I’m off to get hitched and take off to Puerto Vallarta….giggity. 

I’m marrying my girlfriend/fiancé of six years Lauren this upcoming week then hoppin’ a jet plane down to the beach to sip Mai Tai’s, snorkel, and not get kidnapped by drug cartels. In all seriousness, I’m looking forward to tons of time on the beach, tequila, seeing family/friends, and spending time with my best friend and wife. It’s seems crazy to type that, but if you get the right one, don’t mess it up :). 

Photocredit: Houseoftravel.net

Anyways, I’ve had tons of guest posts lately on T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, and now, JMAX Fitness with the 3-2-1 Back Cure. Thank you to all of you for your support by reading, sharing, and commenting on the articles, they’re all written to help you get strong, shredded, and more athletic with high quality information.

Stay up to date on the Bach Performance Facebook Page as I have posts and knowledge bombs scheduled while I’m away.

Dumbbell Rows are a Commonly Butchered Exercise

Nowadays when you enter a gym you see a painful blend of instability “functional” exercises, overzealous loading and rep schemes, and chants of “one more bro” within the first five minutes. Similarly, it’s impossible to scan your newsfeed for longer than three minutes without a post about a gym P.R. or a brand spankin’ new way to perform an exercise.

And you know what?
Today I’m sharing my own favorite way to perform an awesome exercise: countdown dumbbell rows. (Except mine is awesome)

Few Exercises Build Muscle like Rows

Rows are a great exercise and there are many variations: Dumbbell rows, barbell rows, Kroc rows, chest supported rows, TRX rows, cross-eyed single arm barbell rows while playing Clash of Clans rows, inverted rows, and Pendlay rows, to name a few.

Problem is many of these rows are performed haphazardly with an over-emphasis on weight over proper form and execution. I’ve been there too– shotty-form to heave weight for a certain number of sets and reps takes precedent. Unfortunately, this limits results and wastes time in the gym.

This is a shame as One-arm dumbbell rows performed with optimal technique and volume are among the best “bang for your buck” exercises for building strength, muscle, and athleticism. Dumbbell rows involve an anti-rotation, anti-flexion position and scapular retraction and depression under significant training load, a fantastic combination for total body training and performance when done correctly. The tool of the trade is only as good as it’s implementation, and it’s time to use the row correctly. It’s time to reap the muscle, strength, postural control benefits of the dumbbell row.

There’s a balance between weight, volume, and execution, as usual, the best balance lies in the middle of these factors. To address my ego need to move big weights and my knowledge of optimal form I found a middle ground with the countdown method. You’ll improve your rep quality, get plenty of volume to build muscle, and use potentially heavier weights for greater overload with countdown dumbbell rows.

It’s a solid read (Or so I heard).  You should check it out.

Click Me Baby One More Time.