Dumbell rows and grip

[Doug Carroll]

Leonardo, if you do not want to use straps but still go heavy, try a false grip, this way the the bar is sitting in your hand more as a supportive grip then a crushing grip.

[Gerard Matthews]

Hi. My philosophy has always been to use straps as little as possible. A deficit only appears between your grip strength and other muscle groups when you overuse them. If a person can do chinups and deadlifts without straps they should also be able to do heavy single arm rows.

One thing I will say is that many people do single arm rows incorrectly. The correct technique involves keeping the torso in a fairly fixed position and concentrating on bringing the elbow back as far as possible to lift the weight and work the latissmus. As the weight becomes heavier you see people twisting their torso to compensate for being unable to fully retract the elbow, which employs other muscle groups and is also dangerous.

When I have used this exercise it has always been for higher reps and as more of a finishing exercise, focusing on technique. If you want to go really heavy it is better to use bent over rows or a good seated row machine.

[Leonardo Solis]

Hi. I know that many guys that do heavy dumbell rows (krock style) work up to weights around 50% of their deadlift in the same range, however I notice that they almost always use straps, but they dont train with gripe strenght as a priority, so I wonder, is it really impossible to develop a grip strong enough as to row heavy strapless??? I mean for guys dealifting 400-500lbs for 5-10 reps, could they do krock rows with 200-250 lbs???