One-arm row: how to do it, and how many

How it should look

Hand and knee braced, drive the elbow past the ribs, no twist through the trunk.

What it needs

One weight and something to brace on. A bench, a chair, a low table.

With nothing at all

A towel looped around a door handle, both hands, lean back and pull. Or a band at waist height.

The three faults that actually show up

Not an exhaustive list. These are the ones that turn up, in this order, and each is written as the fix rather than as the mistake.

The whole trunk twists

Brace a hand and a knee and keep the shoulders level. If the body turns to help, the weight is too heavy.

The elbow finishes out wide

Drive it back past the ribs, not out to the side. The hand finishes at the hip, not the armpit.

It is all arm

Start the pull from the shoulder blade. Think about putting it in your back pocket before the elbow moves.

Easier, and harder

The same movement, scaled. Take the easier version until it is easy, then take the harder one. Neither is a different exercise and neither is a lesser one.

Easier

A band anchored at waist height, both arms.

Harder

Pause one second at the top of every rep.

Or swap it for

A band anchored at waist height, both arms. One arm braced on a bench. A one second pause at the top of every rep

What an MDRN plan starts you on

Straight out of the plan engine, not out of an article. This is the band before anything moves it: experience sets it, the goal then tilts it, and the block moves it a rung at a time across twelve weeks, so your own plan may read heavier or longer than this.

New to this

2 sets of 10 when it leads the session, 2 sets of 12 when it does not. Stop with 4 in the tank.

Coming back to it

3 sets of 8 when it leads the session, 2 sets of 10 when it does not. Stop with 3 in the tank.

Training already

3 sets of 8 when it leads the session, 3 sets of 10 when it does not. Leave 2 in reserve.

Years of it

4 sets of 5 when it leads the session, 3 sets of 8 when it does not. Leave 1 to 2 in reserve.

The longer version

• The six movements a week of training actually needsPush, pull, hinge, squat, carry, brace. Every useful strength programme is a rearrangement of these six, and you can do all of them in a front room with no equipment.