The Seal Row is a intermediate-friendly barbell strength exercise that targets the lats, middle back and traps, with the biceps and shoulders working alongside. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesLats, Middle Back, Traps
Secondary musclesBiceps, Shoulders
EquipmentBarbell
LevelIntermediate
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Seal Row
Raise a flat bench on blocks or plates until a loaded bar clears the floor at arm's length.
Lie face down with your chest on the pad and your head past the end of the bench.
Take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders and hang the bar with straight arms.
Pull your shoulder blades together and drive your elbows up until the bar reaches the bench.
Hold the top for a beat without lifting your chest away from the pad.
Lower the bar under control to full arm extension and repeat.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Removes hip drive and lumbar load, so the back muscles do the work.
Enforces a repeatable range because the torso cannot shift between reps.
Trains mid-back thickness alongside the lats in one horizontal pull.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Peeling your chest off the pad to finish a rep, which puts back the momentum the bench position exists to remove.
Setting the bench too low, so the bar hits the floor and the bottom of every rep is cut short.
Leading with the hands instead of the elbows, which hands the work to the biceps and starves the mid-back.
Dropping the bar quickly on the way down, which loses tension in the lats over most of the range.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Seal Row, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
