How to Do a Cambered Bar Lying Row

The cambered bar lying row is a low impact but highly effective middle back exercise. Since most back exercises focus on the lower or upper back, the cambered bar lying row is an excellent way to fill in the blanks on your back work without causing strain or injury to other areas of your back. Follow these steps to do the cambered bar lying row.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Set up the bar and bench. To do the cambered row you need to set up a bench that is slightly more than arm's length from the floor. Then, position a cambered bar (a bar that has a couple inch-deep dip in the middle) underneath the bar. Load the bar with a moderate amount of weight.
2. Lie down on the bench. Lie, belly-down, on the bench and grab the bar beneath you. You can take an overhand grip or, to involve the arms more, an underhand grip. Use a grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width.
3. Pull up. Pull the bar up to your chest or midsection in a movement that resembles a reverse bench press. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement and hold the weight for one second. Lower back down at a slow pace, roughly rwo to three seconds, pause at the bottom and then begin again for another rep.
4. Use incline and decline variations. You can vary the cambered bar lying row by putting the bench on a slight incline or decline. Also, modulate the exercise with different weights and reps. So, start out with a moderate weight at ten reps. Then move down to five reps of very high weight and finish off with a low weight and high repetition configuration. This will help to train the middle back in different ways.