Today we are going to talk about cheat rows and why they are a waste of time for most trainees. The cheat row, also known as the "Rubish Row" and more recently the "Woolam Row," has been popularized amongst recent generations of trainees by the likes of its namesakes - the two aforementioned freak of nature deadlifters Pete Rubish and Cailer Woolam, both of whom are 900+ pound deadlifters.

But it's not a new concept. Before these guys George Leeman was doing something similar. And before him big Ronnie Coleman was building possibly the freakiest back of all time by using a lot of body English to perform traditional barbell rows.

The focal point for today though is going to be cheat rowing as an accessory for building a big deadlift, as that is most often the context by which it is rationalized as an effective movement in today's training culture. However, I disagree that this movement does anything special whatsoever. I think ultimately its popularity is due in part to selection bias, as well as a few correlational factors that happen to line up for the people who have seen success doing it. But we can recreate those correlations elsewhere with more stimulatory, less jarring exercises, making the cheat row redundant at best and potentially injurious at worst.

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