The Pendlay row is a barbell row in which every rep starts from a dead stop on the floor and the torso stays close to horizontal throughout. It is named after the late American weightlifting coach Glenn Pendlay, who insisted it was just a strict barbell row with the back about parallel to the ground.
Pendlay did not pick the name. In his own demonstration he calls it “not a name I came up with” and says he believes it was Matt Reynolds who attached it to his description. He told BarBend he began rowing this way as a powerlifter, to build a back that could hold a heavy squat. Brolic lists it as Pendlay Row (Barbell).
Muscles worked
Brolic tags the upper back as the primary muscle group, with the lats and abdominals as secondary. That follows from the joint actions: the shoulder blades pull together, the upper arms travel back and the elbows bend. Pendlay’s own list ran from the spinal erectors through the lats to the whole upper back.
In a laboratory study of seven men, a standing bent-over row produced large muscle activity from the upper to the lower back and the highest lumbar spine load of the three rows compared. That study did not include the Pendlay row.
Set the back and hips
Stand as for a deadlift, feet about shoulder-width apart and the bar over the midfoot. Push your hips back and bend your knees until your back is parallel to the floor or just above it, then take an overhand grip slightly wider than your shoulders. Pendlay’s test for grip width is that it lets you hold that position with the bar still on the floor.
Set the lower back before the first rep. Pendlay has the lifter arch and tighten it as firmly as possible, then keep it and the hip angle unchanged. The upper back may round slightly while the bar rests.
If you cannot reach the bar without your lower back rounding, raise the bar. Nippard recommends resting it on bumper plates or low risers. Use one start height and write it down.
Row from a dead stop
Pull the bar to your lower chest or upper stomach. Pendlay’s cue is to arch the upper and middle back and pull fast with the arms while the lower back and hips stay where they began. Nippard has the elbows travel back about 45–65° out from the torso.
Lower under control and let the bar come to rest. Catalyst Athletics returns the bar to the floor between reps, and Nippard treats the full stop as what makes it a Pendlay row. Re-set your lower back, then pull again.
Watch your chest. Catalyst allows a little body movement to put speed on the bar. If the chest climbs with each rep, the set has become the upright row that Pendlay contrasts it with.
Start lighter than you expect. Nippard names too much weight as the most common error. Catalyst suggests sets of 5–15 reps; Nippard uses 8–12 for muscle-building work.
How it differs from a bent-over row
| Pendlay row | Conventional bent-over row | |
|---|---|---|
| Each rep starts | From a dead stop on the floor | Bar hanging; it does not touch down |
| Torso | Parallel to the floor or just above | Often well above parallel |
| Bar meets the body | Lower chest or upper stomach | Lower stomach, in Pendlay’s demonstration |
Pendlay did not call the gym-style row bad; he thought it left the lats and much of the back with less to do. That is a coach’s judgement. No trial compares the two for muscle or strength, so the table separates two histories; it does not rank them.
Logging
Brolic logs Pendlay Row (Barbell) in reps. Enter the total on the bar, bar included (the barbell calculator adds it up), and count only reps that began from a stop on the floor. Keep bent-over rows in a separate history: mixing hanging reps with dead-stop reps hides whether you progressed. The free workout log has room for the start height if you raised the bar, and the weekly set tally shows how these sets add to your upper-back work.
Common questions
Does the bar have to stop on the floor every rep? For this name, yes. Nippard notes that a controlled touch keeps more tension on the back, but does not count it as a true Pendlay row.
Is it still a Pendlay row from plates or blocks? The dead stop and the torso angle are the same; the range is shorter. Record the height.
Overhand or underhand? Nippard teaches a double overhand grip. Catalyst lists a palms-forward grip and a snatch-width grip as variations. Keep one grip per history.
My lower back hurts during the set. Stop the set. Next time reduce the load or raise the bar, or use a chest-supported row such as the Helms row, which Nippard offers as a substitute. Do not row through pain.
Sources and method
- Glenn Pendlay: Pendlayrow.wmv — the originator on the name, the gym-style row he contrasts and his cues; read from the video’s captions.
- BarBend: Glenn Pendlay explains the history behind the Pendlay row — Jake Boly’s interview: how Pendlay defined the row and why he began it.
- Catalyst Athletics: Pendlay row — the exercise library’s description, rep ranges and grip variations.
- Jeff Nippard: Pendlay row technique — stance, grip, elbow path, the full stop and raising the bar.
- Buff Dudes: Pendlay row tutorial — the bent-over row’s bar staying off the floor.
- Fenwick, Brown and McGill (2009) — trunk muscle activity and spine load in three rows; the Pendlay row was not one.
- Brolic catalog version 2026-09-22.1 — name, logging mode and muscle groups.
Positions, angles and rep ranges are starting points for learning the movement, drawn from the demonstrations cited, not optima established by a trial. A PubMed search for “Pendlay row” on October 5, 2026 found no study that isolates the lift or compares it with a bent-over row.
