How To Use The Rowing Machine | Workouts, Technique & How To Improve

The catch position is when you’re about to initiate the press and deliver your first stroke:

1. Chest up and tall with a neutral spine, body angled slightly forward from the hips

2. Arms fully extended and relaxed, allowing the upper body to lengthen

3. Shins should be vertical, sliding as far forward as you can without shifting weight into the front of the machine

This is your loaded position. If you collapse through the chest or round your back here, you lose power before the stroke even begins.

The drive is where most rowers lose efficiency. When fatigue creeps in, many end up pulling with the arms or open up too early by swinging back, missing out on the strongest part of the drive, which is the power produced from the legs.

The sequence should always be:

• Legs initiate the movement, pushing into the footplate.

• The torso opens slightly once the legs are nearly extended.

• The arms finish the stroke last.

Think of it like a deadlift. You would not lift the bar by swinging your back first; you start by pushing through the legs. The legs create the force, and the rest of the body transfers it. The rowing stroke follows the same biomechanics.

In rowing, the layback is the final body position at the end of the drive, when the handle reaches your body, and your torso leans slightly behind your hips.

What it looks like:

• Your legs are fully extended

• The handle is drawn to the lower ribs

• Your elbows move behind the body

• Your torso leans slightly back, roughly to an 11 o’clock position

• Core stays tight and stable

Leaning too far back is a common mistake. Excessive layback shifts energy downward rather than into the flywheel and places unnecessary strain on the hip flexors. A compact finish is stronger and more sustainable.

The recovery determines the efficiency of the row and sets up the next stroke:

sets up the next stroke.

• Arms extend first

• Torso hinges forward

• Knees bend last

If your knees lift too early, they block the handle path and make the stroke feel awkward. A calm, controlled recovery allows the flywheel to keep moving and your breathing to stabilize.

Your speed on the rowing machine isn’t just about pulling harder, it’s about how well you balance four key elements: the amount of force you apply (drive length), how often you're putting that force into the machine (stroke rate), how the machine responds (drag factor), and how you distribute that effort across your body (power ratio). Get these working together, and your stroke starts to feel smoother and more rhythmic.

Drive length refers to how long you are applying power during the stroke.

The longer you put power into the machine, the more power you can get out of it. But a longer drive length isn’t always better - if you overreach into the front, you can collapse your posture, which can make it harder to get power from your legs. If you finish deep and long at the back, you’re switching all of the power to your forearm and shoulders, and it takes longer to get out of that position and get the handle back to the catch.

Instead, aim for a controlled front position with vertical shins and a tall chest, and a finish where the handle reaches the lower ribs without excessive lean.

The goal is efficient connection, not exaggerated range.

Stroke rate refers to how many strokes you take per minute.

A higher stroke rate means the flywheel has less time to slow down between strokes, so it requires less force to accelerate again. Because of this, higher rates can feel lighter per stroke. However, when you increase stroke rate, your body has to cycle through the drive and recovery phases more frequently. That means your muscles activate more often and your cardiovascular system works harder to support the effort.

When you increase the stroke rate, you increase the toll on the body even though strokes feel easier [2]. Technique can deteriorate as fatigue builds; this is why many athletes become less efficient when they rush the stroke. They take more strokes to maintain the same pace and expend more energy doing it.

For most Hyrox athletes, a controlled stroke rate (around 22 to 26 strokes per minute) tends to balance efficiency and sustainable output.

The lever on the side of the machine adjusts the drag factor, which controls how quickly the flywheel slows down between strokes.

Higher settings make the stroke feel heavier because the flywheel decelerates faster, which can make it harder to pick up the pace again. This can quickly fatigue the legs and posterior chain. Lower drag settings feel lighter and allow the flywheel to keep spinning longer between strokes, but it’s harder to put power in.

Importantly, drag factor does not directly determine your pace. Pace comes from how much force you apply and how frequently you apply it.

If two athletes produce the same force at the same stroke rate, they will move at the same speed regardless of the drag setting. The difference is simply how the stroke feels.

Rowing in the gym is one thing, but rowing under fatigue is another. You’ll learn how to use the RowErg properly, how to set it up, and how to row perfectly, but on race day, you’re no longer a purist rower. 60% legs, 30% back, 10% arms is optimal, but when you’ve just run 4km and a round of 80m burpees, your form might slip, and that’s expected.

Adjust your power ratio changes based on how you’re feeling. For example, if you want to ease off the legs to recover, put more emphasis on your back swing, and readjust the ratio to 50% back, 40% legs, 10% arms. We’re talking about rowing efficiency or getting an easier ride on your legs. Explore what adjustments work for you in training ahead of the race.

