X3 Upright Row

Now, the upright row is only, I repeat, only for people who lack shoulder mobility that cannot do the overhead press. So there are some people who have damaged their shoulder joints, probably bench pressing, but there are a lot of ways you can damage your shoulder. And if people can’t do this, what choice do you have? So the upright row is a great alternative.

Now, biomechanically the upright row is not the best exercise for a whole host of reasons. But if that’s the only mobility you have, that’s what you’re left with.

So, you end up grabbing the bar and then pulling up, and you want to get to about mid-chest level at the top. You’ll see people doing upright rows, or they get the bar right up at their chin, don’t do that. Because remember, you’re doing this because you’re compromised, so you want to be careful.

Make sure that you build consistently with the lowest risk movement so that you can grow your shoulders because, with a compromised joint, that’s probably what would be lacking if you were training with regular weights.

We want you to progress evenly as you use X3.

The setup for the upright row is the same as you would otherwise do for the overhead press. Standing on the ground plate, band running midfoot, hands on the bar with a narrow-width grip. You stand straight up, arms down with elbows slightly bent, roll your shoulders back, and begin the movement.

Anyone who has chosen to do this movement, chances are, you have shoulder issues; that’s what this movement is for. So with a limited range of motion, the shoulder is obviously compromised, and you want to start with a very light amount of resistance. So the lighter bands are preferred.

You see Alex pulling the bar up to the mid-chest. She isn’t going all the way up because that’s very hard on the shoulder joint. Sometimes you’ll see people in gyms or gym environments where they pull the bar all the way up to their chin, don’t do that. That is very hard on the shoulder joint. And especially because you’re going to be doing this on a regular basis, you don’t want to create that repetitive chronic injury, so mid-chest is the highest you go.

As you cannot get to the mid-chest anymore, you want the mid-range repetitions, they may end in your abdominal area until you can no longer move, and that would be complete fatigue, and then the exercise is complete.