Seal Row
Strict barbell row performed face down on a raised bench so the hips and lower back stay out of the lift.
How to do it
- Raise a flat bench on blocks or plates until a loaded bar clears the floor at arm's length.
- Lie face down with your chest on the pad and your head past the end of the bench.
- Take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders and hang the bar with straight arms.
- Pull your shoulder blades together and drive your elbows up until the bar reaches the bench.
- Hold the top for a beat without lifting your chest away from the pad.
- Lower the bar under control to full arm extension and repeat.
Key technique cue
Chest on the pad, drive the elbows up, bar stays off the floor.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Peeling your chest off the pad to finish a rep, which puts back the momentum the bench position exists to remove.
- ✕ Setting the bench too low, so the bar hits the floor and the bottom of every rep is cut short.
- ✕ Leading with the hands instead of the elbows, which hands the work to the biceps and starves the mid-back.
- ✕ Dropping the bar quickly on the way down, which loses tension in the lats over most of the range.
Benefits
- ✓ Removes hip drive and lumbar load, so the back muscles do the work.
- ✓ Enforces a repeatable range because the torso cannot shift between reps.
- ✓ Trains mid-back thickness alongside the lats in one horizontal pull.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 -
Step 2 You are here - Seal Row
- Lying Cambered Barbell Row
About the exercise
The seal row is a barbell row done face down on a bench raised high enough for the plates to clear the floor. With the chest pinned to the pad, the hips and lower back are taken out of the movement, so each rep is produced by shoulder extension and scapular retraction. That loads the lats together with the middle trapezius and rhomboids, while the biceps and rear deltoids assist. Free bent-over rowing carries the largest lumbar spine load of the common rowing variations, which is the reason chest supported versions exist.
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