What muscles does the upright row work?

The side of the delts does most of it, with the upper traps assisting and the biceps involved because the elbows bend. Widening the grip increased activity in both the middle deltoid and the upper trapezius when it was measured.

How high should you pull an upright row?

To just below shoulder height. Published guidance for this exercise recommends keeping arm elevation under 90 degrees, because raising the arm higher while it is rotated inward is the position most associated with pinching at the shoulder.

Are upright rows bad for your shoulders?

It is narrower than either slogan you will read. A specific position causes the problem: upper arm above shoulder height and rotated inward. Stopping below shoulder height with a wider grip is what the guidance recommends to stay out of it. Nobody can tell you about your shoulder from a page.

What grip width should you use for upright rows?

At least shoulder width. Wider grips produced more activity in the side of the shoulder and the upper traps when it was tested, and they involve less inward rotation of the arm. The narrow grip has nothing going for it.

What can I do instead of upright rows?

A lateral raise takes the arm out to the side with no bar dictating the path and no forced inward rotation, and it trains the same part of the shoulder. You will use much less weight, which is the trade.

Upright row or shrug for traps?

They are different actions with an overlap. A shrug only raises the shoulder blade. An upright row raises your upper arm as well, so it involves the side of the shoulder in a way a shrug never does.

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Barbell · intermediate · shoulders

Barbell upright row

Also called Upright row, Barbell upright row.

The short answer

The upright row pulls a bar up the front of your body by driving your elbows toward the ceiling. The side of your delts does the work, with the upper traps helping, and how wide you grip changes how much of each you get. This is also the one movement here with published professional-body guidance written about it, and the summary of that paper is short: stop below shoulder height and grip wider than you think.

How to do it

Step oneStand upright holding a barbell with an overhand grip, hands approximately shoulder-width apart.
Step twoLet the bar hang in front of your thighs with your arms extended.
Step threePull the bar upward along your body by raising your elbows above the level of your hands.
Step fourContinue pulling until the bar reaches chin height and your elbows are above your shoulders.
Step fiveSlowly lower the bar back to the starting position.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

Your shoulder catches or pinches near the top of the pull.

WhyThe combination of raising your upper arm past shoulder height while it is rotated inward is the position most associated with pinching at the shoulder. The higher you pull, the deeper into that position you go.

FixStop with your elbows just below shoulder height. Published guidance for this exercise puts the useful range below 90 degrees of arm elevation, and the top few inches most people chase is the part it advises against.

Your hands are close together and it feels tight through the shoulder from the start.

WhyA narrow grip forces more inward rotation of the upper arm through the whole rep, which is half of the position above.

FixWiden to about shoulder width or a little more. When grip width was measured, the wider grips also produced more activity in the side of the shoulder and the upper traps, so this costs you nothing.

You rock backward to start each rep and the bar comes up in a jerk.

WhyThe weight is more than your shoulders can raise on their own, so your body is throwing it.

FixTake load off until the bar moves because your elbows rose. On this movement in particular a lighter bar is what makes the good version possible at all.

Your wrists bend back sharply as the bar comes up.

WhyThe bar is being held in a fixed position while your elbows travel, so the wrist takes up the difference.

FixLet the wrists stay roughly in line with the forearms and think about lifting the elbows rather than the hands. An EZ bar makes this easier because the bends give your hands somewhere to sit.

How wide should you grip

This one has been measured. Trained lifters did the upright row at three grips, roughly half shoulder width, shoulder width and double shoulder width, and activity went up as the grip got wider. The biggest differences were in the side of the shoulder and the upper trapezius, which are exactly the muscles you were aiming for.

A wider grip also means less inward rotation of the upper arm, and inward rotation is one of the two ingredients in the position that causes trouble at the top of this lift.

So the narrow grip that gets recommended for feeling it in the traps is working against you twice over. Go at least shoulder width.

Upright row or lateral raise

If what you want is the side of your shoulder, a lateral raise gets there without the position this movement is known for. Your arm goes out sideways, your hand is free to sit however it wants, and nothing forces the upper arm to rotate inward.

The trade is load. A bar in two hands lets you handle far more weight than a dumbbell in each, which is the whole argument for the upright row surviving at all.

If your shoulders are comfortable and you keep the elbows below shoulder height, there is no reason to give it up. If they are not, the raise does the same job and asks nothing awkward of you.

Neither the ban nor the all-clear

The internet holds two positions on this exercise and both are too big. One is that upright rows wreck shoulders and nobody should do them. The other is that this is a myth and you should carry on. What the published guidance actually says is narrower and more useful than either.

It identifies a specific position, the upper arm raised past shoulder height while rotated inward, and notes that pinching at the shoulder is most associated with roughly the 70 to 120 degree band of arm elevation. Then it gives a specific way around it: for people without symptoms, keep the arms below shoulder height, and widen the grip. That is a recommendation about how to do the movement, not a verdict on it.

What it cannot do is tell you about your own shoulder. This page cannot see you and neither could the study. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.

What it is for

The barbell upright row is a compound shoulder exercise targeting the deltoids and trapezius. Pulling the bar upward along the body develops upper shoulder width and trap thickness, though proper form is important to protect the shoulder joint.

Questions people ask

What muscles does the upright row work?: The side of the delts does most of it, with the upper traps assisting and the biceps involved because the elbows bend. Widening the grip increased activity in both the middle deltoid and the upper trapezius when it was measured.
How high should you pull an upright row?: To just below shoulder height. Published guidance for this exercise recommends keeping arm elevation under 90 degrees, because raising the arm higher while it is rotated inward is the position most associated with pinching at the shoulder.
Are upright rows bad for your shoulders?: It is narrower than either slogan you will read. A specific position causes the problem: upper arm above shoulder height and rotated inward. Stopping below shoulder height with a wider grip is what the guidance recommends to stay out of it. Nobody can tell you about your shoulder from a page.
What grip width should you use for upright rows?: At least shoulder width. Wider grips produced more activity in the side of the shoulder and the upper traps when it was tested, and they involve less inward rotation of the arm. The narrow grip has nothing going for it.
What can I do instead of upright rows?: A lateral raise takes the arm out to the side with no bar dictating the path and no forced inward rotation, and it trains the same part of the shoulder. You will use much less weight, which is the trade.
Upright row or shrug for traps?: They are different actions with an overlap. A shrug only raises the shoulder blade. An upright row raises your upper arm as well, so it involves the side of the shoulder in a way a shrug never does.