The renegade row offers us a wide array of benefits for core stability, back strength, and total body fitness (each discussed below). This versatile movement can also be combined with other bodyweight exercises, in this case the push-up and burpee to offer us a high intensity, total body movement to increase metabolic activity, caloric expenditure, and increase our fitness.
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Why Do Them?
There are a plethora of reasons why you should do renegade rows, push ups, and burpees, especially in combination. Adding them into one metabolic movement is not only only a crazy good idea for increased efficiency in a workout, it can also offer athletes the below benefits.
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Increase Metabolic Activity
When trying to lose body fat, burn calories, or simply increase your body’s ability to be metabolic furnace, choosing high intensity movements that involve large muscle groups at once is the goal. Movements like sprinting, sporting activities, and Olympic lifts are just a few movements that fall into this category. The renegade row with push up/burpee is about as complex and all inclusive as a movement can get. It taxes the core, legs, back, arms, shoulders, and heart, creating a metabolic effect that can leave you burning calories and increasing fitness long after the session. When looking to do these, you can go lighter and work to move with speed and stamina OR you can move with moderate to heavy loads, focusing on strength and work capacity. Either way, be sure to adhere to strict form, and make sure that you never sacrifice form for sloppy reps.
Core Strength
Midline control and stability is at the root of nearly every human movement (running, swimming, biking, jumping, lifting, etc). As we move, we allow joints to flex and extend, muscle to contract, and ultimately produce force and movement. The role of the deep core muscles, obliques, erectors, and abdominals is to protect the spine (specifically the lumbar spine region) from shearing and rotational forces that often are placed upon the vertebrae during movement. While a rigid torso is not also needed, core strength, bracing capacities, and anti-rotational power and stability is.
Total Body Stamina
What is total body stamina, and why is it important? Well first, the term total body stamina is one I loosely define as the ability to withstand fatigue (both mental and physical) across a wide array of muscle groups and movement patterns. This is a foundational aspect of all sports and fitness (while yes, I agree that some sports place emphasis on certain body parts and movements more than others).
[Read More: Train to Do 100 Push-Ups a Day]
As a general rule of thumb, the ability to move with integrity, strength, fluidity, and an unwavering consistent pace (stamina) can be highly beneficial as a lifter or athlete progresses. Renegade rows with push ups/burpees combine various general physical preparedness (GPP) movements into one massive complex, meaning they should be learned and mastered by most fitness goers and athletes, for the sake of fitness. While this movement will not take your snatch from 70kg to 100kg or help you run a faster mile, it can increase work capacity, blood flow, mobility (unlocking new ranges), and a mentality that won’t quit. All of those will certainly help you do those above physical feats.
How to Do Them?
Below is a video tutorial on how to perform the renegade row with a push up/burpee. Note that the renegade row with a burpee (so called “Man Makers” are very similar and include you doing a full squat clean during the burpee…see below) requires you to hold the weights in both hands while you perform the burpee.
Get Your Renegade Row ON!
If the above article didn’t motivate you to break out of your fitness shell, hopefully these below articles will!
- Try these intense renegade row alternatives!
- Can you guess ALL six reasons why you should do renegade rows?
Featured Image: @annie_marie_hiatt on Instagram
