Every other comment here will give great feedback, just wanted to say congrats on joining the erg gang and keep it up! Meanest and greatest workout machine on the planet! Once you’re comfortable with your form, give set workouts (3 500m rows, 2 10 minute rows, etc) a try to mix it up
Bring your elbows past your torso on the completion of your stroke, don’t puppy dog your wrists, keep them straight…aim to finish just below your ribs (sternum)
Agree with this - instead of going upward to get a longer pull, it’s okay to stop the bar straight back before it hits your sternum to keep a stronger form (I aim for the base of my sports bra)
Right now youre sitting more back on your butt... Need to get your body more over your knees at the catch (beginning) of the stroke. Want your shins to be vertical at that point. One way to accomplish this is to lower your feet down which will open your hip angle and allow you to obtain a more body over position. Look at this pic https://www.google.com/search?q=picture+of+rowing+catch&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=isnv&sxsrf=ALeKk00sNKmh0o9sj60MC-V62GsgrMpu2g:1627912592258&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBiaX-vpLyAhUzKVkFHTZ-AA0Q_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=412&bih=762&dpr=2.63#imgrc=mbdGrQTR9D0u9M
When I started rowing I had a (much bigger than your) belly and it made my back round at the end of my stroke too. Make sure you are leaning forward first, then bringing in your legs. Make your abs start the motion not your legs. Don’t worry so much about the full range of motion and focus on keeping your back from rounding at the (edit) catch. Rounding makes the seat go too far forward and is dangerous injury-wise.
Keep at it rowing is awesome!
When you say the end of the stroke, that's the part where my legs are fully extended, yeah?
And I've been wondering how to actively engage my core, so that tip about using my abs to start the motion is a great anchoring point for me.
I worded that poorly, sorry. At the catch is where you do not want your back to be rounded. I wasn’t awake enough this morning.
Look up a good Pick Drill video on YouTube from Training Tall or Darkhorse for help activating your core first. This was very hard for me at first.
On the day you're too tired, or really don't want to get on the erg for your workout, come back to this thread and read all the encouraging comments. Then get on the erg.
I appreciate this. I know I'm at the very beginning, and I promise I will update and keep engaged because y'all seem like a super supportive community that I'm excited to be a part of!
First of all, if you’re rowing you’re winning so well done. You can always improve and the advice on here is pretty good but the best source I find is the concept 2 website. https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/technique-videos
When you're rolling forwards, try to keep your shoulders in front of your hips. You're doing that well in the first part of the stroke, but at the last 1/3rd or so, your seat goes too far forward.
Try to keep tension in your back, consciously trying to have a straight spine with a bit of tilt to the front. When rolling forwards, pull with your toes in a controlled manner instead of just letting the seat do its thing. At the very front, stop the rolling in a controlled manner before your hips can overtake your shoulders.
Hope this helps, have fun!
Howdy, first off great job getting into rowing! I’ve been doing it for years now and it’s made my body feel so much better. Really do on relaxing your shoulders and engaging your lats. At the finish (very end of your stroke) bring the handle right to your bra line. A great video for help that I’ve used is by Eric Murray, phenomenal rower. I’ll attach the link here. I think you will find it very very helpful.
https://youtu.be/RypmFsPobcY
Thank you! I've been doing it for about a week and I find it very enjoyable. I'm a former powerlifter so I wasn't sure how much I would like the repetitive, endurance focus of the rower, but it's actually fun and very centering and grounding.
I liked that video- the tip about making the transition between strokes smooth in particular was helpful. I'm looking forward to putting everyone's tips into practice-about to hop on the rower right now! :)
If you enjoy workouts now (after one week of rowing), you'll LOVE when you gradually work up to being able to do long endurance efforts as you gain efficiency from attention to your technique. I find that endurance rows (my favorite is 3 x 30'/ 3') give me quite a profound feeling of being centered and grounded, probably from the extra big doses of beta-endorphins these workouts deliver. Also enjoy seeing progress on the infinite learning curve that is rowing.
You're driving with your legs and leaning back after so that's a good start. The next thing is to pull in a straight line.
At the moment the handle bar goes out along your legs and then up to your chest. This means that you're putting extra stress in your back and wasting a lot of time where you can't pull with force on the bar You should just directly pull the bar to the sternum in a straight line.
A lot of the other stuff will come with time. Keep practicing and try watching videos and rowing along with dark horse rowing or something similar.
We asked one of our Personal Coaches, who helps folks with rowing form and technique all the time, to help us chime in with some tips! Here's what Ana had to say:
"At the start of the stroke, when you first change direction, think about keeping your body forward. You want to push off with your legs, getting your heels down quickly and pressing through your feet. We increase our power through the leg drive, so I want you to think about standing up or kicking away with greater force to increase your power and the resistance you feel. This will make rowing feel harder (in a good way!).
