Posted by Marianne in Kettlebell Exercises | 18 Comments
Kettlebell Single Arm Row – Exercise Tutorial
Hi all,
The Kettlebell Single Arm Row is an excellent pulling exercise for both beginners and those with only one Kettlebell. When using correct form, you will primarily work your upper back muscles, the shoulder muscles, but you will also use your core to stabilise yourself, your grip, forearm and biceps. Additionally, you will statically exercise your supporting leg throughout the movement.
When designing a workout, you should look to create balance between muscle groups and pulling exercises are often forgotten. In order to open up the posture and help strengthen the back (which is commonly one of the weakest areas), we must remember to exercise it in every workout if possible. And the best way to exercise the upper back is by pulling.
The main teaching points are:
- First place one foot pointing forward, leg bent as if in a lunge, put the Kettlebell beside the inner part of that foot.
- Place the other foot straight out the back (knee locked for anchorage), this foot should be at a near right angle compared to the forward foot.
- Keep the back straight, and the shoulders back and down with the head in line with the spine, lean forward and rest the same forearm onto the top of the forward leg. Brace the core.
- Reach down with the other hand and grip the forward corner of the Kettlebells handle.
- Ensure the body is stable, then pull the Kettlebell from the foot towards the hip, keeping the elbow as close to the side of the body as possible.
- At the top of the movement squeeze the shoulder blade inwards, to recruit more of the muscle fibres.
- Reverse the movement under tension.
Key Pointers:
- Don’t look up or down as this will encourage the spine to over extend or flex – you must keep the back straight and the head in line. Pick a spot out in front and focus on it.
- Don’t use the whole body to assist the lift, only use the arm you are rowing with, the rest of the body is static and stable.
- Elbow close to the side. This will enable the correct muscles to fire and the proper range of movement.
- Keeping the reverse movement under tension will properly use all the muscle fibres and help with strength and muscle development.
- To make it harder, perform the reps slower.
- Rest the body weight onto the front leg, this will take pressure off the lower back and provide stability.
Typically a heavier weight can be used for this exercise as the body is rested on the front leg and the back muscles are stronger than we normally think.
If you do a lot of push ups, then start adding in more pulling exercises to add balance to your upper body.
Thanks everyone. This is only the first of my Kettlebell Rowing exercises.
Marianne
Intermittent Fasting:
Learn and Train:
Great, great, great tutorial.
Very clear and well explained, including the importance of pulling concept.
Thanks.
Bianca
Marrianne,
I see you do most your kettlebell workout bare footed. Is that a preference for you or is it better for eveyone to do them bare footed. I always wear shoes.
Thanks,
Jim
Jim, I prefer it because I can balance better. When training with weights, having your heels close to the floor helps your spine alignment. Most sneakers riase your heel, increasing the lumbar curve, which can put mor pressure there. Doing the KB swing in trainers feels very strange to me now. It’s just my preference. I wear my five-fingers in our classes. I only wear trainers if I am doing gym-based cardio.
You can also get flat soled training shoes which help. Barefoot training also means your can grip the floor with your tooties too, which helps
Cheers
Marianne
Marianne and Andrew, Happy new Year !
Great tutorials. Feeling much more confident with my kettle bells.
Starting a new daily eating shedule it goes like this.
Whey protein shake and half a banana. 200 cal
Half cup quick oats and half cup blueberries. 250 cal
175 plain non fat yogurt and half cup blue berries. 150 cal
3 egg omelet, 2 yolks removed with onion etc. 200 cal
Whey protein shake and half banana 200 cal
Skinless chick breast baked and a salad oil and. 400 cal
Vinegar dressing
What do you think? I’m a male mid 30s
All the best
Thanks Raffaele, Happy new year to you too.
Although I am not qualified in nutrition science, I can tell you that 1400kcals for a man is not enough. Also, think about essential fats too. Given your age and that fact you are active, you need to be eating about another 1000 kcals? Even if your goal is weight loss, you will risk losing muscle and affecting your metabolism if you eat like this all the time.
What are your goals and what weight and height are you?
Sorry, I will ask Andrew what he would recommend. I don’t want to give out any general diet advice anymore, that’s why I need to know a little more. Do you know your Bodyfat % too?
Cheers
Marianne
Wow quick response, thank you.
I’m 5 feet 10 inches and 205 pounds.
Body fat probably over 20 % ,have solid frame but look bloated.
I know it’s a bit extreme but I want to see my abs again!
I figure at 170 to 175 pounds they will appear.
Raffaele,
I still need to speak to Andrew, but I can say from experience, that extreme measures will not give you the results you want. You want sustainable results that can be easily maintained. Inevitably you will start to eat more again, and if your have lost muscle (and therefore metabolic potential), the extra food will then be excess calories and these will more than likely be stored as fat, unless you start lifting really heavy weights. If you only cut your calories slightly over a longer period of time and implement heavier resistance and strength training along with HIIT, you will see better results long term with your body composition.
