10 ways to get better on the indoor rower Ahead of today’s University Boat Race, Olympic rowers Pete Reed and James Foad reveal ten steps to upgrading your performance on the indoor rowing machine The Oxford and Cambridge crews will have to contend with currents, winds and the capricious British weather when they compete in the 161st edition of the Boat Race on the River Thames this weekend, but most people’s personal experience of rowing comes only from the whizz and creak of the humble indoor rowing machine. To help improve your indoor training sessions – and reveal where you’re going wrong – British rower Pete Reed, who won gold in the coxless four at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and his Olympic rowing squad companion James Foad, who took bronze in the eight at London 2012, share ten tips for a smoother, faster rowing technique. 1. Slow down to speed up “In a public gym you rarely see people using the rowing machine correctly,” reveals Pete Reed, 33, who has a lung capacity of 11.68 litres – almost double the human norm. “Normally people tend to pull far too hard, their strokes are often too short, and they try to move up and down far too fast. It is better to try to make the stroke longer and slower so it is more precise and efficient.” A longer stroke will unlock more power and sharpen up your technique. “Go on YouTube to watch some of the London 2012 rowing videos and slow down the technique to learn the right pattern of movement,” suggests Reed. 2. Focus on your legs, not your arms “Although people think rowing is all about arm strength it is actually a very legdominant sport,” explains James Foad, 28. “You often see people really trying to pull with their arms but after you come forward on the slide the first movement should be with your legs to recruit all the power of your glutes. It is almost like a squat jump in the sense that the stroke is not being driven by your arms but from the movement of your hips and legs.” Practise makes perfect. “If you get it completely right give me a call because even we get it wrong sometimes,” says Reed. 3. Put your back into it
“One of the most neglected elements of rowing is posture, and knowing how to sit during the stroke can make a big difference,” advises Foad. “Your posture should not be bolt upright because you need to use your back for strength too, and if you lean too far backwards or forwards you will lose some power. Aim to sit tall but slightly back so you maximise your power during the stroke.” 4. Improve your pulling technique Contrary to some of the unusual techniques you might have spotted in your local gym, when you pull the handle towards your body it shouldn’t end up near your gut or your forehead. “Aim to finish the stroke just underneath your pecs and near your sternum,” says Foad. “You often see a lot of people go quite high up because it gives them a better split on the screen, but it’s not a good technique and you risk injury. It is better to get your technique right and then the times will follow.” 5. A weak core will wreck your times “To maintain an efficient rowing technique you need a really strong core,” says Reed, who does planks, side planks and barbell roll-outs to improve his abdominal strength. The key is to keep challenging your core with new exercises and routines. “We do a whole range of core exercises,” explains Foad. “For example, sit-ups with our feet tucked underneath a box, swiss ball rotations, press-ups on a swiss ball, or slowly manoeuvring a dumbbell across your body under tension.” 6. Music is your legal high Using your iPod will ramp up your motivation and maintain your rhythm while you train. “We listen to group music on the ergos a lot,” says Reed. “We are focusing on the numbers but the music helps to pass the time. A good playlist can help you keep rhythm too, whether you are listening to fast, pounding tracks for a high-intensity workout or a relaxing playlist for longer sessions.” 7. Don't ignore the rest of the gym Supplementing your rowing sessions with strength workouts will help beef up your performances when you get back on the rower. “Strength and power is important in rowing so we do a lot of squats, bench presses and Olympic lifts like power cleans because the movements are very similar to the rowing
stroke, with a leg drive, hip movement, and a controlled speed of movement from your legs to your arms,” says Foad. “We do bench-pulls - when you lie face-down on a bench and pull the bar up to your chest - and deadlifts too,” adds Reed. 8. Cycling can be good for rowing Cycling, running, skiing and other endurance sports will help improve your fitness on the indoor rower and stop you getting bored. “I really enjoy cross-training,” says Reed. “We do a bit of cycling and I have done crosscountry skiing too. It keeps you fit by challenging you in new ways but above all it refreshes your mind. A change is a good as a rest, so you always feel better when you start rowing again.” 9. Mix up your targets “A lot of people go for shorter times on the indoor rower because they just use it for a quick three-minute warm-up which means they want to go as fast as possible,” says Reed. “But if you do regular 20-minute sessions you will quickly notice the difference in your fitness and your technique will become nice and smooth. "As well as training to time, try to mix up your targets, like aiming to maintain a certain speed or reach a certain distance. Any kind of variety keeps you interested and improving.” 10. Race your mates Having a work colleague or a mate rowing next to you could be just the inspiration you need to push yourself harder and nail a new PB. “We stay motivated by having a strong team of competitive guys around us all the time,” says Reed. “A bit of competition helps you stay focused and you can’t help but drive each other on.” Rowing Revives in the Gym Like many group fitness workouts, at first this one sounds like a ridiculous idea: Take what is by far the least popular cardio machine in the gym — one that involves sitting down, endlessly sliding back and forth — and devote an entire class to it. Yes, the dusty old rowing machine has been plucked from the far corner, emerging in
