maratoolSmith Machine One-Arm Upright Row
How to do the smith machine one-arm upright row
- With the bar at thigh level, load an appropriate weight.
- Take a wide grip on the bar and unhook the weight, removing your off hand from the bar. Your arm should be extended as you stand up straight with your head and chest up. This will be your starting position.
- Begin the movement by flexing the elbow, raising the upper arm with the elbow pointed out. Continue until your upper arm is parallel to the floor.
- After a brief pause, return the weight to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions before engaging the hooks to rack the weight.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the biceps add force at the elbow; the traps anchor the shoulder blade against the load.
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 shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Smith Machine Rear Deltoid Rowsmith machine
- Standing Alternating Dumbbell Pressdumbbell
- Standing Barbell Press Behind Neckbarbell
- Standing Low-Pulley Deltoid Raisecable
- Standing Two-Arm Overhead Throwmedicine ball
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 141 shoulders exercises in this database, 74 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.