An alternative to the upright row involves positioning hands higher than elbows to promote external rotation and avoid internal rotation stress.

“the exercise is that I have an alternative and the alternative does the same thing in terms of helping the muscles grow by simply fixing the biomechanics of the exercise by just allowing the hands to go higher than the elbows.”

“And the alternative does the same thing in terms of helping the muscles grow by simply fixing the biomechanics of the exercise, but just allowing the hands to go higher than the elbows. So instead of the elbows being higher than the hand, which drives you into internal rotation, if the elbow is lower than the hand, the hand being higher here, I'm in external rotation. And I could do something called a high pull and still get the same abduction of the arm and still get the same benefits of the shoulders, the delts, and the traps without having to undergo any of the stresses that would come from the somewhat awkward movement of an upright row.”

“I want you to drop your elbows lower than your wrist. I want you to do something called a high pull. I want you to go this way. By doing that now, instead of internally rotating the shoulder, I'm externally rotating the shoulder. I'm still working my delts. I'm still working my traps. I get zero sacrifice of what I'm trying to do the exercise for in the first place.”