Most Common Mistakes People Are Performing on The Cable Row
Hey EarthFIT fam! Do you find yourself struggling when we do cable rows? In today’s video, I’m gonna go over the two most common mistakes that us as trainers find when people are performing the cable row. Let’s get right into it. So this can apply directly to a cable machine row like I’m gonna demonstrate today. It also applies to like, if we’re using a dumbbell or even a barbell row, all these kinds of mechanics really align, well, no matter what implement you’re using. So whether you’re using dumbbells, kettlebells or you’re using a cable like this, these are also common mistakes that we find in those rows as well. So we’re gonna grab the cable here, get in the row position. I’m gonna show you guys the first mistake.
Okay. First mistake we see is people don’t actually ground and use their core when they’re doing a row, just like any exercise, you wanna maximally engage your nervous system to get the maximum results. So what does that look like? That looks like my feet being completely flat here. Really kind of owning the floor. Chest is up tall. Notice the top of my head to my tailbone remain pretty much straight the entire time, even if I do hinge forward, I’m maintaining a nice straight spine there. Okay. So once we’re in this position here, we want to activate our core. You can just simply push your belly button out or brace your core down, and that’s gonna give us maximum core engagement. After that, we’re gonna squeeze this as hard as we can. Okay. If we’re loose here, our grip’s not involved. That’s gonna give us less nervous system activation. That’s gonna give us less results. So to recap, feet are flatly pressed firm into the ground. I’m squeezing this bar as hard as I can. My chest is up tall. Top of the head to the tailbone is straight is the first thing that we want to get in proper positioning. Okay. So proper core engagement, proper nervous system engagement.
Second, the most common error I see people pull up their elbows comes out and they kind of row it up with these trap muscles here. We actually want to target more of the mid back muscles here, like your lats, as opposed to your upper trapezius muscles up here. Reason being is a lot of people… The rows are great for correcting what’s known as forward shoulders when we’re hunched forward like this from being on our, on our desk or in our car all day. If we strengthen these muscles up here, it’s gonna continue to kind of pull us forward in that direction.
We actually want to strengthen these muscles, which are responsible for putting us in better posture there. So we’re gonna grab it here. I want you guys to imagine when you’re doing this to keep, prevent from pulling up high, that we’re gonna drag our elbows down, kind of towards our thighs here. So nice thighs here. We’re gonna pull our elbows nice and low squeeze. I’m imagining there’s someone putting their hands right between my shoulder blades mid back. And I’m really squeezing my shoulder blades, not just back, but also down and then repeat. So again, two things you could do instantly to get better at the row. One, engage your nervous system, fully feet flatten to the ground firm. Grab that handle as tight as you can, straight back, core engaged. After that, we wanna make sure we’re pulling nice and low. You can think about rubbing those elbows kind of against the thighs towards the belly button while keeping your chest up. That’s gonna activate more of the lat muscles as opposed to your upper trap muscles. So that’s all hope you guys learn something new about the row today. If you love this video, gimme a heart. If you liked it, gimme a thumbs up and as always stay strong.
-EarthFIT Coach Sam