Finally, getting a six pack isn’t the be all and end all. If you focus on your training and strength, you may find it happens as a bonus. If this is your only goal, you will most likely be disappointed when you do see your abs. At first it’s great, but then the cycle never ends and it’s never enough. You may then spend your life trying to keep it, no matter the cost.
Just some friendly advice that having a six pack does NOT = fitness!
I will email you when Andrew can see your stats
Cheers
Marianne
Really enjoying your tutorials! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us! Happy New Year!
Liz
Hey Marianne ,another question.
Can you lower calories but eat more protein rich meals and still maintain your muscle or increase muscle mass?
How often do you and Andrew workout cardio and weights?
I hope I’m not monopolizing all your time.
Thanks for all your help guys!
raff
Raff, Eating more protein, but less total calories will not mean more muscle. Even if all your calories were made up from protein, but your total calories were too low, you would probably still lose muscle. More protein equalling more muscle is a “body builders” myth. You need to get enough of all macronutrients and calories to build muscle. If you are cutting, things are different, but if you want to do phases, you need to have a surplus of muscle to allow for some loss.
If you just reduce your total calories slightly, but train heavy, adding in your HIIT cardio, you may achieve slow muscle growth and fat loss at the same time.
At the minute, the cardio in my workouts is all I do. Andrew only does cardio in the classes he takes, he trains heavy with weights about 3 times per week. I try to train heavy twice a week, but at the minute I am just doing my workouts.
Do your weights first then hit your cardio for about 20-30 minutes after. Or just add HIIT in the morning before you eat. Please don’t cut your calories too low. Andrew reckons no less than 1800kcal per day for losing fat, but if you want to build muscle you will need to reassess this. It’s nearly impossible to do both at the same time and get fast results.
I hope this helps a little
Thanks for the great advice guys!
Love to see an example of a heavy weights workout from you.
It might be easier if you guys moved to Vancouver and become my personal trainer! Haha!
All the best Raffaele.
LOL, wish we could travel over to CA too, have family there, ya never know!
Another pipeline plan is to do a video for my heavy gym day, so will hopefully get that done soon.
Hope you achieve your goals, remember it’s a long haul
And I’m here.
Cheers
Marianne
Fantastic site! I am new to k.b,s. And have searched many sites, your tutorials are excellent. One question though, can you measure the distance between the ball and handle of you k.b,s, I can’t seem to find any that I can get my hand through when bringing them to rack position, which leaves my wrist cocked back. Seams like an injury waiting to happen. Not to mention it’s a bit painful with the ball hitting the back of my wrist.
I know there are better bells out there than the ones I have, I’ll just have to keep looking.
Thanks Sean
Sean, thanks for your comment
The KBs I use are Pro grade or competition grade, which means the dimensions are always the same. The distance between the ball and handle is nearly 3inches, but it’s also about the shape and width too, because when racking the bell, the handle should be diagonal from the hook of the thumb and the heel of the hand on the opposite side to the thumb. This lock the KB in a better position, which will help with wrist positioning. There are many KB that are poorly designed, meaning the bell rests on the wrist.
Get pro grade bells, or if you visit Wolverson-Fitness, you’ll see their standard Russian KBs have a lovely wide handle, these are great! I used these before I got the pro grade. Don’t worry I am just showing you to describe them
And I am not an affiliate for them anyway LOL 
You’ll probably need to order online, there are better examples. Here’s one Laura suggested a while back, NeptuneBarbell. Hope this helps
Cheers
Marianne
Great tutorial I can’t wait to go home and workout, I haven’t in 5 days and I am itching to pick up my kettlebells.
Hello Marianne! The last week I have watched several of your tutorials, and I really find them very helpful. I have learned a lot of things which will improve my technique. I am really glad that I found your site. You are helping a lot of people, always supporting everybody who writes to you. I suppose it must take very much of your time, and I hope you find time to enjoy other things as well. Besides, I very much like your attitude in general. The way you seem to be thinking of the existential subjects in life very much corresponds with my own way of thinking. It is almost like having found a new friend. Having experienced how fragile life can be, it is so important to realize what really matters. To live in the now, being kind and respecting other people, and to be grateful is what matters most. We can all do our little bit to make the world a better place. We all have responsibility. And now to the question: I like the single arm row exercise very much. I have mostly performed it with my foreleg (can one say that?)upon my stepbox, because I believed that would protect my lower back better. But maybe that prevents me from getting full benefit of the exercise? What do you think? Have a nice evening! Kind regards, Kirsten
Hey,
If I understand your description correctly, then I imagine your torso will still be very upright? To work the back best, you need to have the chest and shoulder facing the floor more. If you are too upright, you simply use the traps and deltoids and won’t get full benefit. If you find your back is straining, then I would advise to use a bench (maybe 17inches high) to place say your right knee and right hand on, while you row with your left like in the picture:
Hope this helps
Thanks a lot, that was very helpful! Kind regards, Kirsten