The gorilla row is a bent-over row with two kettlebells on the floor between your feet. You hinge, row one bell to your side while the other stays on the floor as a prop, set it down, and row the other. The name is usually explained by the hunched, fist-on-the-floor posture.
Nobody is credited with inventing or naming it; PureGym calls it an unusual back exercise with a long history in bodybuilding, and a web search on October 7, 2026 found no originator. Brolic lists it as Gorilla Row (Kettlebell), with “Kettlebell Gorilla Row” as an alias, and logs it as a two-sided exercise: the rep count is the total number of pulls, left and right together.
Muscles worked
Brolic tags the upper back as the primary muscle group, with the abdominals, biceps and latissimus dorsi as secondary. Mark Wildman says the floating version, where the bells never touch down, is felt in the glutes, hands and lower back because you hold the bottom of a swing throughout.
No published study measures it: a PubMed search on October 7, 2026 found the phrase “gorilla row” in no indexed paper, so nothing establishes that it builds more back than a dumbbell or barbell row.
Set the stance
Put two kettlebells together between your feet, with the feet outside them. Wildman sets the feet wider than the two bells; Daniel Aipa has them about shoulder width with the bells inside the base. Wildman points his feet straight ahead and calls turning them out a barbell habit.
Bring the bells back underneath you. Wildman lines the middle of each bell up with his toes; other coaches push them back to the toe line.
Hinge as if for a deadlift. Aipa’s set-up is hips back, back flat, chest up, knees out, head neutral rather than looking down. Wildman’s is the bottom of a swing: hips back, knees not collapsing in.
Sit back, do not lean forward. Aipa corrects lifters who tip forward over the bells; he wants the hips back and the hamstrings and glutes loaded.
Row
Lock out the supporting arm. In Wildman’s floor version one arm stays straight on its bell, tricep squeezed hard, and you press your weight down into that bell while the other side rows. Aipa keeps a tight grip on the stationary bell for the same reason.
Row to the hip, without shrugging. Aipa rows into the hips and names shrugging as the fault. Wildman’s landmark on a single-arm row is a fist between the bottom rib and the hip bone; on the double version his hand lands about two ribs higher, at the same spot every rep.
Set it down with the legs. On the floor version Wildman returns the bell with the legs and glutes rather than the lower back, especially with big weights.
Choose a variation and keep it. Wildman teaches two. In the first, each bell returns to the floor every rep and the other arm locks out on its bell; that is the one he loads heavy. In the floating version you lean back into the heels, lift both bells and alternate pulls without setting them down; he keeps it light because holding the position is the hard part. Aipa adds a third: all reps on one side before the other, which suits a single kettlebell.
Keep the pace slow. Wildman programs the double version for 3 to 5 reps a side for strength if the bells are heavy enough, 6 to 8 or 10 to 12 with middling weights, or 30 to 90 seconds of continuous work with light bells at about two seconds a pull.
Beside the dumbbell row and the Pendlay row
| Gorilla row | Single-arm dumbbell row | Pendlay row | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support | The other hand on a bell on the floor, or none in the floating version | A hand and knee on a bench | None |
| Each rep starts | On the floor, or hanging in the floating version | Hanging | From a dead stop on the floor |
| Sides | Alternating | One side, then the other | Both at once |
Wildman calls his floor version a lifter turning their own side into a bench, so the supported rows differ mainly in what does the supporting; the Pendlay row shares the dead stop.
Logging
Brolic logs Gorilla Row (Kettlebell) as a two-sided exercise. Enter the weight of one kettlebell and the total number of pulls: five left and five right is a set of 10. Note whether the bells returned to the floor or floated, and whether you alternated or finished one side first, because Wildman loads the two versions differently. The free workout log has room for those notes, and the weekly set tally shows how these sets add to your upper-back work.
Common questions
Only one kettlebell? Aipa says do all your reps on one side, then the other. Wildman treats single-arm rows as a separate exercise, so log it under its own name.
My lower back takes over. Wildman’s answer is the floor version, resting one arm on its bell, and returning the weight with the legs. If it still hurts, stop.
Sources and method
- T Nation, Daniel Aipa: The kettlebell gorilla row — stance, hinge, knees-out and sit-back cues, rowing to the hips without shrugging; automatic captions and the video description.
- Mark Wildman: Gorilla row, alternating double kettlebell row — foot and bell position, the support arm, the two variations, rep schemes, the leg return; automatic captions.
- PureGym: Gorilla rows — “a long history in bodybuilding”, muscles and steps.
- Gymshark, Andrew Hyde: Gorilla rows — muscles and steps; no origin given.
- PubMed search for “gorilla row” on October 7, 2026 — phrase not found.
- Brolic catalog — name, alias, logging mode and muscle tags.
Rep schemes are Wildman’s programming, not optima from a trial, and no comparative growth claim is made against other rows.
