Is the Split Squat Row THE MOST Sadistic Exercise I Know?

Lots of people (myself included) do half kneeling rows.

They’re great.

They train:

• Stability
• Glute activation
• Lats
• Anti-rotation

and most importantly half kneeling rows put all those things together into one brutally efficient movement for training stability and bracing.

But eventually you can’t row any more weight, there’s just too much on the stack, it pulls you forward and it becomes impossible to maintain position.

Truth is, half kneeling rows for more advanced athletes are not even close to being the best “back” exercise for hypertrophy for this very reason.

Half Kneeling Rows are really about stability, owning your position, limiting the movement of the body except at that shoulder and elbow.

So How to Progress?

We increase the instability by decreasing the points of contact.

More specifically we move into a split squat or lunge stance.

NOT a kickstand, we’re actually trying to NOT/ minimally load the back leg.

The idea here is to get into a split stance that is as LOW AS YOU CAN TOLERATE and HOLD IT.

There should be NO MOTION, except at the shoulder and elbow.

This version FORCES you to “get” into the front side foot, leg and hip (glute) to a greater degree than in half kneeling.

This is one of my go to exercises for my skiers because is does place such a heavy emphasis on HOLDING your pelvis and torso position (glutes- core- lats) to maintain the lunge (deep hip- ankle and knee flexion) while resisting the rotation.

Split Squat Cable Row

Checklist:

• Take a 90/90 stance at the knee and hip.
• Be on the toe pads, NOT the ball of the foot.
• Make sure you’re lined up straight.
  • Toes- ankle- knee- hip.
  • Belt- belly button- sternum- chin
• No collapsed feet, ankles or knees pointed toward the midline.
  • Knee should be lined up on the outside half of the shoe.
• PRESS into the floor and GRIP with the front side foot.

Bro Tips:

• Grip the handle HARD.
• You can raise the front foot to increase the range of motion and challenge at the hip.
• Reach the non working arm out to the side and make a tight fist to help “tighten up” even more.
• Think of this as an anti-rotation exercise as much as anything else. You need to focus on resisting rotation through the torso at ALL TIMES

Super Bro Tip:

The real magic in with the Split Squat Cable Row is in getting as much front side hip flexion while “opening” up the back side hip flexor.

I’m gonna level with you:

A: I think Split Cable Squat Rows are really awesome and are a great way to train total body stability.

B: Split Squat Cable Rows are straight out of the devils toolbox and are absolutely BRUTAL when done correctly which essentially means NO EXTRA MOVEMENT.