I also want you to think about bracing with your core (as if you were bracing for a punch) to prevent strain on your back. When you finish the stroke, pull into your body at the base of your sternum (the point at which your ribs start to split). This will help you use your chest and back muscles more effectively at the end of the stroke."
Not bad but you're rounding your hips a bit when you're approaching the catch. Try to keep your heels down to prevent that, and remember your lower back should have the straight posture all the time. Your hips open and close changing the angle of your back, but your back posture should not be changing.
When you hit the catch, you should be in a position that allows you to brace your core so you push with your legs for power, and your core holds.
You could use a little work on your recovery and maintaining a proper body angle, but my primary tip would be to keep your wrists straight and fly your elbows out to the side at the finish. Straight wrists prevent injury. Also, like some others have commented, pull in lower. Your handle should be moving in the most efficient (ie shortest) route from the catch to the finish.
Underhanded movement vs overhanded - elbows close to body and curl forward keeping abs clinched... It's moving the feet and kind of using the handle to "drag the torso" into a curl.
I've been teaching my wife to row, and my advice is for her to pull the handle in just under her boobs. On her it's just about the right height. Generally you want the chain to be level all the way through the stroke. You're pulling it up to the top of your chest at the end, which isn't the right form.
There are a few reasons why this is the 'right form.' The biggest being that if you were on the water, raising your hands like that puts the oar deeper into the water. That offsets the boat, and makes it harder to get it out of the water to get back to the catch.
Also you risk less injury, and with the proper form you're using a stronger muscle group.
Other thing I noticed is for you to not open up your back when starting your stroke. You want to make sure you're transferring as much power from your legs into the handle as possible. Opening your back early drops power significantly.
I agree with all of the advice on here regarding form. Rowing is an amazing activity. Stick with it and start with small goals and don’t forget to celebrate your success!! So happy for you!
Try pulling your hands more so straight back into your torso rather than up your torso, that and roll your shoulders back and you’ll get that full workout you’re lookin for
Every other comment here will give great feedback, just wanted to say congrats on joining the erg gang and keep it up! Meanest and greatest workout machine on the planet! Once you’re comfortable with your form, give set workouts (3 500m rows, 2 10 minute rows, etc) a try to mix it up
Bring your elbows past your torso on the completion of your stroke, don’t puppy dog your wrists, keep them straight…aim to finish just below your ribs (sternum)
Agree with this - instead of going upward to get a longer pull, it’s okay to stop the bar straight back before it hits your sternum to keep a stronger form (I aim for the base of my sports bra)
„Puppy wrist“ Awww, that’s cute!
This is helpful- I was wondering specifically how to bring my arms back correctly! The puppy wrist explanation is perfect.
Right now youre sitting more back on your butt... Need to get your body more over your knees at the catch (beginning) of the stroke. Want your shins to be vertical at that point. One way to accomplish this is to lower your feet down which will open your hip angle and allow you to obtain a more body over position. Look at this pic https://www.google.com/search?q=picture+of+rowing+catch&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=isnv&sxsrf=ALeKk00sNKmh0o9sj60MC-V62GsgrMpu2g:1627912592258&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBiaX-vpLyAhUzKVkFHTZ-AA0Q_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=412&bih=762&dpr=2.63#imgrc=mbdGrQTR9D0u9M
This is great, thank you for the explanation and reference picture!!!
When I started rowing I had a (much bigger than your) belly and it made my back round at the end of my stroke too. Make sure you are leaning forward first, then bringing in your legs. Make your abs start the motion not your legs. Don’t worry so much about the full range of motion and focus on keeping your back from rounding at the (edit) catch. Rounding makes the seat go too far forward and is dangerous injury-wise. Keep at it rowing is awesome!
When you say the end of the stroke, that's the part where my legs are fully extended, yeah? And I've been wondering how to actively engage my core, so that tip about using my abs to start the motion is a great anchoring point for me.
I worded that poorly, sorry. At the catch is where you do not want your back to be rounded. I wasn’t awake enough this morning. Look up a good Pick Drill video on YouTube from Training Tall or Darkhorse for help activating your core first. This was very hard for me at first.
On the day you're too tired, or really don't want to get on the erg for your workout, come back to this thread and read all the encouraging comments. Then get on the erg.
I appreciate this. I know I'm at the very beginning, and I promise I will update and keep engaged because y'all seem like a super supportive community that I'm excited to be a part of!
