How to Do the Pendlay Row for Bigger Back Muscles and Better Lifts?

The pendlay row is an incredible row variation exercise that specifically targets the back muscles and helps you attain muscle development. It involves rowing the weight from a dead stop position and helps increase your overall strength so you can perform pulling and lifting exercises such as deadlifts, snatches, and cleans, with more power and correct form.

Innovated by weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay, this exercise is quite similar to the bent-over barbell row, however, the only difference between the two is the movement timing and the back positioning.

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Pendlay row muscles worked

This exercise targets some of the largest muscle groups in both the lower and upper body, thereby strengthening them and helping you perform complex movements easily.

Major muscles worked in the upper body include:

• Biceps
• Forearms
• Latissimus dorsi
• Posterior deltoids
• Trapezius
• Rhomboids
• Erectors

Major muscles worked in the lower body include:

• Hamstrings
• Hip flexors
• glutes

It targets major muscles in the lower and upper body. (Photo via Pexels/Victor Freitas)

How to do the pendlay row correctly?

When doing this exercise, it is important to pay attention to the pendlay row form to ensure that the right muscles are targeted.

To help you get started, here’s a step-by-step instruction on how you can perform the barbell pendlay row correctly:

• Begin standing with your feet at a shoulder-width distance and a barbell placed just in front of you.
• Pull your shoulder muscles down and back, keep your chest lifted and bend down to grab the barbell. Hold the barbell with both hands using a shoulder-width grip and keep your back as straight as possible. Make sure that your hips are pushed back and your knees are parallel to the floor.
• Engage your back muscles as you hold the barbell and explosively pull the weight towards the middle of your torso. Press through your feet to bring the barbell explosively towards your belly button.
• Now slowly lower the barbell towards the floor while maintaining a slow and controlled form of the weight.
• Return the barbell to the floor and repeat the exercise for a few reps more.
• As you move to the next rep, make sure to disengage your back and engage them up again before each rep.

While this exercise is meant to be done with a barbell, you can certainly also use kettlebells or dumbbells for the same. However, for the best results, it is recommended to use a barbell instead.

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Benefits of pendlay row

Besides building bigger and stronger back muscles, there are other great benefits of performing this exercise.

Safe for the lower back

This exercise is lower-back friendly and ideal for people with back pain and issues. This is due to the barbell resting on the floor between each rep and with the upper body being parallel to the floor. Overall, the pendlay row is a safe bent-over row variation suitable for all fitness-level exercisers.

Promotes power

This row variation helps build power and explosiveness throughout the body and improves muscle strength as well. It enhances muscle hypertrophy and helps develop a bigger back by engaging major muscles such as spinal erectors, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, and trapezius.

It builds power and explosiveness. (Photo via Pexels/Tristan Le)

Improves athletic performance

A stronger and bigger back assists you in performing compound lifts with ease and also helps make day-to-day activities convenient and pain-free.

Promotes core stability

With pendlay row, you develop massive core strength and stability. This is because when you hold the barbell in a bent-over position, it activates your core and forces you to hold yourself in the correct form throughout the lift. This, in return, helps you achieve an advantage in other strength training exercises and develops more functional strength as well.

Overall, pendlay row is a great compound exercise that can benefit your strength training sessions by increasing your muscle strength, core stability, and muscle mass.

If you are unsure about the right form, consider working under a certified trainer to ensure that you are performing the exercise correctly and most importantly, to prevent muscle strains and injuries.