Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Health & Fitness
  3. Evergreens

How to do an upright row the right way: Your complete guide

Here's how to perform an upright row with proper form to lower your risk of injury

By
Adobe image man wearing black shorts doing upright row exercise with dumbbell in gym on wooden floor white background
Ruig Santos / Adobe

When you want to bulk up your shoulders and upper back, the upright row is an effective exercise. It’s important you understand how to properly and safely perform an upright row. Without proper form, you won’t be able to achieve optimal results, and you risk injury to your shoulders. Most athletes and professional trainers consider this an advanced exercise and caution that it isn’t suitable for everyone.

You can incorporate upright rows into your upper body or shoulder training days; all you need is a barbell, kettlebell, or a pair of dumbbells. Alternatively, you can perform other variations of the upright row using a cable machine or resistance bands. 

Recommended Videos

What muscles does the upright row target?

Man flexing his back and shoulders.
Nigel Msipa / Unsplash

The upright row is a superior choice for strengthening the shoulder muscles, particularly the side deltoids. This exercise targets the front and middle heads of the deltoid muscles, which wrap around your shoulders and help you move your arm to the front, side, and back behind you. The upright row is popular among bodybuilders looking to target specific muscles like the deltoids.

This exercise also targets your trapezius and rhomboid muscles in your middle and upper back. Your rhomboid muscles help pull your shoulder blades together and stabilize your shoulders. 

If you’re a fan of bulging biceps, the upright row also works those important biceps muscles in the front of your upper arm. You’ll also engage your core when standing up.

What are the benefits of the upright row?

man wearing nice blue suit carrying basket of groceries grocery plant food walking outside
Tara Clark / Unsplash

There’s a good reason why renowned bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzenegger included this exercise in their workout routines. Research reveals the upright row can be part of an effective strength training routine, including as a workout for career firefighters. This pulling exercise involves pulling the weight toward you, which predominantly targets the muscles on the backside of your body.

The classic upright row works the pulling and lifting muscles that you use for everyday activities like lifting and carrying grocery bags, pulling the door open, or pulling your pants on while getting dressed.

How to do an upright row

illustration drawing of man wearing white shirt and black shorts doing upright row exercise with barbell
Lio Putra / Adobe

The upright row is true to its name because you stand straight upright and lift a barbell to your upper chest. The weight should be close to your torso. You’ll need a barbell, kettlebell, or a pair of dumbbells.

How to perform an upright row:

  1. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart.
  2. Let your arms hang down. With your palms facing your body, grip the barbell in front of your body with an overhand grip.
  3. Brace your abdominals, engage your core, and lift the barbell up to your chin. Try to keep the barbell close to your body. 
  4. Pause for a moment at the top of the movement.
  5. Carefully lower the barbell back to the starting position.
  6. Repeat for your desired number of reps. 

How can an upright row lead to injury?

man wearing t shirt holding shoulder shoulder pain injury
Javaistan / Pexels

Upright row can lead to a shoulder injury due to internal rotation, overexertion, and improper form. When your elbows go up higher than your shoulders, the bar tugs at your shoulder joint, and this internal rotation can reduce the space between the head of your upper arm bone, called your humerus, and the other bones in your shoulder. The bones can begin rubbing against or pinching rotator cuff tendons and soft tissue. This is especially problematic if you’re using heavier weights.

The best ways to lower your risk of shoulder injury include:

  • Having proper form
  • Ensuring your elbows don’t come up above your shoulders
  • Avoiding overexerting yourself and using weights that are too heavy
  • Lowering the weight down with control and at a steady pace

Tips for proper form

man wearing hat and blue top doing upright row with barbell in gym on blue exercise mat
Adobe

Here are some top tips for improving your form, lowering your risk of injury, and boosting your results.

  • Be sure to warm up before any weightlifting exercise.
  • Make sure your elbows don’t go above your shoulders (stop at the top of the movement when your elbows reach shoulder level)
  • Keep your core engaged and your torso upright.
  • Draw your shoulder blades back as you lift the bar.
  • Choose a weight that you can perform 10 to 30 repetitions with
  • Try to avoid using an excessively heavy weight.
  • Try to avoid lowering the weight down too fast.

Some people might find that a wavy EZ curl bar makes this exercise slightly easier on the wrist joints because you can grip the wavy bar at slight angles. 

When it comes to the upright row, correct form is crucial to lower your risk of injury and safely reap the benefits. 

Steph Green
Steph Green
Steph Green (Steph Zee) is a singer-songwriter and professional writer with over 12 years of experience in healthcare and… Read Full Bio
Topics
Health & Fitness
Mixing fashion and function with an NFL star: Ja’Marr Chase teams with Fabletics to find his confidence
Baseball Cap, Cap, Clothing

We look up to athletes for a lot of reasons. They are the gladiators of our day. They enter an arena and put their bodies on the line specifically for our entertainment. But to do that, there has to be a commitment. A mindset to shoot for the best of the best and devote everything you are to the perfection of your battle. For us, we tend to revere those men who reach the peak of human performance and want to recreate it in the best way we can. Sure, we can follow their fitness routines, but deep down we know we’ll likely never come close. So, instead, we buy their gear. The things they wear to perform and to chase their own glory. Michael Jordan revolutionized this with his shoes, and now the top athletes recreate it with their own collections.

Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati’s #1 wide receiver, chose Fabletics to be his vessel of greatness, and his third drop with the brand goes beyond the gridiron, and we got a chance to go beyond it with him.

Read more
Health & Fitness
Meet the man legendary athletes trust: Therabody founder talks us into recovery
Conversation, Person, Clothing

When I was in the Army, I woke up at 4 am (my clock no longer has two fours), and I would just get to running eight miles. Then go back to bed. No stretching. No warm-up. No cool down. It was never a problem. I am no longer twenty; I am sorry to say. And that means my body needs more. As a matter of fact, it needed more way back then too. I got an opportunity to sit down with chiropractor and recovery expert Dr. Jason Wersland, the man behind that percussive massage gun you have seen at every gym, every yoga studio, and even a lot of office buildings. What was it about his creation under his company, Therabody, that took over the wellness and recovery industries? I asked him. And I dug into why us guys have a hard time accepting that we’re getting older and need to spend more time in prep and recovery.

Just do something. The small decisions you make every day – moving your body, prioritizing sleep, managing stress, taking a few minutes to recover – they compound over time. That’s where real change happens. – Dr. Jason Wersland, Founder, Therabody

Read more
Health & Fitness
Rumble Boxing vs. Learning the Sweet Science in Mexico City: HIIT Workout or Hit Your Opponent?
Clothing, Footwear, Shoe

First and foremost, anyone who dares throw on boxing gloves and headgear to step into a ring deserves all the respect in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re sparring in a boxing gym, going three rounds as an amateur, or fighting a sanctioned match. It’s the kind of moxie you can’t help but admire.

Second of all, I won’t lie to you and tell you that my boxing journey began inside a hot and humid boxing gym, like the ones Rocky Balboa trained in during Rocky and Rocky II; far from it. I was 6 years old when I saw my first fight: Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Meldrick Taylor for the WBC light welterweight championship of the world in 1990. I became obsessed with the sport thanks to Oscar De La Hoya’s marvelous run in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where the Golden Boy from East Los Angeles won the gold medal. I told Oscar as much when I interviewed him at length in 2023.

Read more