Landmine Row

What the landmine row actually trains

A landmine row is a single arm horizontal pull performed with one end of a barbell anchored in a landmine sleeve or a corner, rowing the loaded end towards your hip.

The latissimus dorsi and teres major do most of the work, with the rhomboids, middle trapezius, posterior deltoid, biceps and forearms assisting. The erector spinae and obliques hold the hinged position and resist rotation.

Two things make it different from a dumbbell row, and only one of them matters much.

The first is the arc. Because the far end of the bar is fixed, the loaded end travels on a curve rather than straight up and down. That curve happens to follow the path a rowing elbow wants to take, which is back and slightly in. Many lifters find it noticeably kinder to the shoulder than a dumbbell row, particularly at the top where a dumbbell wants to pull the shoulder into a position it dislikes.

The second is the lever. The weight on the sleeve is not the weight in your hand, because the anchor takes a share. Judge the set by how hard it was, not by the plates on the end.

Beyond that, be honest: this is a single arm row. Fenwick and colleagues compared rowing variations and found the differences between them show up mainly in trunk demand and spinal loading rather than in some unique effect on the back muscles. A landmine row, a dumbbell row and a chest supported row all train the same thing. Pick the one your shoulder likes and that you can set up without a fight.

Unilateral work does bring a genuine benefit. Liao and colleagues reviewed unilateral against bilateral training and found comparable strength outcomes, which means training one side at a time costs you nothing and lets you address side to side differences directly.

Setting up and executing

Anchor one end of a barbell in a landmine attachment, or wedge it into a corner with a towel to protect the wall. Load plates onto the free end.

Stand alongside the bar in a staggered stance, with the leg opposite the working arm forward. Hinge at the hips until your torso sits at roughly forty five degrees.

Grip the sleeve just below the plates. Brace the abs and set the back flat.

Let the shoulder reach forward at the bottom, so the shoulder blade travels rather than staying locked.

Pull the sleeve back and up towards your hip, allowing a small amount of torso rotation as the elbow passes your ribs. Pause for a beat.

Lower over about three seconds back into a full stretch, and repeat before swapping sides.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Rowing to the chest is the fault that changes the exercise. A high pull with a flared elbow trains the posterior deltoid and upper back and cuts the lat's range short. The sleeve should arrive at your hip, with the elbow driving back past your ribs.

Standing square and stiff removes what makes the movement comfortable. The staggered stance gives you a base, and a small amount of torso rotation at the top lets the shoulder blade finish its travel. Kara and colleagues found rowing patterns recruit the middle and lower trapezius strongly, and that requires the shoulder blade to actually move.

No stretch at the bottom is the most common way to waste a single arm row. If your shoulder stays pinned back throughout, you have removed the longest position of the lat from the movement, which is the main reason to row one side at a time in the first place.

Lower back rounding is a load problem or a position problem. Raise the torso angle, shorten the range slightly, or drop the weight. Fenwick and colleagues showed that rowing variations differ substantially in how much they load the lumbar spine, and a hinged unsupported row is at the demanding end.

And loading it like a barbell row misreads the leverage. Judge by how hard the set is, not by how the plate stack looks.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

Moderate reps suit it best, since very heavy single arm work turns into a whole body swing.

For muscle gain, three sets of eight to twelve per side with ninety seconds rest. For strength, four sets of six to eight with two minutes. In a fat loss phase, three sets of twelve to fifteen with a minute.

Count sets per side. Do the weaker side first and match the stronger side to it. That is how unilateral work actually fixes an imbalance, rather than simply documenting one.

Control the eccentric to about three seconds and use the full stretch at the bottom. On an exercise where the load ceiling is modest, range and control are where the stimulus comes from.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and growth, so count these towards your weekly pulling volume properly rather than treating them as a finisher. Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable growth, which here means stopping when your torso starts rising to help.

Where it fits in your split

As the horizontal row, after your vertical pulling.

On push, pull and legs it belongs on pull day. On a bro split it goes second or third on back day. On an upper and lower split it serves as the unilateral pull. On a full body programme it is useful when the dumbbell rack is busy, since a barbell and a corner are all it needs.

The case for choosing it over a dumbbell row comes down to two things. If your shoulder is happier with the arc than with a vertical dumbbell path, take it. If your gym's dumbbells stop at forty kilos and you have outgrown them, the landmine keeps loading.

The case against is time. Two sides, a hinged position to hold, and a bar to load and unload makes it slower than a machine row that does the same job.

Variations worth knowing

The single arm dumbbell row is the closest sibling, using a bench for support and a straight vertical path.

The Meadows row is a landmine row taken from a stance perpendicular to the bar, which lengthens the range and adds more rotation.

The chest supported landmine row places the torso on an incline bench, removing the lower back demand and letting you focus entirely on the pull.

The two hand landmine row, gripping the sleeve with both hands, allows heavier loading and a more symmetrical pull, at the cost of the unilateral benefit.

The barbell bent over row is the bilateral straight bar version, with a far higher load ceiling and a far higher lower back cost.

And the seated cable row gives you the same movement with constant tension and no hinge to maintain, which makes it the better choice when the lower back is already tired.

What the evidence says

Fenwick and colleagues compared several rowing exercises and found the meaningful differences between them lie in trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine loading rather than in the back musculature being trained, which supports treating row variations as broadly interchangeable and choosing on comfort and fatigue.

Lehman and colleagues examined latissimus dorsi activation across weight training exercises and found the lat works hard throughout rowing and pulling patterns, with the line of pull shifting the surrounding musculature.

Kara and colleagues measured trapezius activation during scapular retraction exercises and found rowing patterns recruit the middle and lower trapezius strongly, which requires letting the shoulder blade travel rather than holding it pinned.

Speirs and colleagues compared unilateral and bilateral training and found comparable strength improvements, supporting single arm work as a legitimate primary approach rather than an accessory.

Liao and colleagues reviewed unilateral against bilateral resistance training across strength and performance measures and reached similar conclusions, which is the evidence for spending the extra time on one arm at a time when you want to address an imbalance.

Schoenfeld and colleagues on weekly volume and Refalo and colleagues on proximity to failure supply the programming.

Common questions

How is this different from a dumbbell row?

Mainly in the path. The anchored bar travels on an arc that many shoulders prefer to the straight vertical line of a dumbbell, and the loading keeps going after the dumbbell rack runs out. The muscles trained are the same, so choose on comfort and availability.

Should I row to the hip or the chest?

The hip. Pulling towards the chest flares the elbow, shortens the lat's range and shifts the work to the posterior deltoid and upper back. If you want that emphasis, do a rear deltoid movement rather than a compromised row.

Is the torso rotation cheating?

A small amount at the top is part of the movement and lets the shoulder blade finish its travel. Turning your whole trunk to hoist the weight is a different thing, and you will know the difference because the load will have stopped feeling like a back exercise.

Do I need a landmine attachment?

No. A corner and a rolled towel work perfectly well, and many gyms have a dedicated sleeve. What you cannot do is leave the bar unsecured, since a loaded end that slips is a genuine hazard.

How do I use this to fix a side to side difference?

Train the weaker side first, then match the stronger side to whatever the weaker one managed. Do that consistently for a couple of months. Simply doing unilateral work without matching the sets keeps the difference exactly where it is.