For beginners, this usually comes down to using the legs inefficiently or rushing the stroke. For Hyrox athletes, it’s often the result of arriving at the row already fatigued from rounds of burpees, sleds, and lunges.

It can be easy to fatigue in rowing if you treat it as an explosive movement rather than a steady and repetitive one.

Adjustment strategy:

• Slightly lower your stroke rate

• Emphasise deliberate leg drive and control

• Give yourself the first 150 to 200m to settle into a rhythm without rushing it

Avoid shortening your stroke in an attempt to move faster. That often increases effort without increasing speed.

If your heart rate climbs quickly and stays high, it’s usually a pacing issue rather than a fitness issue.

Beginners often start too hard because the stroke feels manageable at first. Hyrox athletes often do the same, trying to make up time early in the row. This commonly results in an accumulating fatigue that is difficult to recover from, whether that’s for your next 1km run or the next part of your workout.

Study callout: Studies on endurance pacing strategies show that athletes who distribute effort evenly or build slightly toward the end tend to perform better overall [4].

If you’re training for the Hyrox 1000m row with a negative split so you can control the effort and your recovery:

Example:

• First 200m: settle into a split

• Middle 600m: controlled aerobic effort

• Final 200m: gradual build if breathing is stable

If your breathing cannot calm down during the middle section, the opening pace was likely too aggressive. Test a negative split strategy out and dial it back if you can’t recover.

If this is happening, you’re probably squeezing the handle a little too hard. To prolong your grip, let your fingers soften slightly into a relaxed hook grip rather than a tense hold.

Focus on driving through the legs so the hands aren’t doing unnecessary work, and soften your fingers on the recovery, rather than clenching continuously. If the order of the rowing sequence is correct, you’ll find you won’t feel the need to over-grip.

If you’re new to rowing, don’t worry about hitting a specific split straight away. Focus on consistency, control, and maintaining good technique. As you become more comfortable, you can start to track your pace and aim for steady improvements.

If you’re training for Hyrox, your target split should reflect your overall race strategy.

Typical Open division ranges:

• Open Women: approximately 2:05 to 2:25 per 500m

• Open Men: approximately 1:45 to 2:05 per 500m

Stronger runners may choose to row slightly conservatively to protect the next kilometre, while others with a comparatively weaker run sometimes push the row harder to gain ground.

Your row split should support what comes next, not compromise it.

Before you think about speed, you need to row comfortably at race intensity. If you’ve been averaging 5-minute 1000m rows, you need to get familiar with how this feels. Structure sessions of higher volume rowing at your projected race pace, and longer sessions to build your aerobic capacity. For example:

• 2 × 1,000m at projected race pace

• 4 × 500m with one minute rest

• 5km steady aerobic rows

You want to get to a place where race pace no longer feels foreign, and the monitor’s numbers don’t send you into a panic. Rowing is an exceptionally effective full-body workout for improving aerobic capacity (VO2 max), so over time, you will notice your breathing improves, and you become stronger in places you didn’t even know you were weak in. This is because of the high-intensity nature of rowing, and because it engages nearly 80-85% of the body’s muscles [1].

Hyrox does not give you the luxury of rowing fresh, so your preparation should reflect that.

Challenge yourself to:

• 80m Burpee Broad Jumps straight into 1,000m Row

• A heavy leg session followed by a 1km row finisher

• Sled push directly into 500m row repeats

The row feels completely different when your quads are already burning, and your breathing is elevated. The first few strokes may feel clumsy, and that is precisely why you need to practise them.

You’ve probably trained to failure, but this method asks you to keep going through fatigue, learning to find a rhythm and remain stable even when you’re feeling the discomfort.

Efficiency is what keeps the row aerobic rather than chaotic. If you move faster, your strokes can become weaker and shorter. Lowering the stroke rate slightly keeps it more sustainable in a hyrox setting.

Aim for:

• A stroke rate between 22 and 26 strokes per minute

• Higher watts per stroke instead of chasing cadence

Regularly check your form through filming and ensure you’re engaging the legs and back correctly, because when the lats connect, each stroke does more work with less visible effort (cheat code!).

If you want your rowing stroke to hold together under fatigue, you need more than conditioning. You need strength that transfers to sequencing.

The rowing drive is essentially a horizontal deadlift. The legs push, the hips extend, the torso stays braced, and the lats connect the upper body to the handle. Strength work that trains each step of the chain makes your stroke more efficient without you having to think about it.

Exercises that reinforce leg-to-hip power transfer include:

• Romanian deadlifts

• Conventional deadlifts

• Power cleans

• Lat pulldowns

• Seated rows

• Farmer’s carries

Deadlifts and cleans are particularly useful because they teach you to produce force through the floor and extend through the hips without overusing the lower back. That pattern closely mirrors the rowing drive. When this sequencing becomes automatic in the gym, you can rely on it showing up even under fatigue on race day.

