, leading to more overall muscle growth. Furthermore, compound movements increase testosterone levels which in turn increases muscle growth.

The point is that you should only do isolation exercises. Start your workout with at least one compound movement then feel free to move over to isolation exercises.

[back to top]

Deciding which is best out of these two variations depends on what your goals are. If you’re looking to build bigger lats, the standard row is best for this because our humerus (upper arm bone) doesn’t move out laterally (to the side). Our elbows are pointing down and our humerus moves from directly in front of us to our sides. This plane of motions is where the latissimus dorsi are activated the most.

The main difference between the two is that with a seated row our core and back extensors are working to stabilise us as we perform a rep

The question becomes: do we want to work our core or would we rather focus exclusively on muscle isolation? Like our discussions above, the chest supported version will be better for activating the lats (or rear delt depending on variation) but the seated row will be slightly more athletic..

These two exercises are chalk and cheese. The supported row focuses on isolation whereas the bent over row is a compound movement. We’ve spoken about the benefits of the supported row earlier so I won’t repeat ourselves.

Regarding the bent over row, this exercise is brilliant for building large amounts of muscle mass. Because we have to support the weight completely by ourselves, our core and legs will be doing plenty of stabilisation work.

As with most rows, our lats will be working to pull our humerus (upper arm bone) back towards our torso.

We can see where our lats attach to our humerus just below the shoulder joint. This means that the further we move our upper-arm forward, the bigger the stretch and range of motion we’ll get in our lats.

The Teres major has a range of functions but in this movement, we’re primarily interested in its ability to pull the humerus back towards the torso, similar to the lats.

Because it performs such a similar function to the lats, it’s often referred to as the “Little Lat Helper”. As a matter of fact, in some cases, the muscles of the lats and teres major can actually fuse together.

Because we’re closing our elbow joint during this movement, our biceps will be activating. Our lats should be doing move of the work but it’s impossible to work leave the biceps out completely.

Focus on pulling the elbows to your sides rather than cranking the weight back with your arms. This cue helps to activate the lats rather than the supporting muscles (see a recent study on this cue).

As we’ve discussed, the wide/rear delt chest assisted row will focus more activation on the rear delt as our elbows are out to our sides.

We can see the fibres on the posterior of the deltoid laying horizontally. When the upper arm is to our side and these fibres contract, the distance between where the rear delt attaches on the scapular and humerus will get smaller, pulling the arm backwards.

The traps (see trap raise guide) keep our shoulder blades in place, with assistance from other muscles. If we let our shoulder blades move away from our spine in the middle of the rep and bring them back in at the end of the rep we’ll be working the traps.

It’s not essential that you perform this scapular movement but if you’d like to get more from this exercise, and build your traps, it makes sense to do this.

Much like the traps, the rhomboids help to keep the scapular stable. If you’d like to build your upper back, incorporate some scapular movement away from and to your spine during the row.

[back to top]

As discussed earlier, this variation is going to focus on rear delt activation rather than the lats. Feel free to incorporate scapula rotation to strengthen the traps and rhomboids.

Use this variation to target your upper back vs your lats.

The chest supported dumbbell row exercise is a great way to strengthen the muscles of the back, particularly the lats and middle back. To perform the exercise, you will need a incline bench and a pair of dumbbells. Place the dumbbells on the ground next to the bench. Lie face down on the bench with your chest supported and your feet firmly planted on the ground. Grasp a dumbbell in each hand and let your arms hang down towards the ground.

Keeping your core engaged and your back flat, row the dumbbells up towards your sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together as you do so. Exhale as you lift the dumbbells. Make sure to keep control of the weigh. Once the dumbbells are at chest level, slowly lower them back down to the starting position as you inhale. Make sure to keep your shoulders relaxed and avoid locking out your elbows at the bottom of the movement.

Because the t bar row is a machine exercise we have some simple pros and cons. The benefit of this movement is that we can really crank up weight in a relatively safe manner because we’re moving in a fixed plane of motion.

The other side of this coin is that we won’t be building our stabilising muscles anywhere near as much vs free weights. Considering the lack of self-stabilisation this also isn’t a particularly functional movement. Be sure to incorporate more athletic movements with this exercise.

You could also call this a pronated chest supported row, a chest supported wide row, a chest supported rear delt row or a chest supported horizontal row.

To be really honest with you, I hate this exercise, sorry…

Unlike the chest supported dumbbell row, it’s a pain to set up, it’s not particularly functional and your range of movement is inhibited to a RIDICULOUS degree. But I mean, if you really want to do it, here’s a guide…

The huge benefit to this movement is that we’re getting our humerus further forwards/upwards away from our torso. This leads to a bigger stretch and range of motion for the lats.

Choose this variation if you’d really like to focus on maximum contraction and mind-muscle connection. Furthermore, you could say that with this variation you can get the maximum range of motion as you’re not inhibited by your other side. However, the further you pull your elbow and scapula back, the more likely you are to involve your core. This is fine but just be aware that you’re doing it.

[back to top]

If you’re looking for an incredibly functional movement that builds muscle all over the back, look no further. The pull-up should be a staple in your routine whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned lifter. Read our pull-up guide here.

This exercise might be my favourite back exercise of the lot. It’s functional and benefits from perfect biomechanics with the position of the humerus gaining maximum lat activation. How could you ever argue with Jeff?

[back to top]

In this section we’ll be focusing primarily on standing rows as the majority of this article talks about supported versions. The standing variations can be a great way of working the core, making it slightly more functional than the supported variations.

To perform the exercise, you will need a pair of dumbbells or a barbell. Begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and your knees slightly bent. Hinge at the hips and bend forward, keeping your back straight and your core engaged. Grasp the dumbbells or barbell with an overhand grip and let your arms hang down towards the ground.

Keeping your core engaged and your back flat, row the weight up towards your chest, squeezing your shoulder blades together as you do so. Exhale as you lift the weight. Once the weight is at chest level, slowly lower it back down to the starting position as you inhale.