The Dumbbell Row is by far one of the best upper body exercises period.
“If you wanna grow, you gotta row.”
The dumbbell row exercise will help strengthen the muscles of the upper back, lats, rear deltoids, forearms, biceps, and even the core. For an upper body exercise, the dumbbell row has almost countless benefits for nearly all strength, athletic, and fitness goals.
Benefit 1: Makes you appealing! Helps coveted V-Shape torso for the men, Hourglass shape for the women.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the aesthetic benefits of having toned back muscles. Both men and women have an improved appearance (and signals of ability) by strengthening the muscles that are targeted by the DB Row.
“Some engaged lats”
For men, waist to shoulder ratio is an obvious sign of attractiveness. And for women, the DB Row can strengthen the lats and upper back and give the waist a slimming appearance due to having improved muscular proportion.
Benefit 2: Dumbbell Rows are a unilateral exercise and can remedy strength and muscular imbalances between either side of the body.
Everybody has some asymmetry so it is an important part of a good strength training program to balance strength between all planes of the body. By working one side at a time, you are guaranteed to know how much that particular side can lift, without ever wondering if your body is compensating.
I noticed that tons of people are finding my blog by using the search term, “TRX Hip Bridge,” so I wanted to provide some value on this exercise.
TRX training is used around the world in professional and personal fitness for work, home, travel and more. Browse TRX training on Amazon.
Benefit of TRX Hip Bridge 1: Glute and Posterior chain activation.
Anybody who has allowed me to be their trainer and instructor knows that I am pretty much obsessed with glute activation. Even people with a big butt might have poor glute activation due to lifestyle (sitting down often, running form that is not ideal, or training programs that aren’t optimal).
Glute activation is more about strengthening or awakening the neurological connections between the brain and the butt so that you can perform efficiently and reduce incidence of faulty movement patterns.
Squeeze the butt for best results
MOREOVER, glute activation is important for the health of your lower back and other joints. Glutes need to be able to do their job and if you can’t activate the glutes, you could put yourself into poor posture (excessive anterior pelvic tilt) which will lead to injury at some point.
Benefit of TRX Hip Bridge 2: Injury prevention of hamstrings and other parts of your body.
First of all, many people are quad dominant. This means that the quadriceps are way stronger than the hamstrings and that is certainly a muscular imbalance. Research on soccer players indicates significantly higher risk of ACL and knee injury when the athlete has a poor quad to hamstring strength ratio.
The reason why the hip bridge specifically promotes healthy hamstrings is that you are performing a hamstring strengthening exercise involving your own body weight instead of using machines. While hamstring strengthening machines can be beneficial to the athlete or general population, it is valuable to balance out the training with bodyweight exercises because let’s face it: You must be able to handle your own body if you want the best in injury prevention.
Bending the knees significantly increases hamstring load and tension
The final reason that I’ll add today is that the TRX hip bridge can strengthen the hamstring with body weight at the knee joint. Because the hamstring connects at both the hip and the knee, it has function at both of those joints. While the single leg romanian deadlift can strengthen the hamstring while hinging at the hip, it is the TRX Hip Bridge or TRX Hamstring Curl that will strengthen the hamstring at the knee joint. Again, it’s all about muscular balance.
Benefit of TRX Hip Bridge 3: Carryover to other exercises.
While the TRX Hip Bridge isn’t one of those exercises that is 100% needed in every training program (in contrast to the squat, let’s say), you’ll still be able to get carryover benefit to other exercises.
You gotta stay healthy so that you can keep training
The Hip Bridge could improve your running, your deadlift, and pretty much all other related lower body activities. Due to the possible injury prevention benefits as well, it will allow you to train harder at a high intensity and therefore reach your goals even faster.
Even people with a big butt might have poor glute activation due to lifestyle.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned…
Exciting things for our blog and community are right around the corner.