Core strength is just as important.

When your trunk fatigues, posture shifts. The chest drops at the catch. The lean at the finish becomes exaggerated. The stroke shortens, and power output falls, even though effort feels high.

To build trunk endurance that holds under pressure, incorporate:

• Plank variations

• Pallof presses

• Dead bugs

• Loaded carries

These movements train your ability to resist extension and rotation, which is exactly what you need on the rower. The goal is not just a strong core in isolation, but a core that can stabilise while the legs and hips are working hard.

You’ve heard of LISS treadmill workouts, but have you ever thought of hopping on the rowing machine for your steady state?

A steady-state row workout is a continuous, moderate-intensity session (60–70% max heart rate) lasting 20–60+ minutes, designed to build aerobic capacity, endurance, and technical efficiency. The low stroke rate should be relatively low (18–22 SPM), and your breathing will be elevated and controlled. Not quite holding a full conversation, but not gasping either.

The workout:

• 5-10 minute warm-up: dynamic warm-up and light, slow rowing

• 20 minutes of continuous rowing

• Pace: steady, controlled, sustainable

If your form begins to slip or pace creeps up, you’ve likely gone too hard. The focus isn’t about speed here; it’s about keeping moving and building your endurance.

HIIT rowing workouts combine short bursts of maximal effort (20–60 seconds) with brief rest or light rowing (10–60 seconds), typically lasting 20-30 minutes for a full-body cardio burn.

The workout:

• 5-10 minute warm-up: dynamic warm-up and light, slow rowing

• 8 × 250m row (max effort)

• Rest or light row: 60 seconds between efforts

This session is about short, sharp efforts that get your heart rate up and build both power and conditioning.

Each 250m should feel challenging but repeatable. You’re pushing yourself, but not to the point where you feel like you couldn’t keep it up for 7 more rounds.

The workout:

• 1km treadmill run

• 80m Burpee Broad Jumps

• 1,000m row

• 1km treadmill run

Repeat twice.

This session teaches you how to manage pacing when your heart rate is already elevated. It exposes whether you are overcommitting early on the row and helps you practise pacing before the next kilometre.

Focus on keeping your second round consistent with the first, rather than dramatically slower.

The workout:

• 4 × 500m row at race pace

• 20 wall balls immediately after each effort

This workout stimulates the demands of the station-to-run transition, and

You move from cyclical power into a functional strength station that demands breathing control and coordination. If your row pacing is too aggressive, it will show up quickly in your wall balls. If your pacing is measured, you will feel stable and organised rather than rushed.

These sessions reinforce the same lesson: the row is not about proving how hard you can pull. It is about setting yourself up to move well in what comes next.

Example workout block:

• 1km run

• 80m Burpee Broad Jumps

• 1,000m row

• 1km run

  Repeat x2

Or:

• 4 x 500m row at race pace

• 20 wall balls after each

Purpose: simulate station-to-run transition.

For some athletes, it feels less technically intimidating than sleds or wall balls. However, poor pacing can quietly disrupt the remainder of the race. Its difficulty is often underestimated.

Most events use a moderate damper setting around 5 to 6 on the RowErg, and this is consistent across all divisions regardless of gender.

What can affect how a row feels, though, is the drag factor, which can vary slightly depending on the machine and environment. Two machines set to the same number won’t always feel identical, as you’ll often find out when you switch gyms or train on holiday.

In training, it’s worth getting comfortable rowing within this mid-range setting (5-6) so race day doesn’t feel unfamiliar, while also understanding how small changes in drag affect how quickly the flywheel slows down and how much force you need to apply each stroke.

Competitive Open athletes commonly complete a 1,000m row in:

• Women: approximately 4:10 to 4:40

• Men: approximately 3:20 to 3:50

The best time for you is the one that allows you to maintain pace on the next run.

Shorter athletes may rely on slightly higher stroke rates while maintaining full leg drive. Taller athletes should use stroke length without over-leaning at the finish. Efficiency and control matter more than height.

The idea that rowing is arm-dominant usually comes from watching fatigued athletes pull too early. When someone bends their elbows before driving through their legs, the stroke turns into a bicep curl with a seat attached.

But biomechanically, that’s inefficient.

Around 60 percent of the force in a proper rowing stroke should come from the legs [3]. It all happens very quicky but essentially: the glutes and quads initiate the drive, then the hamstrings and posterior chain support hip extension. The lats connect the upper body to the lower body, transferring force into the handle.

Your arms are the final link in the chain. They guide the power that has already been generated. They are not the engine that powers up the movement.

If your biceps are the thing that feels most fatigued after a row, it is usually a sequencing issue.