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Technique

  1. Assume an incline hanging position under your bar or rings, where your head is above your chest and your feet are resting on the ground.
  2. Keep your body straight by engaging your core.
  3. Keep your arms under tension by holding tight.
  4. While keeping your arms straight, initiate the movement by pulling your shoulder blades backwards, as if trying to pinch a pen behind your back.
  5. Slowly let yourself sink down, keeping tension in your upper back before repeating the movement.
  6. Vary difficulty by bringing your body into a more horizontal (harder) or more vertical (easier) starting position.

Form tips

  • Avoid using your feet, hips or arms to initiate the movement.
  • Keep the elbows locked straight.
  • Aim for controlled, slow movement even if the range of motion of this movement is small.

Muscles

Strength

Primary

  • Back
  • Rhomboid major
  • Middle trapezius
  • Lower trapezius

Equipment

Appears in

Calisthenics skills
Joint movements
Shoulderretraction
trains stretches

Progressions

e05l

Incline row

Beginner
e05b

Shoulder row

Novice
e0zf

Floor W raise

Beginner
e04u

Hanging plank

Beginner
e0zg

Floor W hold

Beginner
e09q

Hanging plank shoulder circles

Novice
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