Hello hello, fitness friends and fiends. It’s Tuesday, so that must mean we are talking exercise. I enjoy making different exercises accessible from a mental standpoint. When I can empower someone to try something they might not otherwise, that’s an amazing experience. Landmine rows look scary, but they are pretty straightforward and will make you look bad@$$ in the gym. So let’s break them down.

Most gyms nowadays have what’s known as a landmine station. This is basically a mount for an Olympic standard barbell. One end of the barbell slides into the mount, the other end remains free for performing lifts. If your gym doesn’t have a dedicated station, it’s actually fairly easy to hack one. You can use the corner of two walls or the lower metal corners on a squat rack to wedge one end of the barbell against. If you are hacking the mount, I recommend wrapping a towel around the mounted end of the barbell to prevent slippage during your lifts.

Landmine set ups help develop full body strength, power, and core stability. They are also super versatile and allow for a huge range of exercises, both upper and lower body focused. Additionally, landmine set ups can create more accessible versions of traditionally challenging exercises. Overhead presses and squats being the two that come to mind. (Stay tuned, I’ll be covering tips for those exercises in future posts.)

The landmine row will target similar muscles as bent over rows. Lats, rhomboids, rear deltoids, traps, and all the core stabilizers. However, because one end of the barbell is anchored, there is less stress and torque on the lower back. This leads to happier back extensor muscles and usually translates into lifting more weight or completing more reps.

I sound like a broken record, but as with most of my strength training tips, everything starts with the set up. You are going to straddle the bar facing the free end. Feet should be even and balanced. You should be forward enough that your hands grip on the knurl (roughened portion of the bar) closest to the free end. Stack your hands one on top of the other like you would on a baseball bat or golf club. This position allows you to get the most range of motion during the pull. The weight should come straight up towards your nose.

Second tip, hinge forward by sticking your butt out and keeping your back straight. Once you are at about a 60 degree forward pitch, lock in your abdominals. Similarly to bent over rows, you should not be shifting this hinge position during the lift. If you are, one of two things is happening. Either you have too much weight on the bar or your abs aren’t locked in. Fix that before you hurt your back.

As the name implies, this is a row exercise. So just like any other row, your elbows should stay tucked in to your body. If they are winging out excessively, you’ll be putting too much stress on your traps and your cervical spine. We absolutely don’t want that. Your elbows should brush by your ribs on the pull.

Keep your head up. I usually prefer to cue a perfectly neutral spine and in the case of landmine rows that means looking down at the bar. This is an exercise where you should be able to pull a decent amount of weight, though, and looking down will cause a tendency to hunch the shoulders. This has the same effect as your elbows flying around; the stress shifts to your neck.

This last tip is less about the lift and the motion and more about helping you look like you know what you’re doing in the gym. Getting weight on and off the bar in a landmine rack can be challenging. Save yourself a whole lot of struggle. Grab a bitty two and a half or five pound plate and place it where the weight plates will fall on the floor. This keeps the bar elevated enough during load and unload that you won’t have to one arm lift the bar and other arm wiggle the plates into position.

Landmine rows are great all around strength builders for the mid and upper back. So if you’d like taller, better posture or to see some crazy definition, this is an exercise to try. Until next time, move well friends!

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