Rowing Warm Up
It’s important to warm up your muscles before any form of exercise as this reduces the risk of injury
A warm up will allow your muscles to move more freely so that when you come to the training session your body is prepared.
A dynamic warm up is a good way to prepare for both indoor and on the water rowing. You can read more about the components of an effective warm up in our British Rowing Plus article How to warm up for rowing.
What is a dynamic warm up?
A dynamic warm up is a sequence of actions that systematically loosen your body to its full range of motion.
For a session on the rowing machine your dynamic warm up should enable you to perform the full motion of the rowing stroke. It should leave you feeling ready for ‘action’ for your training session and able to carry out the activity at the desired intensity.
Technical Warm Up
An example of a dynamic warm up on a rowing machine would be:
- Full slide at a low intensity for 2-4 minutes.
- Break down the elements of the stroke for 30 seconds each moving from ¾ slide all the way down to arms only.
- Work back up to full slide, increasing the exertion.
By the end of the warm up your heart should be beating faster and you should feel warmer than when you began.
There are other dynamic exercises which can be used to warm up, such as:
- Jogging
- Walking lunges
- Bodyweight squats
- Heel flicks
- High knees
