Dumbbell row

Who it's for

Anyone who wants back strength without hanging, which makes it useful when fingers or elbows need a break from bar work. One arm at a time also shows up a side-to-side difference that pull-ups hide. It's a reasonable first pulling exercise and it stays useful much later, so nobody grows out of it.

Common mistakes

• Turning it into a shrug. The elbow travels back toward the hip, not up toward the shoulder. If you feel it in the top of the shoulder, the path is wrong.
• Stopping short at the bottom. Lower it all the way, as the catalog says. The stretched position is most of the value.
• Going too heavy to control. At 8 to 12 reps a set, the last two should still look like the first two. Heaving is a sign to drop the dumbbell size.
• Training one arm harder than the other. Do the same reps on both sides, set by the weaker one. Otherwise you widen the gap you came to fix.

How to progress

Reps first, up to 12 on both arms for all three sets, then add weight and drop back to eight. Keep the 90 seconds rest honest. Once heavy dumbbells run out, slow the lowering down rather than adding reps. Twice a week fits easily alongside climbing since it loads the fingers very little.