The Back Move You Can Do With A Towel

The towel row is a great way to hit your back when you don’t have any equipment, and the whole exercise is tension. Pull the towel tight with both hands before it moves, and keep it that tight the entire time you row it in.

Why people think the towel row is a scam

A lot of people misunderstand this exercise and think towel exercises are a scam. Really, they just don’t know how to do it.

If you’re holding the towel limp, you’re just waving your arms around and not doing anything. The towel isn’t the problem. The problem is that you didn’t have any tension on it.

How to do a towel row

The key to towel exercises is holding a lot of tension on the towel. Here’s how to do it:

1. Grab the towel with both hands.
2. Pull it apart hard. You should be straining before the towel has moved at all. This is serious tension, and you’re already working here.
3. Row it in toward you while keeping that tension. When you bring it in, it’s even more work.
4. Stay tense the entire time. Don’t rest, and don’t let the towel go loose at any point in the row.

The karate chop test

I’m one of the original founders of Six Pack Shortcuts and SixPackAbs.com, and I learned this exercise back in the Six Pack Shortcuts days. We used to do these group workouts, and one thing the trainer running them would do is go around and karate chop people’s towels.

So when he karate chopped your towel, if nothing happens and it stays tight, you know you’re doing it right. But imagine if someone karate chops your towel and it just collapses. That’s how you know you don’t have enough tension.

So when you’re doing towel rows at home, ask yourself if your towel would pass the karate chop test. If it wouldn’t, pull harder.

Just stay tense with the towel row the entire time, and it should be a very strenuous exercise. And if you want to do it as part of a full workout, towel rows are one of the five exercises in my 3 minute total body home workout.

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This is general fitness information, not medical advice.