5 tips on the best way to row

Rowing is one of the best forms of cardio exercise you can do. It’s low impact, good for the joints, challenging, and easy to vary the difficulty depending on fitness levels. Here’s five tips on the best way to row; to get the most out of your training.

Breathe: It’s easy to hold your breath while you row, which will very quickly gas you out. For most efficient oxygen intake and power output, you want to time your breathing with your stroke rate.

Breathe in as you come in from a stroke and breathe out as your powerfully pull the handle in to your chest.

Use your legs: Rowing is not an upper-body only exercise. For best technique and power, you should be driving from your legs. The lower body is much stronger than the upper body, so you need to use the legs to create as much power as you can.

Rhythm: Good rowing should be very rhythmic and flowing. If your timing is off, you will lose a lot of energy and efficiency. Don’t start off too fast. Instead, maintain a nice flowing rhythm where you can keep the same pace for extended periods of time.

Pace yourself: It’s all too easy to set off too quickly on the rower, and then blow yourself out. If anything, start off slower than you think you need to, and build the pace up from there. If you go off too hard, you will quickly blow up and not be able to continue.

Pull hard: The way rowing works, you set the pace based on how hard you pull. The harder you pull the further each stroke takes you.

Don’t just think about pulling the handle into you but focus on making every stroke as powerful as you can.