Barbell · advanced · back
Barbell t-bar deadlift to row
Also called T-bar deadlift to row, Landmine deadlift to row, Deadlift row combo.
One end of a barbell sits in a floor anchor, the other end carries the plates and a handle, and you straddle it. A rep pulls the bar to standing, folds back over, rows the handle to your chest, and puts it back down. The lats do the rowing, the hamstrings and glutes stand the load up, and your lower back holds the torso angle for both halves. The row is the half that decides the weight.
How to do it
- Step oneLoad a T-bar row machine and stand over the bar with feet hip-width apart.
- Step twoHinge at the hips and grasp the handles, keeping your back flat.
- Step threePerform a deadlift by driving through your heels to stand upright.
- Step fourAt the top, row the bar toward your chest by driving your elbows back.
- Step fiveLower the bar back toward your hips, then return to the deadlift starting position.
What usually goes wrong
Each starts with what you would notice.
The rows get more and more upright as the set goes on.
WhyEvery rep passes through a full stand, and getting back down to a rowing angle costs a little more each time. By the end you are pulling from somewhere near vertical without ever having decided to.
FixHinge back to the same angle on every rep, and check it on the last one rather than the first. If you cannot get down there any more, the set is over.
The whole rep runs together into one long swing.
WhyThere are two places this movement is meant to come to a halt, standing at the top and hinged at the bottom, and momentum removes both of them.
FixStop dead standing, and stop dead hinged, before anything else happens. Three positions per rep beats one continuous arc, and it is the only way to know which half a rep belonged to.
Your lower back is the tired thing afterward and your lats got very little.
WhyYour torso holds its angle through a hinge down, a row, and a hinge back up, so it works for roughly twice as long per rep as it would in either exercise on its own. The lats only work during the row.
FixShorter sets and a lighter bar. If you want the lats loaded properly, a row on its own gives them a back that has not already done a deadlift.
What it is for
The T-bar deadlift to row is a compound back exercise that combines a T-bar deadlift with a row to target the lats, rhomboids, and posterior chain. It efficiently develops back thickness and strength by pairing two pulling movements in a single fluid exercise.
Questions people ask
- What muscles does the T-bar deadlift to row work?
- The lats bring the handle to you, with the rhomboids and mid traps pulling your shoulder blades in and the biceps helping at the elbow. Hip extension gets the bar off the floor, so the hamstrings and glutes own that half, and your torso angle is held by the lower back through all of it.
- How do you pick the weight?
- From the row. Your hips will lift far more than your back can pull, so loading it for the deadlift half just means the row stops happening. That is the trade for putting two lifts inside one rep.
- Do you need a machine for this?
- No. The demonstration is a barbell with one end pinned to the floor and a handle hooked around the other. That is one of the two things a T-bar row can mean, and it is the one this movement is: a loaded bar on a pivot, with nothing holding you in place.
- Should you stand all the way up between the deadlift and the row?
- Yes, and that is what makes it this exercise rather than a long set of rows. The stand is the deadlift half. Skip it and you have a row with an unusual starting position.
- Is this better than doing deadlifts and rows separately?
- That comparison has never been run, so treat any confident answer with suspicion. What is clear is that the combination caps the pull at rowing weight, so neither half gets loaded the way it would alone. It buys you time and it costs you load.
- Why is my lower back what feels worked?
- Because it holds your torso angle through both halves of every rep, which is about twice as long as either exercise on its own would ask. Shorten the sets before you change anything else.