The Exercise of Superheroes!

The Exercise of Superheroes!-DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training

When I was a kid, there was pretty much no doubt that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the king of the action movies stars. Sure you had some others, but it seemed to all come back to Arnold. He had the charisma, the look, heck, physically he looked as though he was a real life superhero! 

Time proves to be undefeated to us all and over time Arnold would have to step aside. For awhile it felt like there was a hole left by Arnold becoming both older and governor. That is until “The Rock”. I’ll be honest, I’m not much of a WWE fan, but it was darn hard not to notice “The Rock”, or his mortal name, Dwayne Johnson. 

Whether or not you are a Dwayne Johnson movie fan or not, it is hard not to see some similarities, charming, good looking, and yes, looks like a real life superhero! If you don’t believe me, Forbes named him #23 on their celebrity list that looked at earnings and fame. Darn impressive to say you are #23 on that list. 

Anyways, this blog isn’t really designed to convince you that Dwayne Johnson is an impressive movie tart (despite whether or not you like his movies), rather something that caught my eye. I am not completely sure how this happened, but I saw a post of Dwayne Johnson performing 315 pound bent-over rows. Um so? 

I found it quite intriguing from a few different levels. For one, Mr. Johnson is pretty geared up, belt, straps, oh and I’m sure booming tunes:) That is observation number one that this weight is pretty heavy. Number two? He has a pretty high torso position and has assumed an underhand grip (both ways of making the bent-over row easier). 

Now this is not one of those obnoxious posts about someone taking a shot at the exercise technique of a celebrity. I’m sure Mr. Johnson could care less about what I think and for one reason or another, he looks pretty good;) 

No, my interest comes from the idea that here is a really big guy, strong guy, athletic guy, and a 315 pound barbell row is TOUGH! It made me think once again, how much people gloss over how incredibly awesome the bent-over row is. 

Funny enough, this thought process gets met with odd comments like “oh, we don’t do bent-rows because they can hurt your back.” Ironically, these are the same fitness pros that are doing heavy deadlifts, cleans, running, jumping, etc. In other words, things that are SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult on the back that bent-over rows. 

After watching Mr. Johnson, I think the truth is two things. One, if you are honest about your bent-over row technique, you can’t lift very impressive sounding weights. Two, it is a lot of work and you don’t get to brag about the work! 

DVRT certified coach, Kevin Dean, knows the importance of teaching his clients the bent-over row

Why WOULDN’T you love the bent-over row? You have a plank, an upper body pulling exercise, a hip hinge, oh and you have to hold that position for time, you actually have to do more than one thing at once! Um, pretty cool and ignoring your weaknesses isn’t a rationale reason to avoid such awesome exercises. In fact, in DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training the bent-over row is a precursor to more powerful training, you have to EARN the right to do more difficult drills by being strong, stable, and tackling the bent-over row. 

As you would come to expect though, we have more than one way to perform the bent-over row, all ways to challenge real world strength and to find the holes in each of our strength and fitness levels. Try it, slow it down, give it time, use some of theses DVRT Ultimate Sandbag Training bent-over rows and see how a simple drill can make YOU feel like you have superhero powers!