maratoolUpright Row - With Bands
How to do the upright row - with bands
- To begin, stand on an exercise band so that tension begins at arm's length. Grasp the handles using a pronated (palms facing your thighs) grip that is slightly less than shoulder width. The handles should be resting on top of your thighs. Your arms should be extended with a slight bend at the elbows and your back should be straight. This will be your starting position.
- Use your side shoulders to lift the handles as you exhale. The handles should be close to the body as you move them up. Continue to lift the handles until they nearly touches your chin. Tip: Your elbows should drive the motion. As you lift the handles, your elbows should always be higher than your forearms. Also, keep your torso stationary and pause for a second at the top of the movement.
- Lower the handles back down slowly to the starting position. Inhale as you perform this portion of the movement.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the trapezius, which shrugs the shoulder blade up, rotates it, and pulls it back down.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
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
A band gets harder the further it stretches, so resistance peaks at the end of the range rather than the middle. It is also the easiest way to scale a movement in small steps.
Every exercise using:Band
These train the traps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Barbell Shrugbarbell
- Cable Shoulder Shrugscable
- Calf-Machine Shoulder Shrugmachine
- Dumbbell Shrugdumbbell
- Kettlebell Sumo High Pullkettlebell
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 18 traps exercises in this database, 12 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.