Many people are surprised to find, when they sit down on a rowing machine for the first time, that it feels foreign to them. This may be because the exercise of rowing, unlike rowing a rowboat, involves the legs.

Rowing uses the whole body working together on a sliding seat. You do not sit on a stationary bench as you would in a row boat, where you brace your legs and row with your arms and back. Instead, your seat moves and your feet are “tied in” or attached to a non-moving platform, the foot stretcher of the rowing machine. As you row, your seat slides toward your feet on the recovery in preparation for you to push or drive your seat away from your feet with your legs on the drive. While rowing uses the core, the back, and the upper body muscles, the legs are the main power source.

The central role of the legs in rowing is, for the beginner, not just a matter of learning to use them at all, but of learning to use them for their quickness and their power. You will find you do not feel much resistance until you learn to press the legs down quickly, as it is your movement that generates resistance.

Another challenge is coordinating how and when you use your arms, back, and legs so that they work efficiently together. A coordinated stroke is more efficient, allows you to relax the smaller muscles, and empowers you to get more out of the larger, stronger muscles. That in turn does more for your heart and lungs.

Rowing is a smooth, continuous motion. There is not a beginning or end; there is no position between strokes, no place where you stop moving completely. You can begin from any position. One stroke simply means one complete cycle of motion.

Rowing coaches and fitness trainers break the stroke down into catch, drive, finish (or release), and recovery in order to discuss this cyclic motion, and into even finer points to discuss technique. We can begin more simply by dividing the stroke into two parts, the recovery and the drive.

• The Recovery Phase of the Stroke: When you sit with the legs straight and the handle drawn in to your body at the finish and then start to move the hands and handle away from the body, you are beginning what is called the recovery. On the recovery, think of the handle drawing you forward, so you move the arms out first to straighten them. Then, following the handle, begin to swing the upper body forward. Only once the hands are past the still-straight knees will you begin to raise the knees and roll the seat forward on the track or slide. (There is more information about rowing and rowing terms in the Appendices of the book; and this information comes from chapter three.) At the end of this recovery motion you will be in what is called the catch position. The catch position is essentially a posture at the end of the recovery and the beginning of the drive rather than a separate part of the stroke.
• The Drive Phase of the Stroke: On the drive (which begins when your body is all the way forward and your legs compressed, and you start to straighten or “drive” the legs down), let your arms relax and merely act like chains connecting your body to the handle (that is, let them stay straight at first rather than attempting to bring them to the body). Press the knees down and begin to swing your shoulders back, then bring your arms in to the body as you finish, leaning back just past vertical. As you hold on to the handle with your hands throughout the drive, keep them relaxed; they should not become a source of tension in the arms or shoulders. Once you reach the finish position, you have the handle against your body, your legs are straight, and you are leaning back slightly. You are now ready to start the hands/handle moving away from the body, as described in the previous paragraph on the recovery.

On the Camps and Trainers page (under ____), you will see a link to a YouTube video by Josh Crosby that describes basic technique and demonstrates it nicely in five minutes. Take a look at that; view a manufacturer’s demo DVD; watch yourself in the mirror.