maratoolLeverage High Row
How to do the leverage high row
- Load an appropriate weight onto the pins and adjust the seat height so that you can just reach the handles above you. Adjust the knee pad to help keep you down. Grasp the handles with a pronated grip. This will be your starting position.
- Pull the handles towards your torso, retracting your shoulder blades as you flex the elbow.
- Pause at the bottom of the motion, and then slowly return the handles to the starting position.
- For multiple repetitions, avoid completely returning the weight to the stops to keep tension on the muscles being worked.
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 lats keep the upper arm drawn in toward the torso.
Every exercise for:Middle backLats
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
The machine fixes the path, removing the balance demand and letting you train close to failure without a spotter. The cost is the stabilising work a free weight would have made you do.
Every exercise using:Machine
These train the middle back too, using equipment this one does not:
- Lying Cambered Barbell Rowbarbell
- Middle Back Shrugdumbbell
- One-Arm Kettlebell Rowkettlebell
- Rhomboids-SMRfoam roll
- Seated Cable Rowscable
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 37 middle back exercises in this database, 21 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.