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Old 08-18-2007, 11:43 AM
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Row Substitution

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave(DBD) View Post
Hey Rip, I was just wondering about your opinion on the substitution of Rows on Starting Strength. From what I've seen its bar far the most common sub I've seen on SS. I personally used pendlay rows instead of cleans and I know it worked well for me. I was just curious to hear your opinion on it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe View Post
My opinion is that you need to learn how to clean. There are a couple of reasons why cleans might not be used: if your gym won't allow you do them, or an injury prevents your racking the bar on your shoulders, you'll have to sub something for them. The injury angle is legit, but if the gym won't let you clean but will let you row, well, somebody needs to explain that to me.

Usually, people just feel intimidated by anything that resembles a technical exercise and just would rather not do them. This is just being a pussy, and sets a bad precedent for the management of both training and life. I think the Starting Strength includes an understandable method for learning to power clean, and just in case it's not simple enough I rewrote it for the new book so that it is even simpler. You don't really need bumper plates to do them if you don't have access, so that doesn't wash either. They are in the program because an explosive movement is a valuable contribution to power production, and they make deadlifts get stronger faster.

So my advice is to learn how to power clean. And since you mentioned it, Glenn did not actually invent the barbell row. I don't think he ever said that he did. The standard way to do barbell rows is to pull each rep off the ground. So the actual name of a barbell row should henceforth be "Barbell Row". Please try to remember this.

Rip
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