I’m closing in on 50 years old and I’m getting stronger than I’ve been and my joints are probably also feeling the best they’ve felt in years. That being said I do have barbel rows in my routine and I’ve always done them with an underhand grip and really never thought twice about the risks until a few recent videos I’ve seen. I’m stronger and feel more comfortable in that position and don’t snap my reps or heave very much. So is there a substantial bicep injury risk? Would using wrist traps substantially lower that risk or should I immediately switch over to a pronated grip and just get used to it?
There are no controlled data on the matter to give you an accurate estimate of risk.
If you’ve been doing it that way for a long time, you are likely adapted to it and will have reduced your risk relative to others who have not done it that way before and suddenly switch over.
With that said, we don’t feel the purported benefits of “using more biceps” is worthwhile tradeoff for this exercise compared to just doing more chin-ups or curls - exercises that are generally less fatiguing and can therefore be trained at higher volumes to achieve more biceps hypertrophy (assuming that’s the goal here).
That makes sense. I do rows to try and get my stronger/thicker/etc. I had started years ago thinking if I can use more weight with comparable form using an undergrip it would work the back muscles harder. It’s a good 10% difference for me between the two grips. Anyway thank you for the reply.