Bas Barbell spoke of a time where he was bent rowing heavy and not worrying about deadlifts.
Chaos And Pain recommends heavy bent rows as base work for military pressing.
With military press (off of a clean, often from the deadhang) as the main lift, and semi burnt out from hitting it frequently yet still finding myself in the gym…I decide to bent row.
10×3 with the last set a rep out.
Being that set 10 still is in the area of 12 reps I’m obviously not going heavy yet…pulling double overhand with thus far 265 relatively strict for sets 1-9.
I can see this moving up quickly to deadlift weights hitting it “hard”, 10 sets in about 30 minutes.
Great way to move up grip strength on a barbell. (Maybe I’ll up the volume and hit some strapped some not. Imagine dual 10×3 in the same session, strapless first then strapped second. A one movement back day.)
I’m seeing separation between side and rear delts, and my upper body is vastly improving.
I can tell I’m getting glute/ham work near the end, and definitely on the rep out set. Who says you need to specifically train legs?
Best not to sleep on them heavy bent rows.
It’s a powerful (usually neglected) movement.
(Without deadlifting but cleans and bent rows I hit a rep PR on deadlifts already. 10/19/18 9×405 with reps in the tank baby!)
-J