Pendlay Row

The Pendlay row is a dead-stop variant of the barbell row. The lifter sets up with the torso parallel to the floor, pulls the bar explosively to the lower chest or upper abdomen, then returns it all the way to the floor between reps. Resetting on the floor eliminates the kinetic chain cheating that creeps into most barbell rows — no body English, no partial reps, no momentum carried rep to rep.

Glenn Pendlay, an Olympic weightlifting coach, popularized the movement as a pull that transfers to the clean. The horizontal torso position mimics the start position of a clean pull, and the explosive reset trains rate of force development in the back and hips. Powerlifters and bodybuilders adopted it because it forces honest loading — the weight you can Pendlay row cleanly is almost always less than the weight you can barbell row with a loose form.

The stricter start position also changes what the exercise trains. Standard barbell rows let you use hip extension to accelerate the bar. The Pendlay row requires the upper back, lats, and rear delts to do more of the work because the lower body cannot contribute as easily from a dead stop. Rep-to-rep power output is what the Pendlay row is actually built to develop.

• Set the torso parallel to the floor before the first rep and hold that angle throughout the set
• Pull explosively — the bar should feel like it is being yanked, not dragged
• Return the bar all the way to the floor between reps and pause for a beat before the next rep
• Keep the hips high and quiet; if the hips rise as the bar does, the row has turned into a Romanian deadlift

• Letting the torso rise with the pull — the hips should lock in place so the back does the work
• Bouncing the plates off the floor between reps instead of pausing for a full reset
• Loading too heavy — most lifters Pendlay row 70-80% of their strict barbell row, not equal weights

• barbell row→
• cable row→
• single arm dumbbell row→