The Easiest Way to Warm up for a Rowing Workout

You know you wanted to do a rowing workout today, but how should you warm up for it?

Sure, there’s a lot of different stretches that you can do, but none of these will set you up technique wise for a rowing workout.

In order to start your rowing workout with the better technique, I suggest doing this simple 10 minute warm up:

1st minute – Legs only – Focus on driving your heels down into the footboards to initiate your leg-only pull. Once your knees are straight and you feel the connection on the handle fade, come back up to the catch. It’s important to have a forward hinge with your body, while also keeping your shoulder blades back and down (think sitting up straight). The handle should stay in front of your knees the entire time. Engage the lats when the legs start to drive.

2nd minute – Back only -Your legs and arms will both remain straight. You start hinged forward and open your hips to your layback position. You still want to feel the drive through your heels in the footboards even though your legs aren’t moving! Think about your hip drive while doing a clean or snatch, and drive with that intensity.

3rd minute – Arms only – Sit in your layback position, staying tall with your shoulder blades back and down. Feel that connection with your hands against the handle. Use a loose grip. Don’t hit your body with the handle, but have the turnaround be close and controlled.

4th minute – Legs and Back – Arms stay straight the whole time. Again, feel the drive through the heels the entire time. Don’t start your backswing until the legs are at least ¾ of the way down.

5th minute – Back and Arms – Legs remain straight but still feel the drive through the heels! The arms don’t start moving until you are done with the backswing. Keep a controlled turn around by your body.

6th minute – Full stroke – Focus on segmenting all three parts and slowly making the motion more fluid. Keep your stroke rate low around a 22 s/m to keep a controlled recovery.

Remaining 4 minutes – Depending on your workout you can vary this section how you please. If you are doing shorter sprint distances (<1000m) I would work in some 10 stroke pieces at the pace you want to hold. For longer pieces, spending 30 seconds at your goal pace will help you set the tone for the workout right off the bat.

If you feel the need to do some stretching for the last minute or two, you can do that as well. I highly recommend getting in some strokes at your goal pace for the workout. Every time I think I don’t need to do it, the start of the workout ends up being a struggle to find my pace.

I hope this warmup will help you get ready to rock and roll your rowing workouts! If you want to hear more from me about rowing, sign up for my email newsletter!