maratoolBodyweight Mid Row
How to do the bodyweight mid row
- Begin by taking a medium to wide grip on a pull-up apparatus with your palms facing away from you. From a hanging position, tuck your knees to your chest, leaning back and getting your legs over your side of the pull-up apparatus. This will be your starting position.
- Beginning with your arms straight, flex the elbows and retract the shoulder blades to raise your body up until your legs contact the pull-up apparatus.
- After a brief pause, return to the starting position.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rhomboids and mid-trapezius, which draw the shoulder blades together and back down the ribcage.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: 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
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
These train the middle back too, using equipment this one does not:
- Dumbbell Incline Rowdumbbell
- Incline Bench Pullbarbell
- Leverage High Rowmachine
- One-Arm Kettlebell Rowkettlebell
- Rhomboids-SMRfoam roll
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.