# barbell rows - underhand vs overhand



## konan

Which way do you guys prefer. personally ive always favoured the classic overhand method with grip slightly wider than shoulder width but recently have found a soft spot for the underhand a la dorian yates way except keeping my upper body nearer to parallel with the floor unlike dorian who was at 70 degrees of so. had anyone experienced better results with one over the other or is variety the key and using both in a alteranting fashion the way to go?


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## big

Overhand IMO, with your body as close to parallel to the floor as you can go.

Look at rowers. Do you ever see any of them rowing underhand? No. Why?... because you get a mechanical advantage from rowing overhand... you are much stronger and can better utilise your muscles.


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## Captain Hero

I use both grips mate, Ive just been using over hand for the past 5 weeks and just started using underhand grip mate feel it hits different muscles. Rows are quality exercise all round.


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## hackskii

underhand will work the biceps more.

A loss of power for sure.

Guess you could do a set or two underhanded.


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## Bigdav

big said:


> Overhand IMO, with your body as close to parallel to the floor as you can go.
> 
> Look at rowers. Do you ever see any of them rowing underhand? No. Why?... because you get a mechanical advantage from rowing overhand... you are much stronger and can better utilise your muscles.


Mechanically your technically stronger with the underhand grip big, use the barbell curl as an example, try it palms down you tend to lift half the weight as palms up, its the same principle with the barbell row


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## Biker

if you do seperate exercises for biceps stick to overhand, simply because the back is doing most of the work, underhand means the biceps will be taking more of the load which has little point if you do a bicep workout.


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## samurai691436114498

I cant do over hand, It kills my elbow, so when I BB row I have to use underhandgrip


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## Timmy Smooth

Overhand. Never thought to try underhand, but might give it a go now to see the difference myself.


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## big pete

Bigdav said:


> Mechanically your technically stronger with the underhand grip big, use the barbell curl as an example, try it palms down you tend to lift half the weight as palms up, its the same principle with the barbell row


dont see your point, your comparing 2 differant exercises and expecting the same result

overhand is a stronger move IMO. and as biker says, if you do direct bicep moves stick to overhand


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## big

Bigdav said:


> Mechanically your technically stronger with the underhand grip big, use the barbell curl as an example, try it palms down you tend to lift half the weight as palms up, its the same principle with the barbell row


Mate, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Barbell rows and barbell curls are completely different exercises. I'm not sure how you can compare them like that.

If underhand really was stronger for rows, then professional rowers and olympic rowers would be using an underhand grip.


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## Bigdav

big pete said:


> dont see your point, your comparing 2 differant exercises and expecting the same result
> 
> overhand is a stronger move IMO. and as biker says, if you do direct bicep moves stick to overhand


The biceps is stronger than the brachialis, therefore doing the movement underhand uses the biceps, overhand uses the brachialis, which is used for rotating the forearm

Sorry should have been clearer, you should be able to lift more underhand as the biceps will be helping more, but that doesnt mean its a better movement for the back.

I really dont like doing them underhand, it doesnt feel natural and i know a few people who tore the bicep tendon doing it that way


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## Bigdav

big said:


> Mate, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Barbell rows and barbell curls are completely different exercises. I'm not sure how you can compare them like that.
> 
> If underhand really was stronger for rows, then professional rowers and olympic rowers would be using an underhand grip.


You bend your arms when doin the movement dont you? Therefore the biceps is involved. using the underhand grip uses more biceps. Rowers tend not to do it that way because its not a natural plane for the wrists to be in


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## big

Bigdav said:


> You bend your arms when doin the movement dont you? Therefore the biceps is involved. using the underhand grip uses more biceps. Rowers tend not to do it that way because its not a natural plane for the wrists to be in


The biceps are involved, but less so than the (stronger) lats when doing the movement overhand.

By rowing underhand, you use more of the weaker muscle, and therefore are recruiting more of the weaker link.

Are you seriously telling me you can personally row more underhand than overhand?


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## Bigdav

most people can, as i said biomechanically you are actually stronger that way.However it is dangerous because the biceps are weaker than the stronger back muscles, hence the reason the bicep tendon tends to go. At one point i could under hand row with 120kilos for 10 reps, while my overhand never got above 100, but it isnt a natural movement and its hard on the wrists so i dropped it


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## big pete

TBH, still not convinced.

i can pull alot more overhand, in all honesty id say the brachialis is far far stronger than the bicep itself. hammers, chins etc affect the brach far mor than bis


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