Inverted Row
The inverted row is a bodyweight row: you hang face-up under a fixed bar with your heels on the floor and pull your chest to the bar while your body stays in one straight line. It trains the upper back (lats, middle trapezius and rhomboids), the rear shoulders and the elbow flexors, and its difficulty is set by how horizontal your body is.
Also called: Body Row, Australian Pull Up, Advanced Horizontal Pullups, Bodyweight Row · Equipment: bodyweight · Pattern: pull
Step by step
- Set a barbell in a rack, or a Smith machine bar, at roughly hip-to-waist height. A bar set nearer the floor makes the row harder; a higher bar makes it easier.
- Lie face-up under the bar so it sits over the bottom of your breastbone. Take an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
- Straighten your legs with your heels on the floor, or bend your knees with your feet flat for an easier version.
- Squeeze your glutes and brace your abs so your body forms one straight line from head to heels. Start from straight arms.
- Pull your shoulder blades back first, then bend your elbows and drive them down and back to pull your chest towards the bar.
- Touch or nearly touch the bar with the bottom of your breastbone, keeping your chin tucked and your hips in line. Hold the top for one second.
- Straighten your arms under control to the full hang, letting your shoulder blades spread apart at the bottom, then start the next rep.
- After the last rep, bend your knees, set your hips on the floor and let go of the bar.
- One straight line from head to heels
- Shoulder blades back first, then bend the elbows
- Chest to the bar, chin tucked
- Drive your elbows down and back
- Squeeze the glutes and abs the whole set
- Straight arms at the bottom of every rep
In VALDA, these cues are one tap away on the exercise while you train.
What it trains
| Muscle | Role | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Latissimus dorsi | Prime mover | C |
| Trapezius: middle | Prime mover | C |
| Rhomboids | Prime mover | C |
| Posterior deltoid | Secondary | C |
| Biceps brachii | Secondary | C |
| Brachialis | Secondary | C |
| Trapezius: lower | Secondary | D |
| Erector spinae | Stabiliser | B |
| Gluteus maximus | Stabiliser | D |
| Rectus abdominis | Stabiliser | D |
| Forearm flexors | Stabiliser | D |
Evidence grades: A = strong research base · B = good · C = limited · D = coaching consensus.
What goes wrong, and the fix
Hips sagging towards the floor
Fix: Squeeze glutes and abs; if the line breaks, raise the bar or bend the knees.
Hips piking up
Fix: Keep hips level with shoulders and heels in one line from the first rep to the last.
Chin reaching for the bar
Fix: Tuck your chin and pull the bottom of your breastbone to the bar.
Reps finishing short of the bar
Fix: Raise the bar or bend the knees until every rep reaches the bar, then progress.
Pulling with the arms from a loose hang
Fix: Pull the shoulder blades back first, then bend the elbows.
Dropping to the bottom
Fix: Straighten your arms under control to a full hang before the next rep.
What the research says
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- Body angle sets the load — A more horizontal body lifts a larger share of bodyweight, and raising the feet or wearing a weight vest adds more. This is how the row is commonly scaled; no captured study has measured load at each angle.
- Effort — Research finds muscle growth is similar across a wide range of loads when sets finish close to failure. With light loads, one trial found sets taken to failure produced more growth than sets ended well short, so high-rep bodyweight sets are commonly taken close to failure.
- Adding reps or adding load — In a trial of trained lifters, progressing by adding reps and progressing by adding load produced similar muscle growth when sets were hard. Many lifters add reps before moving to a harder angle.
- Volume and frequency — Research links more weekly sets for a muscle to more growth, with diminishing returns, and training a muscle about twice a week is a common way to spread that volume.- **Pairing with a press.** A trial of paired sets found that alternating a pull with a press completed more work in the same time with no loss of performance per set. The inverted row is commonly paired with push-ups or bench pressing.
Swap it mid-workout
With VALDA Pro, FLEX offers alternatives like these when you swap an exercise mid-workout.
Log the inverted row in VALDA, with these cues one tap away while you train and your history for it in one place.
General information about exercise technique, not medical advice. If you have an injury or a health condition, your healthcare provider is the right person to ask.