If you’ve spent any time in a commercial gym, you’ve probably heard the warnings about the upright row. It’s been called a "shoulder killer" by more than a few personal trainers. People talk about impingement like it’s an inevitable curse that comes with pulling a bar toward your chin. And honestly? With a straight barbell, they’re mostly right. Locking your wrists into a fixed position while forcing your humerus into internal rotation is a recipe for a cranky rotator cuff. But here’s the thing: the single arm upright row changes the entire equation.
It’s different.
By using one arm at a time—usually with a dumbbell or a kettlebell—you unlock a degree of freedom that a barbell simply won't allow. Your body isn't a symmetrical machine. One shoulder might have slightly more internal rotation than the other. One side might have a bit of scar tissue from a high school baseball injury. When you go unilateral, you can find the specific "lane" that feels natural for your anatomy. You get the massive lateral deltoid pop without the stabbing pain.
The Mechanics of Why the Single Arm Upright Row Works
Let’s get technical for a second, but not too boring. The primary goal of any upright row variation is to target the medial deltoid—that’s the muscle that gives your shoulders width. It also hits the upper traps and the brachialis. In a standard barbell row, your hands are fixed. As you pull up, your elbows go high, and your upper arm bone (the humerus) rotates inward. This can jam the tendons in your shoulder against the acromion process.
Using a single weight allows for "carrying angle" adjustments. You can pull the weight slightly out to the side or slightly in front of your body.
Most people find that a slight lean toward the working side helps. It sounds counterintuitive, but tilting your torso just five or ten degrees can open up the subacromial space. This is a tip often championed by coaches like Jeff Cavaliere or the late John Meadows. They understood that "textbook" form often ignores individual bone structure. If you have narrow shoulders, a wide grip on a bar is a nightmare. If you use a dumbbell, your hand can move in an arc that suits you.
Think about the way you carry a heavy grocery bag. You don't hold it in a rigid, robotic line. Your body shifts to accommodate the load. The single arm upright row taps into that natural movement.
Freedom of the Wrist and Elbow
When you're holding a dumbbell, your wrist can rotate. You aren't stuck in a strict overhand grip. A lot of lifters find relief by starting the movement with a neutral grip (palm facing the thigh) and slightly rotating to an overhand grip as they reach the top. This subtle corkscrew motion can take a massive amount of pressure off the elbow joint.
It’s also about the elbow height. You don't actually need to pull the weight to your eyeballs. Stopping when your elbow reaches shoulder height—or just slightly above—is usually the "sweet spot" for muscle activation. Anything higher starts to involve more traps and less side delt, and that's usually where the impingement risk spikes.
Real Talk: Is it Better Than Lateral Raises?
Every "fitness influencer" will tell you to just do lateral raises instead. And look, lateral raises are great. They are the bread and butter of shoulder training. But the single arm upright row allows you to move significantly more weight. It’s a compound movement, whereas the lateral raise is an isolation exercise.
You can load a dumbbell upright row much heavier than a raise. This creates a different type of mechanical tension.
- Lateral Raises: Great for the "burn" and metabolic stress.
- Single Arm Rows: Great for raw strength and thickness.
If you only do raises, you're leaving gains on the table. The pulling motion engages the biceps and the muscles of the upper back in a way that a swinging raise just doesn't. Plus, because you're using one arm, your core has to work overtime to keep you from toppling over. It becomes a stealth oblique exercise. You’re fighting the "lateral shear" of the weight pulling you to one side.
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How to Actually Perform the Move Without Wrecking Yourself
Stop thinking about pulling the weight "up." Instead, think about pulling your elbow "out and up."
- Grab a dumbbell. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Hold the weight in front of your opposite hip or just in front of your thigh.
- Keep a "soft" knees stance. Don't lock them out.
- Initiate the move by driving your elbow toward the ceiling and the wall next to you.
- Stop once your upper arm is parallel to the floor.
- Control the weight on the way down. Don't just let it drop.
The "negative" or eccentric portion of the lift is where a lot of muscle growth happens. If you're just yanking the weight up and letting gravity take it down, you're doing half the work for zero of the credit.
Common Mistakes I See Every Day
The most common sin is the "shrug-row" hybrid. This is when someone picks a weight that’s way too heavy and starts using their legs to bounce the weight up. Their shoulders hike up to their ears before the arm even moves. If your traps are doing 90% of the work, you aren't building side delts; you're just building a bigger neck.