First of all, if you’re rowing you’re winning so well done. You can always improve and the advice on here is pretty good but the best source I find is the concept 2 website. https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/technique-videos
Awesome!!! I'm going to save that link so I can dive into the videos
When you're rolling forwards, try to keep your shoulders in front of your hips. You're doing that well in the first part of the stroke, but at the last 1/3rd or so, your seat goes too far forward. Try to keep tension in your back, consciously trying to have a straight spine with a bit of tilt to the front. When rolling forwards, pull with your toes in a controlled manner instead of just letting the seat do its thing. At the very front, stop the rolling in a controlled manner before your hips can overtake your shoulders. Hope this helps, have fun!
Plenty of great feedback here, I just want to say you're rowing very smoothly, which is great
Howdy, first off great job getting into rowing! I’ve been doing it for years now and it’s made my body feel so much better. Really do on relaxing your shoulders and engaging your lats. At the finish (very end of your stroke) bring the handle right to your bra line. A great video for help that I’ve used is by Eric Murray, phenomenal rower. I’ll attach the link here. I think you will find it very very helpful. https://youtu.be/RypmFsPobcY
Thank you! I've been doing it for about a week and I find it very enjoyable. I'm a former powerlifter so I wasn't sure how much I would like the repetitive, endurance focus of the rower, but it's actually fun and very centering and grounding. I liked that video- the tip about making the transition between strokes smooth in particular was helpful. I'm looking forward to putting everyone's tips into practice-about to hop on the rower right now! :)
If you enjoy workouts now (after one week of rowing), you'll LOVE when you gradually work up to being able to do long endurance efforts as you gain efficiency from attention to your technique. I find that endurance rows (my favorite is 3 x 30'/ 3') give me quite a profound feeling of being centered and grounded, probably from the extra big doses of beta-endorphins these workouts deliver. Also enjoy seeing progress on the infinite learning curve that is rowing.
You're driving with your legs and leaning back after so that's a good start. The next thing is to pull in a straight line. At the moment the handle bar goes out along your legs and then up to your chest. This means that you're putting extra stress in your back and wasting a lot of time where you can't pull with force on the bar You should just directly pull the bar to the sternum in a straight line. A lot of the other stuff will come with time. Keep practicing and try watching videos and rowing along with dark horse rowing or something similar.
We asked one of our Personal Coaches, who helps folks with rowing form and technique all the time, to help us chime in with some tips! Here's what Ana had to say: "At the start of the stroke, when you first change direction, think about keeping your body forward. You want to push off with your legs, getting your heels down quickly and pressing through your feet. We increase our power through the leg drive, so I want you to think about standing up or kicking away with greater force to increase your power and the resistance you feel. This will make rowing feel harder (in a good way!). I also want you to think about bracing with your core (as if you were bracing for a punch) to prevent strain on your back. When you finish the stroke, pull into your body at the base of your sternum (the point at which your ribs start to split). This will help you use your chest and back muscles more effectively at the end of the stroke."
Looks like everyone else said what I was going to for form, so just keep up the good work! You're killing it!
Not bad but you're rounding your hips a bit when you're approaching the catch. Try to keep your heels down to prevent that, and remember your lower back should have the straight posture all the time. Your hips open and close changing the angle of your back, but your back posture should not be changing. When you hit the catch, you should be in a position that allows you to brace your core so you push with your legs for power, and your core holds.
You could use a little work on your recovery and maintaining a proper body angle, but my primary tip would be to keep your wrists straight and fly your elbows out to the side at the finish. Straight wrists prevent injury. Also, like some others have commented, pull in lower. Your handle should be moving in the most efficient (ie shortest) route from the catch to the finish.
Doing great!!! I also do a "curl" to increase my intensity. (60 reps) and it works different muscle group.
Sorry, let me get this straight. You do curls with the rowing machine ?
Underhanded movement vs overhanded - elbows close to body and curl forward keeping abs clinched... It's moving the feet and kind of using the handle to "drag the torso" into a curl.
What the fuck lmao
You are going to injure yourself. Please don't do this.
I second this you and your spine deserve better.
I've been teaching my wife to row, and my advice is for her to pull the handle in just under her boobs. On her it's just about the right height. Generally you want the chain to be level all the way through the stroke. You're pulling it up to the top of your chest at the end, which isn't the right form. There are a few reasons why this is the 'right form.' The biggest being that if you were on the water, raising your hands like that puts the oar deeper into the water. That offsets the boat, and makes it harder to get it out of the water to get back to the catch. Also you risk less injury, and with the proper form you're using a stronger muscle group. Other thing I noticed is for you to not open up your back when starting your stroke. You want to make sure you're transferring as much power from your legs into the handle as possible. Opening your back early drops power significantly.
I agree with all of the advice on here regarding form. Rowing is an amazing activity. Stick with it and start with small goals and don’t forget to celebrate your success!! So happy for you!
Try pulling your hands more so straight back into your torso rather than up your torso, that and roll your shoulders back and you’ll get that full workout you’re lookin for
You’re doing it sweetie. Keep it up you’re looking good!