group workouts and boutique studios across the nation, and drawing a crowd of fierce loyalists, many of whom never have and never will pick up an oar. Ericka Sullivan, a fan of barre-method toning classes, resisted her advertising-executive husband’s pitch for a year that they try a class at the 18-month-old GoRow Training Studio in Hoboken, N.J. “There’s just nothing enticing about being bored, and rowing sounded kind of boring,” said Ms. Sullivan, 35, who gave in as bathing-suit season neared. “But the intervals go by so fast.” Her fears of “huge rower shoulders” also haven’t materialized: “I’m longer and leaner,” she said. At the fast-growing Greenville Indoor Rowing in Greenville, S.C., run by Lowell Caylor, 72, a former Cleveland Browns defensive back, a membership of mostly women older than 45 has embraced rowing. They have logged 137 million meters (that’s around the globe about 3.5 times), topping the rankings among health clubs for the rowingmachine maker Concept 2 for the fourth year in a row, Mr. Caylor said. “All these people come in who don’t think they have an athletic, competitive bone in their body really do,” said Mr. Caylor, who makes mimosas for each million-meter milestone. His “crew,” as he calls his clients, includes former runners who’ve destroyed ankles and knees and like that rowing machines for beginners is hard-core but non-weight-bearing. Because it uses nearly every muscle group, rowing at 5 miles an hour offers the same calorie burn as running at 6.7 m.p.h., said Michele Olson, 52, an Auburn University professor of exercise science. Yes, she said, it burns more calories than spinning. Still, rowing on the erg, as the machine is called, can be a hard sell. Music doesn’t help or distract much, since it’s impossible to row to the beat. And, unlike with other cardio machines, the rower isn’t intuitive. Proper technique has to be taught, but many trainers don’t know it. Charles Anderson, 30, a former Georgia Tech rower who opened Rowbot Fitness in suburban Atlanta in 2012, plays Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” to jokingly remind clients of form. “Most people think of rowing as an arms exercise, and they think of it as pulling,” he said. “But it’s primarily a pushing workout. You’re pushing with your legs.” Why the surge in popularity? Thank CrossFit — and nearly everybody selling indoor rowing does. That craze’s high-intensity strength and conditioning workouts sometimes require ergs, and CrossFit offers rowing certification for instructors. Some CrossFit boxes, as the gyms are called, offer temporary homes for group indoor rowing start-ups as they already have the machines and the space. Indoorance, a tiny row-centric studio, holds a weekly class at Reebok CrossFit in Midtown.
Indoor rowers also appear on “The Biggest Loser,” though the competitors’ form makes some crew coaches cringe. Terry Smythe, 56, a longtime rower who travels the country certifying group indoor rowing instructors, said her business has more than doubled in the last three years. Shockwave and Indo-Row, workouts created in part by the former world champion rower Josh Crosby, 39, have spread to some 200 fitness centers, including at the Mayo Clinic, Harvard and the Equinox chain. And on a steamy recent Tuesday at the West Side Y.M.C.A. in Manhattan, Michael Ives, 55, a former Yale rower (toting the gold medal he and his team had recently won at the Henley Masters Regatta in England) had to turn away some 10 hopefuls from one of his evening classes. “I don’t think it’s a case of misery loves company,” Mr. Ives said. “It feels good, and it sounds good,” he added, referring to the rhythmic, almost meditative, whooshing of all of the ergs moving in unison. His class — pioneered by his younger brother Chris, widely credited with being the first to offer indoor group rowing, in 1995 — is a polished version of what crew teams might do off-season. There is no music, only the sound of Mr. Ives’s preternaturally calm voice offering pacing instructions. There’s also a wave of new rowing workouts hitting New York. Brooklyn Crew, the city’s first dedicated indoor-rowing studio, had its debut in Williamsburg in April, with 45-minute classes taught by former crew coaches. The Upper East Side fitness playground Exceed began a 50-minute Just Row class this summer in its East Hampton, N.Y., outpost and will add two rowing classes to its Manhattan roster this month. And in June, using a temporary space in Chelsea, two finance guys (and CrossFitters) who call themselves Throwback Fitness, began offering competitive, nostalgia-inspired classes to an under-35 crowd. One row-centric workout was modeled on the flip-cup drinking game, but instead of chugging beer, slowpokes did extra 100-meter sprints. (Fun, eh?) Brian Gallagher, 33, one of Throwback’s founders, said: “A lot of people can get intimidated by CrossFit. It can be tough to master. So we’re trying to go back to basics.” More competitors in New York’s indoor regatta are on their way. CityRow, whose three workouts will alternate rowing intervals with body sculpturing, yoga or Pilates, will open near Union Square in October. And GoRow’s owner, Garrett Roberts, 38, a former college crew coach who’s on instant-nickname terms with clients, said that he is looking to open a branch of that studio on the West Side of Manhattan. Juliana Garofalo, 28, an English teacher, is hooked on Brooklyn Crew after losing 10
pounds in a month of four-times-a-week classes. “For years, I couldn’t find the right thing that I could do consistently that was going to give me the results I wanted,” said Ms. Garofalo, who had tried spinning, yoga and Jillian Michaels DVDs. Her recent (lack of) exercise history includes joining a gym two blocks from her home that she went to once in eight months, so she feared the six blocks to Brooklyn Crew “would be pushing it.” On a Sunday in July, she left a wedding weekend in North Carolina at 6 a.m. to drive back to Williamsburg for a 5:30 p.m. class she was determined to make.