While the rowing machine is one of the first pieces of cardio kit we gravitate towards in the gym, getting the technique right isn’t quite as simple as hopping on the elliptical or treadmill. Row well and you’ll efficiently build your cardio fitness; row badly and you could end up yanking the handle and gassing out quickly.
That’s why, before you start chasing faster times, it helps to know what a good rowing performance looks like for your level.
Rowing Benchmarks for Beginners
These benchmarks are based on male indoor rowing standards from Rowing Level and should be treated as a rough rule of thumb, as the data comes from rowing enthusiasts. Body size, age, rowing technique, machine type, drag factor and training background can all affect your time. For beginners especially, learning to row efficiently with good technique can make a huge difference.
How to Row with Perfect Technique
According to rowing coach Austin Hendrickson, there are seven key points to a perfect rowing stroke. Here’s how to perfect your technique:
1. Handle Position
Hendrickson says: ‘The handle should be pulled in right below your chest. Your hands should be on the outsides of the handle and your wrists should be nice and flat.’
This means avoiding pulling the handle too high or too low. He adds that your elbows should travel ‘out and back’, which helps avoid collapsed posture and encourages better use of the back muscles.
2. Avoid Leaning Back Too Far
A slight layback at the end of the stroke is useful, but more isn’t always better.
Hendrickson explains that your shoulders should be behind your hips and your abs should stay tight.
‘More layback is not ideal,’ he says, ‘and that can cause some lower-back issues.’
3. The Recovery Phase
As you move back towards the machine, Hendrickson says the handle should move away first.
‘The handle should be going over your knees before your legs bend,’ he says.
He explains that pushing the handle ‘down and out’ helps prevent ‘overactivation and overuse’ of the arms and shoulders.
4. Set Your Body Angle Forward
Before the next stroke, you want to create a forward body angle that mirrors your layback.
Hendrickson says: ‘If you were 11pm at the back end, you’re 1am at the front end and vice versa.’
That means hinging from the hips rather than rounding through the lower back or collapsing into the catch.
5. Keep Your Hands in Line
At the catch, your hands should stay in line with the chain or strap rather than dropping down.
‘If your hands are a lot lower than your shoulders, you’re most likely not connecting the first few inches of the drive of your stroke,’ he says.
Keeping the hands high also helps you feel a big stretch in your lats.
6. Drive with Your Legs
The drive should start with your legs.
‘Push your legs first while keeping your forward body angle,’ says Hendrickson. ‘Every inch the seat moves, the handle moves as well.’
7. Finish Through the Hips
Once the legs have created force, the body swing helps carry that power through the stroke.
Hendrickson says you should feel your hips, glutes and core activate as you swing into the layback with straight arms. Then the arms finish the movement, rather than taking over too early.
Hendrickson explains: ‘The pulling of the arms should not be its own aggressive motion. It’s simply a finishing of the acceleration that you generated through the hip swing.’
