Ah, the machines in the gym: either you love them, or you hate them.
Basically, it is the eternal old school fight against gym rat against commercial gym membership against the rest of the world. The first ones will tell you you just need a barbell and a rack, you don't need anything else. The seconds will tell you the machines: you can isolate the movements, you train better. Third parties: what is a barbell?
The rest of the world: train and shut up!
Index
Vertical row: do we have a big back?
They will tell you that with the vertical row you have a big back. Truth? Not really: to get to the "big back", the back muscles must all be trained.
How is the vertical row performed?
Well, the great advantage of the machines is that explaining them is at least pleonastic: not only do you find the indications stuck (or bolted) on the frame, but the movements are guided, and getting them wrong is difficult (not really: see below). Anyway:
- you sit down and lean your chest against the padded pillow in front of you
- the elbows are flexed to 90 °
- tighten your shoulder blades (adduci): watch out that the shoulders SHOULD NOT be raised towards the ears. Eventually, to help shape the movement, you can arch your back a little.
- tiri
Among mistakes you can make there are:
- seat at the wrong height
- do not perform the complete movement (do not do partial with the vertical row)
- throw your chest back: it is not done, and it generally means that you have loaded too much weight, gluttonous!
Mostly, the shoulder blades are dynamic during movement: if you keep them locked in the starting position, you only work with your arms. In the eccentric phase, however (when you release the pull) you have to allow the shoulder blades to widen a little.
Variants of the vertical row
Le variants of the vertical row are determined by pinch (made with three fingers) with which you grip the handles, which changes the proportion of muscles involved in the pull:
- palms down - prone grip - large back works, and little bicep
- palms up - supine grip - activate the biceps more (obviously the great dorsal remains the main district of the pull)
- neutral - hammer / hammer handle - a healthy middle ground
When to do the vertical row?
Which of the four figures in the introduction do you prefer to answer you?
Jokes aside. The vertical row is not a fundamental exercise. Far from it.
Do you want a big and strong back? There is only one recipe. Pull-ups like there was no tomorrow, and a barbell rower. There is no escape!
What do you say? Can't do a full pull? Go progression, and build your first pull… and the next nine! For the barbell rower, the important thing is a good technique (so as not to strain the lower back badly) and not to step longer than the leg with the load.
The vertical row is an isolation exercise, good for define the back muscles… If you're doing that kind of work.
Otherwise: focus on the fundamentals.
We have activated a lot of discounts on Amazon: from 30 to 70% on all sports categories! Find everything on our dedicated channel ????
SUBSCRIBE HERE TO THE TELEGRAM CHANNEL