How to Do the Bent-Over Dumbbell Row to Sculpt Your Back, Shoulders, Arms and Core

Some exercises are great at multi-tasking, by strengthening multiple parts of the body at once. And the bent-over dumbbell row is one of the best at juggling muscle groups.

But if you want to get all the muscle-building benefits of this exercise, you need to nail your form first. Watch a full tutorial on how to do bent-over rows with proper form and technique.

This exercise targets your upper and middle back, according to Carolina Araujo, CPT, a California-based certified personal trainer and founder of Fit With Carolina. More specifically, this move strengthens your traps, rhomboids and lats.

Although they're not the focus of this exercise, your chest and arms also assist your back in performing the move.

Dumbbells are inherently unstable exercise tools. As you perform dumbbell rows, your back and core work to stabilize the weights to prevent them from swinging side to side (and throwing you off balance). As a result, you build more stability in these muscle groups, Araujo says.

When you sit in a chair for a long time, do you notice your shoulders slump and back curve? It may be a sign you need to build more core and back strength. After sitting upright for a while, these muscles fatigue, causing you to slump.

By helping build your back and core strength and stability, bent-over dumbbell rows can help improve your posture, too, according to Araujo.

While you do a dumbbell bent-over row, you basically hold a dumbbell deadlift position, with your weight back in your heels, Araujo says.

You want your hips back throughout the entire exercise.

"If you feel your hips start to creep forward, you can do your rows in front of a wall and keep your butt back, touching the wall the entire time," she suggests.

Maintaining a flat back is a big safety precaution while doing this exercise, according to Araujo. Although you should try and make your torso as parallel to the ground as possible, you want to prioritize stability. Only lean forward as far as you can while maintaining a stationary and flat back.

"A lot of people tend to dip their chest and back down and up with each rep, using momentum instead of muscles to move the dumbbells," she says. "Focus on keeping your back flat and in place and only keep leaning forward as long as you can maintain that."

If holding your back straight and stable feels difficult, you should grab a lighter pair of dumbbells, Araujo says. Or, try a modified variation (more on that below).

Another common exercise form mistake? Your spine starts to round like an upside-down U — and this position can put stress on your lower back, Araujo says. A reason for this mistake may be that you're releasing the tension in your core.

Your transverse abdominis (TA) is a core muscle that functions like a weight belt deep in your abdomen — and it's the main core muscle worked in bent-over dumbbell rows. When you do a dumbbell bent-over row with good form, your TA helps keep your upper body stable and secure in the bent-over position.

Tighten your abdominal muscles almost like you're bracing your gut for a punch, she suggests. Slightly tilt your hips in to help engage your core and keep your back flat.

"Although this exercise does work your arms, they're not a main focus," she says. "When you squeeze your shoulder blades together, you pull with your back instead of your arms, giving the right muscles the attention they need."

With each rep, focus on drawing your shoulder blades down and together. Lead with this movement, Araujo says.

This helps you target the muscles across your middle and upper back, such as your lats, rhomboids and lower traps. Leading with your shoulder blades also helps prevent scrunching your muscles around your neck, such as your upper traps. Drawing your shoulder blades together as you row also helps activate your rear shoulder muscles (your posterior deltoids).

Here's another thing that people of all levels often mess up — they row the weights to their armpits rather than to their waists, according to Araujo. Rowing to your armpits prevents your back muscles from engaging properly, so you miss out on the biggest dumbbell row benefits.

Many people also tend to make the movemement too large, extending the weights too far back. Instead, move until the weights are just past your torso.

To get your full range of motion during your dumbbell bent-over rows (and target more muscles across your back), you want to fully extend your arms at the bottom of the exercise, according to Araujo.

"Your lats are the back muscles that sit right below your armpits and run across your sides," she says. "When you let your arms fully extend during this exercise, you get a larger range of motion and give these muscles a tougher workout. That way, you target both the muscles in the middle back and your sides."

The best way to get more out of this exercise? Try out different dumbbell row variations, Araujo says. After you nail your form for the original move, trying new variations is a great way to keep building strength.