THE RHYTHMIC BODY-ROW PROGRESSION LADDER

Please decide to love this ladder. It works the much neglected areas of the upper back and  the rear shoulders, and of course it hits the biceps a lot too. It will make you stronger, make you look better, help you maintain structural balance as well as improve your posture -- what's not to love?

LET'S TALK ABOUT IT...

There are actually 26 different progressions here, but a lot of them have just subtle little changes as you move from rung-to-rung. Hence it seemed smarter to just lay out the standard criteria that stay the same throughout just below.

For this ladder, we simply combine the body positions and the grip styles as laid out in order of difficulty below. This might look crazy with a full 26 different ‘rungs’ to master on this progression ladder, but actually that’s exactly what we want. You’ll never get stuck for ages on the same point as the jumps between the different progressions are usually quite small. Hopefully you’ll always be within reach of the next level. I find that really useful for motivation.

Remember you practice in your programme, you simply pick the style that just about lets you complete your chosen amount of sets and reps with perfect form. Only when you test do you strive just to tick off the next rung on the ladder. You'll practice Body-Rows on two or three out of the four months in The Strength Sessions Programme, plus get great carry over from the Chin-Up and Hanging strength. Enjoy.

THE STANDARD CRITERIA

CRITERIA: 

–> Sternum must hit the bar (or be held against it on the static hold)
–> Neck must be held in neutral throughout, not hanging loose
–> Spine must be long and ‘neutral’ throughout, not overly rounded or arched
–> Shoulder blades must be fully retracted (Squeezed back) and depressed (shoulders down) at the top, protracted (move forward) at the bottom
–> Rhythm must be consistent throughout the set
–> Arms must be locked out at the bottom (full range of motion please)
–> The top position must be held static for half a second every rep

THE 3 BODY POSITIONS

BRIDGED

STRAIGHT LEG

ELEVATED FEET

THE 8 GRIP POSSIBILITIES

UNDERHAND — Palms facing towards you once you grab hold of the bar

OVERHAND — Palms facing away from you once you grab the bar (usually harder than underhand).

PSUEDO ONE-ARM (BOTH UNDERHAND AND OVERHAND) — The first step towards pulling with one arm at a time, you use only two-fingers of the assiting hand and concentrate all your efforts on the other hand doing all the work. We practice with both under and overhand grip.

ECCENTRIC ONE-ARM (BOTH UNDERHAND AND OVERHAND) — Before we pull up with one-arm, we master the lowering phase. Again we practice both underhand and opverhand grips with this.

ONE-ARM (BOTH UNDERHAND AND OVERHAND) — Finally, we do a pure one-arm pull — both over and under of course.

BODY POSITION 1:BRIDGED

THESE ARE THE CRITERIA:

–> Hips must be as high as chest at the top

–> No use of hip movement to sling-shot upper body allowed

BODY POSITION 2: STRAIGHT BODY

CRITERIA:

--> All standard criteria apply

–> Body must be held straight throughout

BODY POSITION 3: ELEVATED FEET

THESE ARE THE CRITERIA:

--> All standard criteria from above

–> Feet must be elevated between knee and hip height

–> Body must be held straight throughout

GRIP STYLES 3 AND 4: PSUDO ONE-ARM (BOTH UNDERHAND AND OVERHAND)

CRITERIA:

–> You can only use two fingers of the assisting arm.

–> Those two fingers must remain intact and uninjured

–> Dominance of one arm must be visible

GRIP STYLES 5 & 6 -- ECCENTRIC ONE-ARM (BOTH UNDERHAND AND OVERHAND)

THESE ARE THE CRITERIA:

–> Must pull up neatly using both arms

–> Must control all the way down under control

–> Working arm must be locked out at the bottom

–> Must be able to do both arms to pass

GRIP STYLES 7 & 8 -- ACTUAL ONE-ARM (BOTH UNDERHAND AND OVERHAND)

CRITERIA

–> Must pull up, pause and control down with one-arm

–> Must be able to do both arms to pass

–> No jerking or use of momentum allowed

–> Some rotation is allowed, but no forceful driving of the spare-arm, it’s just for balance

PROGRESSION 1: BODY ROW. STATIC TOP POSITION. BRIDGED. UNDERHAND.
PROGRESSION 2: BODY ROW. BRIDGED. REPETITIONS. UNDERHAND.
PROGRESSION 3: BODY ROW. STRAIGHT LEG. UNDERHAND.
PROGRESSION 4: BODY-ROW. STATIC. BRIDGED. OVERHAND.
PROGRESSION 5: BODY ROW. BRIDGED. OVERHAND.
PROGRESSION 6: BODY ROW. STRAIGHT LEG. OVERHAND.
PROGRESSION 7: BODY ROW. STRAIGHT LEG. FEET ELEVATED. UNDERHAND.
PROGRESSION 8: BODY ROW. STRAIGHT LEG. FEET ELEVATED. OVERHAND.
PROGRESSION 9: BODY-ROW. PSEUDO ONE-ARM. UNDERHAND. BRIDGED.
PROGRESSION 10: BODY-ROW. PSEUDO ONE-ARM. OVERHAND. BRIDGED.
PROGRESSION 11: BODY-ROW. SINGLE-ARM ECCENTRICS. UNDERHAND. BRIDGED.
PROGRESSION 12: BODY-ROW. SINGLE-ARM ECCENTRICS. OVERHAND. BRIDGED.
PROGRESSION 13: BODY-ROW. UNDERHAND. ONE-ARM. BRIDGED.
PROGRESSION 14: BODY-ROW. OVERHAND ONE-ARM. BRIDGED.
PROGRESSION 15: BODY-ROW. PSEUDO ONE-ARM. UNDERHAND. STRAIGHT-LEG.
PROGRESSION 16: BODY-ROW. PSEUDO ONE-ARM. OVERHAND. STRAIGHT-LEG.
PROGRESSION 17: BODY-ROW. SINGLE-ARM ECCENTRICS. UNDERHAND. STRAIGHT-LEG.
PROGRESSION 18: BODY-ROW. SINGLE-ARM ECCENTRICS. OVERHAND. STRAIGHT-LEG.
PROGRESSION 19: BODY-ROW. UNDERHAND ONE-ARM. STRAIGHT-LEG.
PROGRESSION 20: BODY-ROW. OVERHAND. ONE-ARM. STRAIGHT-LEG.
PROGRESSION 21: BODY-ROW. PSEUDO ONE-ARM. UNDERHAND. ELEVATED FEET.
PROGRESSION 22: BODY-ROW. PSEUDO ONE-ARM. OVERHAND.ELEVATED FEET.
PROGRESSION 23: BODY-ROW. SINGLE-ARM ECCENTRICS. UNDERHAND. ELEVATED FEET.
PROGRESSION 24: BODY-ROW. SINGLE-ARM ECCENTRICS. OVERHAND. ELEVATED FEET.
PROGRESSION 25: BODY-ROW. UNDERHAND ONE-ARM. ELEVATED FEET.
PROGRESSION 26: BODY-ROW. OVERHAND. ONE-ARM. ELEVATED FEET

COPYRIGHT -- MORE-ATHLETIC LTD -- 2018 -- WHATEVER

MORE-ATHLETIC BODY

--> TRAIN WITH US.

--> GET BETTER RESULTS.