-The Renegade Row-

If you’re in the market for a tremendous total-body exercise, give the Renegade Row a shot!  You should be proficient in plank-type exercises before adding this exercise to your repertoire.  I would recommend that you try these first with dumbbells and then progress to the kettlebell variation, as dumbbells provide a lot more stability. You should get the movement pattern down before attempting a more advanced progression.

Don’t let the name fool you…you are “rowing,” but there’s a lot more going on here than just that!  In fact, the rowing component of this exercise is the easy part.  What’s really going on here is a tremendous amount of work by the trunk and hips to stabilize the body and resist rotation.  The scapular stabilizers are also getting tremendous benefit.  In short, if you don’t possess sufficient stabilization strength throughout the entire body, you won’t be able to perform this movement correctly!

Check out the video below and you’ll notice a few things.  One is that i’m keeping my body in a nice, straight line.  Also, i’m not rocking excessively side to side as I perform the rowing motion.  I feel there’s no point in being sloppy and completely ruining the benefit this exercise has on total-body stabilization by using heavy weight and just making it into a cool way to do rows!  I’m using 8kilo kettlebells (17 lbs, give or take) but I can perform dumbbell rows with much heavier weight.  There is simply no way you can perform the Renegade Row with the same weight you’d use for regular dumbbell rows.