Slide show: Weight training exercises
Woman doing bent-over row with dumbbell
Previous Next 3 of 11 Bent-over row with dumbbell

The bent-over row is an exercise you can do with a dumbbell to strengthen the muscles in your upper back and the back of your shoulder.

Start with one knee resting on a weight bench. Lean forward, supporting yourself with your hand. Hold a dumbbell in your other hand, letting your arm hang straight below your shoulder. Slowly raise the weight until your elbow lines up just below your shoulder.

You'll feel tension in the back of your shoulder and the muscles across your upper back. Then slowly lower the weight to the starting position. Repeat.

You can also do the bent-over row without a weight bench. Stand with your feet comfortably apart. Then bend your knees and lean forward at the hips.

From Mayo Clinic to your inbox

Sign up for free and stay up to date on research advancements, health tips, current health topics, and expertise on managing health. Click here for an email preview.

To provide you with the most relevant and helpful information, and understand which information is beneficial, we may combine your email and website usage information with other information we have about you. If you are a Mayo Clinic patient, this could include protected health information. If we combine this information with your protected health information, we will treat all of that information as protected health information and will only use or disclose that information as set forth in our notice of privacy practices. You may opt-out of email communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the e-mail.

See more Multimedia Nov. 01, 2022