Crush Your Back and Abs Using Your Bodyweight and a Towel
If you want to improve core strength and hone better total-body rowing form, here’s a perfect way to do it. Just make sure that you don’t leave your hand towel in your gym bag—you’ll need it for more than just wiping off your sweaty palms.
You’ll be using the same basic setup as the inverted row, which is one of the top ways we love to build back and core strength using just your bodyweight. But Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., adds a grip element to make the towel inverted row hold even more challenging.
“Few iso holds fire up as much of your entire body in as natural a sequence as this one,” Samuel says. “Mid-back muscles, abs, and glutes (all key postural muscles and muscles we can almost never overwork) have to be active here, and your forearms, underutilized by a lot of exercises, also must be completely engaged.”
The most underrated aspect about this movement—and other variations of the inverted row—is how effective it is at working your core. But if you think about the positioning, this makes sense.
“Essentially, what we’re doing is taking a plank position and flipping it completely upside down,” says Samuel. “Like a plank, your entire core must work in unison to help you create a completely straight line from shoulders through feet. But unlike a plank, where you can somewhat cheat, sagging in the middle but still “think” you’re working, you can’t sag in the middle at all here.”
To take on the workout, you’ll need a barbell positioned on a squat rack, a bench or platform for your feet, and a towel.
Men’s Health/Eric Rosati
- Start underneath the bar, with your legs extended straight out to elevate your feet on top of the bench or platform. Loop the towel around the bar and grip it tightly with both hands.
- Pull yourself up and hold in a straight body position parallel with the ground. That means you’re squeezing your core and glutes to keep your torso straight, while also squeezing your shoulder blades together and locking in your forearms.
- Hold in position for 30 seconds
While you’re probably most focused on your back and forearms while you struggle to hold yourself up, it’s important to remember that you’ll only be able to get the most out of the move with proper full body posture. “In order to maintain a fully straight line, core and glutes must be fully on the entire time; it’s the only way to hold your torso in proper place,” emphasizes Samuel.
While you’re working to accumulate 30 total seconds of hold time in each set, don’t necessarily expect to hang on for an unbroken half-minute. You can drop out of the hold, catch your breath a few seconds, then keep working toward your 30 seconds of work. Try 3 reps of the towel inverted row hold for your next workout.
For more tips and routines from Samuel, check out our full slate of Eb and Swole workouts. If you want to try an even more dedicated routine, consider Eb’s New Rules of Muscle program on our All/Out Studio app.
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