Dumbbell Row Exercise to Increase Back Strength

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m personal trainer Mike Coangelo. We’re here at Fit for Life Training Studio in Glassboro, New Jersey on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip, we’re going to demonstrate to how to do a bent over dumbbell row. What you want to do is you want to get down on the bench. Make sure your chest is parallel to the bench and your opposite arm is slightly bent. Keep it yourself parallel. Then, grab the dumbbell; get a nice stretch on your scapula. Come up, squeeze at the top; elbow behind your back. Go down slowly, return, and squeeze again. Now you’re exhaling on exertion. When you get to the top of the contraction you’re exhaling. You keep a nice smooth motion going. What you don’t want to do is jerk the weight. That’s exactly what people do sometimes, jerk the weight. You don’t want to do that. Nice smooth repetitions; squeeze at the top, and return slowly. You want to do a 2 second positive, squeeze it. A 3 or 4 second negative, squeeze it, and down. Twelve to fifteen repetitions for beginners; make sure your chest stays even with the bench. I’m doing the last couple, starting to feel a burn. If you don’t feel a burn on 15, you want to move your weight up. One more, squeeze. That’s how you do a bent over dumbbell row. "