Rowing With Back Problems

T

Tom Treutlein

New Member
Okay, so I still have two of my three bulging discs in my lower back. Despite this, squatting and RDLing is a non-issue. I've progressed on these exercises, working back to where I once was with them.

However, I train at home, and the only options for my back are chinups and rows. I tried one-arm dumbbell rows, but I can't get a good feel for them. I try lying on my stomach on my bench and doing dumbbell rows with my chest supported, but my ROM is half that of a normal row.

Standard bentover rows hurt my lower back. I get no pain from anything else except maybe conventional deads, but I don't try those much.

Are there any realistic alternatives in my situation? I know the back won't really be developed fully with just chinups or pullups - some type of row is always recommended. So what do I do? Would the shorter ROM row work still? I mean, my arms just can't drop down to full extension, but the back is still getting some degree of work.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Put blocks of wood under your bench to raise it to the desired height.

If dont know if you have a power cage but if so then you can make a padded support that sits across the safety bars. Just use a couple of 2x4's a pice of ply and some foam padding.

I did this myself after hurting my back and worked well for me untill my back felt OK to do bent over rows again.
 
Tom, if I was in your situation I would somehow raise a regular flat bench so that when lying on it I could then raise a bar up under the bench and lower to get a good stretch.

In order to get a good stretch in the lowered position the bench would need to be high enough and you would probably need to support the bar on something so you could get your initial grip.
 
Good suggestions above. Some lesser suggestions would be pullovers, straight arm pulldowns on a lat machine and reverse flyes. However, I have found that for overall development nothing is anywhere near as good as weighted pull ups and chin ups. Make sure to stretch at the bottom and raise yourself high enough. Form is more imprtant than load.
 
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