Bottle Weighted Upright Row

How to do the Bottle Weighted Upright Row

1. 1Stand tall with your feet about hip-width apart and hold a filled water bottle in front of your thighs with both hands, palms facing your body.
2. 2Brace your core, keep your chest up, and pull your shoulder blades down and back.
3. 3Pull the bottle straight up the front of your body, leading with your elbows and keeping it close to your torso.
4. 4Raise the bottle until your hands reach roughly chest height and your elbows are level with or just below your shoulders.
5. 5Pause briefly at the top, keeping your wrists relaxed and the bottle close to you.
6. 6Lower the bottle under control back to the starting position in front of your thighs.
7. 7Complete your reps, then set the bottle down with control.

Form tips

• Lead the movement with your elbows, not your hands, so the shoulders and traps drive the pull.
• Keep the bottle close to your body throughout the rep to keep tension on the target muscles.
• Move at a steady tempo and avoid swinging — let the weight, not momentum, do the work.
• If your shoulders feel pinched, stop the pull just below shoulder height and use a wider hand spacing.

Common mistakes

• Raising your elbows far above your shoulders, which can pinch the shoulder joint and cause impingement.
• Using momentum to swing the bottle up, which takes tension off the shoulders and reduces the benefit of the lift.
• Letting the bottle drift away from your body, which strains the wrists and shifts load off the deltoids.
• Shrugging only with the traps and barely bending the elbows, which turns the rep into a partial shrug instead of a full row.

Frequently asked questions