Landmine Row: How to Do It, Muscles Worked and Benefits

The landmine row solves an old problem. Barbell rows build a thick back better than almost anything, and they also load your lower back hard while you hold a bent-over position for a full set, which is where a lot of people quietly go wrong. Anchor one end of the bar instead and the arc changes: the weight travels through a fixed path, stays close to your body, and you can pull heavy without spending the set fighting to keep your spine where it should be.

It has become a staple in strength programmes for good reason, and it needs almost nothing. A barbell, a corner, some plates.

How to do a landmine row

This describes the single-arm version, which is the one worth learning first.

1. Anchor the bar. Slide one end into a landmine sleeve, or wedge it into a corner with a towel or an old plate protecting the wall. Load the far end.
2. Set your stance. Stand beside the loaded end facing the anchor, feet staggered with the leg on your non-working side forward. Hinge at the hips until your torso is around 45 degrees.
3. Take the grip. Grab the bar just behind the collar with the hand nearest the anchor point, or grip the sleeve itself if your bar allows. Rest your free forearm on your forward thigh for support.
4. Pull. Drive your elbow back and slightly towards your hip, pulling the bar until your hand reaches your lower ribs. Your shoulder blade should retract; the arm is the hook, not the engine.
5. Lower under control. Let the bar travel back down along the same arc, allowing your shoulder blade to protract fully at the bottom for a proper stretch across the lat.
6. Stay square. Your shoulders should finish the rep facing the same way they started. Rotating your torso to shift the weight is the most common cheat here.

Muscles worked

• Latissimus dorsi. The main mover. The angled bar path lets you pull the elbow past your ribs, which is where the lat gets its best contraction.
• Mid traps and rhomboids. They retract the shoulder blade at the top of each rep, and this is the part most people skip by pulling with the arm alone.
• Rear deltoids. They work throughout, more so if you pull with the elbow flared out wider.
• Biceps and brachialis. Assisting on every rep, and often the first thing to fatigue if your grip and arms are the weak link.
• Obliques and deep trunk muscles. Single-arm loading tries to rotate you. Resisting that is real anti-rotation work, closely related to what a Pallof press trains deliberately.

Benefits

It builds back thickness without punishing your lower back. This is the honest headline. Research comparing rowing variations found that the standing bent-over row produced strong, symmetrical back activation but the largest lumbar spine load of the exercises tested, while single-arm and supported variations spread the demand differently. The landmine row keeps you in a hinge you can actually hold.

It fixes side-to-side imbalances. Training one arm at a time exposes the weaker side rather than letting the stronger one quietly take over, which is what happens on every barbell row you have ever done.

It suits home gyms. No cable stack, no lat pulldown, no machine. If your kit is a barbell, plates and a rack, this gives you a heavy horizontal pull that the rest of your setup probably cannot.

It is easier on cranky shoulders. The neutral or semi-neutral hand position and the fixed arc are usually more comfortable than a wide pronated row, which matters if your shoulders have opinions. The NHS recommends strength work covering the major muscle groups on two or more days a week, and back work is the half of that most people neglect.

Common mistakes

Rowing with the arm instead of the back. If your biceps are the only thing sore afterwards, you never retracted the shoulder blade. Think about driving the elbow behind you, not curling the bar upward.

Rotating the torso to move more weight. Very common, and it turns an anti-rotation exercise into a rotation exercise with a heavy load. Film one set from the front; the shoulders should stay level.

Standing too upright. A near-vertical torso shortens the range badly and turns the movement into a shrug. Hinge until you feel the hamstrings load.

Yanking off the floor. Bouncing the plate on the ground between reps kills the tension the exercise depends on. Stop just short of the floor and reset.

Too much weight, too soon. The leverage is not the same as a dumbbell row, and the first session is not the time to find out where the ceiling is.

Variations

• Meadows row. Stand side-on to the bar with a staggered stance and grip the sleeve end with a pronated hand. Slightly different lat emphasis and a longer range, and the version many lifters prefer once they are comfortable with the basic pattern.
• Two-handed landmine row. Use a V-handle or clamp both hands on the bar end and row between your legs. Heavier loads, less anti-rotation work, and a good option when you want pure volume. It sits nicely beside the T-bar row.
• Chest-supported landmine row. Set an incline bench beside the bar and lie on it. Removes the lower back from the equation entirely, which makes it useful on days when your spine has already had enough from deadlifts.
• Kneeling landmine row. Half-kneeling on the working side. Shortens the range and forces the trunk to work harder against rotation.
• Landmine row to press. Row, then stand and press the bar overhead. A conditioning variation that pairs the pattern with the landmine press.

Sets and reps

• Strength: 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps per side, resting 90 seconds. Load heavy but stop the set when your shoulder blade stops retracting.
• Hypertrophy: 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 12 per side with a deliberate two second lower, resting 60 to 90 seconds.
• Learning it: 3 sets of 8 with one plate, focusing entirely on keeping the shoulders square.

Two sessions a week is plenty. Pair it with a vertical pull such as pull-ups or a lat pulldown so your back gets both directions, and see the back exercises guide for how the whole thing fits together. More home training ideas in the workouts section.

Recommended reads

1. Landmine press
2. T-bar row
3. Bent over row
4. Back exercises
5. Best barbell UK