Another one? The "T-Rex Hand." This is when people curl their wrist inward as they pull. Keep your wrist firm and neutral. Your hand is just a hook. The power should come from the shoulder and the elbow. If your wrist is hurting, you’re likely gripping the handle too tight or trying to "curl" the weight up.
Variations That Might Feel Even Better
If a dumbbell feels awkward, try a cable machine. The constant tension of a cable is honestly superior for shoulder growth.
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With a cable, the resistance doesn't disappear at the bottom of the rep. In a dumbbell single arm upright row, there's almost no tension when the weight is hanging by your side. With a cable, you can step a foot or two away from the machine so that even at the start, the muscle is under load.
Kettlebells are another fantastic option. Because the center of mass is below the handle, the kettlebell naturally wants to follow a path that stays close to your body. It feels "smoother" for many people who have history with wrist pain.
Why Unilateral Training is a Cheat Code
Most people have a dominant side. Usually, your right shoulder is stronger or more mobile than your left (or vice versa). When you use a barbell, your strong side will subconsciously take over. You’ll pull slightly harder with the right, and over years of training, this leads to imbalances. You end up with one shoulder that looks like a cannonball and one that looks like a tennis ball.
Unilateral work fixes this. You start with your weaker side. If you can only do 12 reps with your left arm, you only do 12 reps with your right. This forces the body to catch up. It also improves your mind-muscle connection. It’s much easier to "feel" a muscle working when you only have to focus on one side of your nervous system at a time.
Safety Considerations and Real Limitations
I’m not going to sit here and tell you this move is for everyone. If you have a diagnosed labrum tear or chronic impingement syndrome, you should probably stick to overhead presses and rows.
The single arm upright row requires a baseline of shoulder health.
If you feel a sharp, "electrical" pain or a pinching sensation, stop. No exercise is worth a surgery. Sometimes, simply widening your stance or changing the angle of your torso can fix the pinch. But if the pain persists across all variations, your anatomy might just not be built for this specific movement pattern. And that’s okay.
Integrating it Into Your Routine
Don't make this your first lift of the day. Your shoulders are delicate joints with a lot of moving parts. They need blood flow before you start pulling heavy weights.
I usually recommend doing these after a pressing movement like a dumbbell shoulder press or even after your main chest work. Aim for higher rep ranges. While I mentioned you can go heavier than lateral raises, "heavy" is relative. We’re talking 8 to 15 reps. Going for a 3-rep max on an upright row is asking for trouble.
Sample Shoulder Finisher
- Seated Dumbbell Press: 3 sets of 8 reps
- Single Arm Upright Row: 3 sets of 12 reps per side (no rest between sides)
- Face Pulls: 3 sets of 20 reps
This sequence hits the front, side, and rear delts effectively. The upright row sits in the middle as the "meat" of the workout, providing the volume and tension needed for hypertrophy.
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Actionable Next Steps for Your Next Workout
Don't just read this and go back to your old routine. If you want to see if the single arm upright row works for you, try this today:
- Find your "Lane": Pick up a light dumbbell (maybe 50% of what you think you can handle). Perform 5 reps pulling the weight straight up. Then, perform 5 reps pulling it slightly across your body toward the opposite shoulder. Finally, try 5 reps pulling it slightly out to the side. One of these will feel "cleaner" in the joint. That’s your lane.
- Film Yourself: Record a set from the side. Are you leaning back excessively? Is your elbow staying above your wrist? If your wrist is higher than your elbow, you're doing a weird bicep curl. Fix the alignment.
- Tempo Control: Spend 2 full seconds lowering the weight. Most people skip the eccentric. If you want growth, you have to own the descent.
- Pair with Mobility: If your shoulders feel tight, spend two minutes doing "dead hangs" from a pull-up bar before you start. This decompresses the joint and makes the rowing motion feel much more fluid.
Building impressive shoulders isn't about doing the most dangerous exercises; it's about finding the most effective versions of the classics. The single arm upright row is a classic evolved. It respects your anatomy while demanding effort. Try it with a kettlebell first if you're nervous about the path—the weight distribution is much more forgiving. Focus on the squeeze at the top, stay away from the "ego lifting" weights, and you'll likely find that the "shoulder killer" is actually a shoulder builder.