Alternating Renegade Row
Also works: Abdominals · Biceps · Chest · Lats · Triceps
A row performed from the top of a push-up position with your hands on two kettlebells, lifting one bell at a time. The moment a hand leaves the floor you are on three points of contact, and your entire trunk has to stop your hips from spinning towards the ceiling — the row is almost the easy part.
Own the movement
Set up first, then execute. Every cue below is something you can check on your next set.
Before the first rep
- Use bells with flat, wide bases and set them shoulder-width apart on a non-slip floor. Round-bottomed bells will roll and dump you.
- Set up in a push-up position with hands stacked directly under your shoulders, gripping the handles rather than the horns.
- Spread your feet to at least shoulder width — a wide base is the single biggest factor in whether your hips stay square.
- Squeeze the glutes and pull the ribs down so the body is one straight line from heel to head, not a sagging plank.
- Take a breath and brace hard before the first hand leaves the floor.
Every rep
Breathing & tempo — Do not hold your breath for the whole set. Exhale as the bell comes to your ribs, inhale as it lowers, and take a full breath between sides. One second up, one second squeezed, two seconds down.
Before you load it
- Never do these on kettlebells with rounded or narrow bases, or on a slick floor. A bell tipping under a locked elbow puts your full bodyweight through one shoulder.
Sets, reps & load
Where to start, and what to change when it stops being hard.
Hold a 60-second plank with a hand lift on each side before you touch a bell. Then start at 8-12 kg — noticeably lighter than what you row bent over. Progress by widening the gap between your feet less, or slowing the tempo, long before you add weight; load is the last variable to change here.
What goes wrong
The errors that show up most often, and the cue that fixes each one.
Widen your feet to a metre apart and cut the bell weight in half. Balance a light object on your lower back and keep it there for the whole set; if it slides off, the load is still too heavy.
Cap the bells at a weight where you could do fifteen strict reps per arm, then never exceed it. The trunk fails long before the back does — chase quality of position, not the row weight.
Squeeze the glutes and tuck the pelvis before rep one, and re-brace between every alternation. If the sag returns by rep four, cut the set there.
Before each row, push the floor away and pull the support shoulder down into its socket. Hanging on a passive shoulder for six reps is where people leave this movement with a sore rotator cuff rather than a trained trunk.
Why bother
Lifting one hand from a plank leaves your bodyweight supported diagonally, and gravity immediately tries to rotate your pelvis open. Resisting that is a hard anti-rotation contract through the obliques and the deep trunk, held for the full duration of each rep rather than the second or two a Pallof press gives you.
The cost is that the back never gets loaded properly. Your feet and the supporting arm cap how much weight you can row before the hips break, so this is a trunk exercise wearing a row's clothing. Program it for what it actually trains — bracing under asymmetric load — and use a bent-over row when you want to build the mid-back.
Where it fits
Late in a pull or full-body session, or as trunk work on its own, 6-8 reps per side for two or three sets. Once or twice a week. Never place it before heavy pressing — a fatigued trunk from renegade rows will show up as a wobbling bench press an hour later.
If this one isn't it
No kit, too hard, or too easy — here's where to go instead.
Same job, different kit
Start here instead
When this gets easy
Asked and answered
Is this a back exercise or an ab exercise?
An ab exercise that pays a small dividend to the mid-back. The weight you can row from a plank is far below what you can row bent over, so it never becomes a serious back stimulus. Log it alongside your trunk work and get your rowing volume elsewhere.
Should I add a push-up between the rows?
Only if you want a conditioning circuit. Adding the push-up fatigues the supporting shoulder and makes the position you are trying to hold harder to hold well. Keep the rows strict and do your pressing as its own movement.
How wide should my feet be?
Wide enough that your hips stay level, which for most people means at least shoulder width and often close to a metre. Narrowing the stance is a legitimate progression once the weight is under control — it is a much better one than adding kilos.
Kettlebells or dumbbells?
Hex dumbbells are the safer choice for most gyms because their flat sides will not roll. Competition kettlebells with a wide flat base work equally well. Avoid cast-iron bells with a small rounded base entirely for this movement.