Lying Cambered Barbell Row

What it is

This exercise involves lying face down on a bench and rowing a cambered barbell towards your body. It effectively isolates and strengthens your middle back, with significant engagement of your biceps, latissimus dorsi, and trapezius muscles. You perform this pull movement from a stable, supported position.

Technique tips

• Maintain a pronated grip, wider than shoulder width.
• Keep your elbows close to your body throughout the movement.
• Row towards your upper chest to engage the upper middle back.
• Pull the bar to your stomach to emphasize your lower latissimus dorsi.
• Briefly hold the contracted position at the peak of the row.
• Control the barbell's descent slowly as you inhale.

How to track your progress

Log the weight and reps of each set. Straddly turns every set into an estimated one-rep max, so a heavier single and a strong set of eight both count as progress, and it flags a personal record the moment you beat your best.