 Hey everybody, I'm Lance Coyke. Let's talk about a boo-boo that everybody makes when they do their bent-over rows. So if you've watched some previous videos, I talked about the three-point supported dumbbell row and how that's my favorite variation because it gives you a lot of feedback so that you do it correctly. If you're one of the people who don't think that's cool and you've jumped into barbell rows, I can almost guarantee that you're doing this wrong. So we're gonna watch this, right? If I bend over and I pick up or I have my bar in my hands and then I do my row and my chest sticks out while I do it, I'm gonna feel more of a squeeze in my back muscles probably because they shorten more, but I'm also wearing down my spine more and pinning in my shoulder a lot more. With the position that you get here when you do this, it uses your last muscles, which is some of these muscles that you're turning on during your row. It uses them to move your spine too. It's not just doing your row. It's changing your spinal position and it's changing the forces that go through those joints. So if you don't want herniated discs and back pain, you probably shouldn't do this type of row. If you don't care, you are now well-informed and you can make your own decisions. But all I've seen is that people who do this walk away with really tight backs, okay? And this is just my, I'm not gonna tell you how to live your life, but don't do it. So from here, if I am sticking my chest out when I row, that's not what we want to do. So instead, what are we supposed to do? Well, first, if you've watched my other rowing videos, you know that we've walked through that every rowing exercise is a lower body exercise. So I've got to turn this into a lower body exercise. I've got to think about it that way because that reframing will help me be more successful. First thing I do when I set up is I exhale and then I tuck my hips and I find my outer lower abdominals and then I push my butt back to bend over. And now when I'm at this bottom position, I should feel some tension, little bit of stretch, little bit of activity in my button and my hamstrings. If I don't feel that and if I only feel my mid to low back, then I'm doing it wrong and I need to go back. I need to stop doing this rowing variation. I need to do a three-point supported rowing variation to try to figure out how to find those abs. And then I also need to throw in an RDL or some sort of deadlifting variation so that I can understand what it feels like to drive some movements, to drive my body up with my legs and not with my back. This is, this one's near and dear to me. This is the one that I messed up a lot when I was coming up. And you know, it fed in with my squat position that was really weak because I felt like I was tight, but I wasn't tight. I wasn't compressing my joints. I was just bending them, right? So I don't get that stabilization security. I just get that back tightness, you know? The goal is not back tightness. The goal is more weight lifted and more muscle development. So what if, what if I can't really cue out of that? So some other exercises that I can do, we talked about the three-point row. That's the way that I would suggest that you train your back while you're trying to figure this out. At least you could start there. You could then do a suspension row and you could do, you know, pull-ups and stuff. Those are a little bit easier to not mess up so badly. But, but find another way to train your upper back. That's step one. Step two is you got to learn that RDL, okay? And I filmed a hundred videos about deadlifting. You got to watch some of those and figure out where you're at in the deadlifting progression. We can't go through all of that right now, but figure out where you're at and then bring yourself up. Once you can get to that point where you can do an RDL with a bunch of leg drive, then you can come back and you can try this again. Outside of that, generally what's happening is this is turning on too much and this is turning off too much. So we've got to flip-flop it. We've got to turn this on more. We've got to position it so that it can turn on more. And we've got to allow this to relax. Easiest one is just a plank. You can do a plank just like this. So not like this, not with my butt sticking out, not with my hip flexors really tight, but with my back rounded, my ribs exhaled down and my neck pushed away from the ground, okay? And I'm just going to hold that and then I feel a good abs squeeze. I can do other variations where I'm like lifting an arm or whatever. I could do other supine variations like a dead bug. This is one of the classics, but I got to make sure that I'm setting up correctly. So I don't want to just run into this and start doing it because then I'm not going to do it correctly. I need to exhale, roll my hips back. Now I feel my low back in the ground and I can kind of secure all of my back in the ground. I feel much more sturdy this way and then I do my arm raising, my leg lowering variations just like this. My voice starts to tremble as my rib cage diameter changes. That's kind of funny. So this is a supine variation. We just did a prone variation. So I'm face down and now on this one I'm face up. I can even, if I'm not feeling the outer lower abdominals, no matter what I do, maybe I need to do something where I'm on my side. So I've been trying some of these side plank variations. It works a little bit better if your butt is lifted up off the ground because then I'm kind of facing the ground too. I can really get that side ad. You got to make sure that you're squeezing this hip and this shoulder closer together. It's not just the shoulder, remember, it's the hip too and that will help me get the lower outer abdominals on this side and all of those are good ways to start teaching your back how to turn off and relax and teaching your abs how to turn on and help you out. And once you can get that, then it's going to be easier for you to find your hamstrings. I think we've given you a lot. That should keep you good for at least two months. Practice that do it a couple times a week to a three or four sets at a time and work through them. Just make sure that you're starting out, you're setting up in the right position because otherwise the rest of the lift, the rep, whatever is just not going to work.