 Let's review everything we've talked about in mastering the bent over row. So the first thing we mentioned was you need to master the RDL because if I can't stabilize myself, if I can't load my lower body muscles without feeling my low back muscles, then I can't even set up for the row. You need to be able to do at least the eccentric and the isometric hold at the bottom of a hip hinge or of a bent over deadlift or of a stiff legged deadlift or of a Romanian deadlift as I normally call them. And I need to be able to secure myself with the glute and with the hamstring. I need to feel that in my butt holding me up if I'm going to get anything out of this row. Otherwise, all I'm gonna do is I'm gonna feel it in my back. I'm not gonna be able to do it forever. And my ceiling of potential is gonna be lower and lower and lower. Next, we talked about not only doing the Romanian deadlift but we also have to worry about the upper half. We have to learn how to do a row. We have to learn how to lead a row with our shoulder blades coming backward, retracting and then letting our elbows follow to get that nice little squeeze finish at the very, very end. This just keeps your shoulders healthy for longer. It keeps the shoulder joint in the position that will allow the, or it keeps the shoulder blade in the position that allows the shoulder joint to move maximally. And so if I'm doing a row, I need to make sure prioritize that I'm feeling that upper back. Not just because that's what the row is for. It's for the lat too a little bit. But if I'm only getting lat, I'm not getting upper back. Then I know that I'm wearing away my shoulder more than I have to. I'm not keeping the joint quite as congruent I'm not dispersing the surface area over the broadest or dispersing the force over the broadest surface area that I possibly could. Number three we talked about after or during, well after really, after I've learned the Romanian deadlift and after I've learned how to row both arms back with my shoulders. Again, I like the seated cable row for that variation. After we've done all that and we're ready to try the bent over row with a barbell. The next tip, the third tip is to select an appropriate weight. Check your ego at the door. It's not about lifting as much weight as possible. It's about making good technique early on and as often as possible so that I train the strength that will keep my longevity. It will keep my body together as long as possible. It will keep my mobility as long as possible so I don't walk around like a penguin, right? And I'll stiff up, stiff like. You might still get some of that. That just means you're training hard, right? After you've selected an appropriate weight, make sure you're setting your RDL correctly. You're feeling it in your butt, in your hamstrings, your heels are firm in the ground. And then as you start to row up, you need the force to come through the ground, through your feet, through your butt, up your torso and then into the barbell. And so what we need to do is kind of think about initiating through the feet and driving the hips forward, just ever so slightly. That I even like to see people move just tiny bits, especially if they're having trouble with this, if they're feeling it a lot in their low back. If I start to emphasize that hip motion, then I know I'm stabilizing and getting the movement with the right muscles. After that, after we've learned the hip drive to kind of take the next step, we need to know that when we row up, our weight is shifting, our center of mass is now comprised of our body and the barbell. And as the barbell raises, so does our center of mass. And it starts to move kind of forward and backward a little bit even because of how it's shifting and hopefully it's not moving side to side that much. But in doing that, we need to be able to compensate with our own little body weight shift. That's the only way to keep your balance while you're doing the row. After that, big mistake that people make that I see all the time because I'm looking in the mirror is this crunch to stabilize. You don't wanna let everything crunch down. You don't wanna let your mid-back bend to stabilize you so much. You want that stabilization to occur from all sides and just kind of cinch itself in together and that gives you the stability, the pressure that you need to do this lift. So instead of letting your arm stretch that extra little bit and getting too much of a crunch and instead of stabilizing yourself with a sunken chest what I'm looking for is to be really tall from the heels all the way up through the spine. And that leads us into our last point which is that the spine is also the head and neck. I need to keep thinking about that tallness, right? I don't wanna tilt my head back too far and I don't wanna straighten it out, flatten it out, tuck my chin too far. Those are muscles that are necessary for stabilizing your body but if I'm going to keep the mobility that I need, if I'm going to activate the upper back muscles that I need during the bent over row I'm gonna need to keep a little bit of fluidity in my body as it's stabilized. And so if I just think about keeping my spine nice and long and tall like you got a string at the top of your head and someone above you is pulling it up that's all I wanna keep to make sure that I can keep the spinal position that will allow me to do the best row possible. And I think that if you take all of that advice you master your RDL, your row you don't pick too much weight you drive with your hips you shift your weight a little bit and you keep your spine nice and set neutral then I think you will master the bent over row.