Every other workout or so, do you find yourself sitting at the chest fly, supported row, or preacher curl machine, banging out reps, feeling “the pump,” and loving every second of it?
We get it.
Generally, we recommend that you ditch fixed-movement machine exercises in favor of barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, and cable lifts. They allow you to move through a natural range of motion and recruit more total muscle across your body. They’re efficient, and that’s what most of us who are busy need to focus on most.
But it’s hard to beat the ability of machine exercises to target specific muscle groups.
Turns out, isolating your muscles might have some serious value. Because total-body, free-weight exercises use so many muscle groups, some areas of your body “take over” and do way more than their fair share of the work, rendering other areas under-activated. That means the more “big” lifts you do, the more you might actually need to hone in on particular parts of your body.
With that in mind, Kyle Langworthy and Harold Gibbons, both trainers at Mark Fisher Fitness in New York City, wondered if they could create an exercise that hit a critical but oft-underworked area of your upper back in a way that could deliver the same muscle-isolating benefits of a machine, but with none of the drawbacks (sitting, fixed-movements). Their creation: The Deep Squat Crossover Row
“When you drop into a deep squat, your low back is effectively ‘shut off,’” says Gibbons. “So when you do a cable row from the position, your upper back has to do all of the work.” Langworthy adds that crossing the cables makes each rep even harder. And nailing those high back muscles can improve your posture and make you look like a stud in a t-shirt.
Sitting into that deep squat is why this row variation trumps any machine row. “It activates and strengthens muscles in your hips and deep abs that you never use,” he says. “That can help you improve in basically every lower body exercise.”
Have no fear jumping into this move, says Gibbons. “It’s self-limiting, meaning you can’t do it wrong.”
Add it to your routine like so:
-As “active rest” between sets of big lifts like deadlifts, squats, or bench presses.
-At the end of your regularly scheduled workout, even if you already did a back exercise. (Most guys need to do more back exercises, says Gibbons.)-In between core exercises, which will make your abs feel like a 1,000-degree furnace.
No Keiser Machine or cable station? Use a rubber. Attach a resistance band to a squat rack and hold part of it in each hand. And if you just have one cable handle, it’s fine to perform the move one arm at a time.
Deep Squat Crossover Row
Stand in front of a Keiser machine or cable station and place the handles at the lowest position. Grab the left cable handle with your right hand, the right handle with your left, so that the cables are crossed. Take three big steps back. With your feet hip width, drop into a deep squat, your butt just a few inches above the ground, your arms extended. Relax in the squat position. Drive your elbows back, trying to make “dents” in the wall behind you. Slowly extend your arms back to the start. That’s one rep. Do about 10 each set.
