Go Wide on Rows

If you've followed my shoulder training advice then you should be well accustomed to doing upright rows using a much wider-than shoulder-width grip on the bar.

This is the same for Smith machine upright rows, whether done with two arms at a time or one. The reason is because doing them with a wider grip allows the elbows to lift out to the sides in a similar manner to lateral raises. But the difference is that because you are pulling the weight up, you can use more weight to place more overload on the middle deltoid head for greater muscle growth. And although you all have felt and seen the reward from doing upright rows this way, I'll still mention a new study that supports this method of upright rows.

Researchers from the University of Memphis, yes in Tennessee, had trained subjects perform the upright row with a close grip (half of shoulder width), a shoulder-width grip, and a two times wider than shoulder-width grip on the bar.

They measured muscle activity of the front, middle and rear deltoids, as well as the upper and middle traps, and biceps during upright rows.

They reported in a 2013 issue of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that when the subjects performed the upright row using the two times shoulder-width grip, the muscle activity of both the middle deltoid and even the rear deltoid increased by over 20% compared to using the close grip.

They also reported that the wider grip increased muscle activity of the upper traps, while decreasing muscle activity of the biceps.

Jim's take-home point:

As you should already be doing, this study confirms that doing the upright row, whether with a standard barbell or in a Smith machine, with a wider than shoulder-width grip increases muscle activity of the middle deltoids. It also increases muscle activity of the traps, which is somewhat surprising. But also surprising is the fact that the wide-grip upright row also increased muscle activity of the rear (posterior) deltoid head. So use the upright row in this manner for better development of both the middle and rear delts, as well as the traps.

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