maratoolAlternating Kettlebell Row
How to do the alternating kettlebell row
- Place two kettlebells in front of your feet. Bend your knees slightly and push your butt out as much as possible. As you bend over to get into the starting position grab both kettlebells by the handles.
- Pull one kettlebell off of the floor while holding on to the other kettlebell. Retract the shoulder blade of the working side, as you flex the elbow, drawing the kettlebell towards your stomach or rib cage.
- Lower the kettlebell in the working arm and repeat with your other arm.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rhomboids and mid-trapezius, which draw the shoulder blades together and back down the ribcage.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the biceps add force at the elbow; the lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.
Every exercise for:Middle backBicepsLats
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A kettlebell's mass hangs below and outside the handle, so it pulls away from the grip and the wrist has to stay packed. That offset is why racked and swinging variations feel nothing like the dumbbell version.
Every exercise using:Kettlebell
These train the middle back too, using equipment this one does not:
- Bent Over Barbell Rowbarbell
- Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Rowdumbbell
- Leverage High Rowmachine
- Rhomboids-SMRfoam roll
- Seated Cable Rowscable
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 37 middle back exercises in this database, 10 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.