Strength exercises for rowers: get strong and look after your back

Most big rowers love the gym. The trick is training there for the boat, not for the mirror. Here's how I'd train for strength as a rower, the lifts I'd stick to, and why looking after your back matters more than any number on the bar.

How should rowers train in the gym?

Get really strong for rowing specifically. Not for the beach, not to show off to the ladies or the lads. There are two parts to that.

"Building your absolute strength so that you're just a strong guy or girl and also building a body that will remain injury free."

Your work in the gym should be a blend of those two things. You can't just stop rowing to go and lift. You've got to train on the water and on the erg, and there's no replacement for that. So if you get injured in the gym and can't do the one thing that makes you go fastest, which is row, you've made a big mistake. It's a mistake I've made as well. Learn from my example.

What are the best exercises for rowers to build strength?

The big compound lifts that are safe:

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Power cleans
• Pull-ups
• Bench press

Prioritise the ones that build what the boat needs: strong legs, a strong core and a strong back. Rowing is transferring energy through a chain, from your legs, through your trunk, to your fingertips on the handle. Your legs and trunk do most of the work, so that's where the strength needs to be. If you're strong in the gym but not putting that power down in the boat, I've written about that in how a big, powerful rower should use their power in a crew boat and in hang off your lats.

Then be really intelligent about how much weight you put on the bar.

"Build up to it slowly, do all your mobility, do all that core stuff around your strength sessions"

You need all of that in top shape if you start pushing heavy loads in the gym while also handling the load on the rowing machine and on the water. Balance the two things: intensity and injury prevention.

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Look after your back

Tell me you're a rower without telling me you're a rower. I sit down to relax and have to sit dead straight, otherwise my lower back screams at me for the decade of abuse.

"You only have one back and it needs to last you your entire life."

Rowing is a sport that recruits your back a lot, so take care of it.

"You need to take care of it, you need to do mobility, you need to look after your back, you need to listen to the physios"

Be a little bit cautious when you walk into the weights room after a 30k row and try to do power cleans without warming up. You might slip two discs at the same time. I'm talking to myself there. Look after your back. Speaking from experience, you've only got one.

Why stretching is part of strength

Here's something that's underappreciated: how important boring old stretching is. It's bro science, but it has my anecdotal approval.

"The more flexible you are the more strength you're gonna have at length."

If you're always overstretching to get into the same catch or finish position as the rest of your crew, you're lacking flexibility, and there's no way you're going to have strength in that overstretched position. You want to be at length with the rest of the crew, in the most powerful position possible.

I'm not saying row short. The opposite. Row long, but be flexible enough to be long with no strain. Do your stretching before and after every session, every day, and you'll notice you're up at the catch way more comfortably.

What should hurt after rowing?

I'm not a physio, so I won't tell you which pain is fine to push through. What I will say is that your back is the one to take seriously. Rowing recruits your back a lot, and you only get one. If your back is hurting, listen to the physios and do your mobility.

What are the downsides of rowing?

The big one for me is my lower back. A decade of training hard in a sport that recruits your back a lot leaves its mark, and I still feel it when I sit down to relax. The other downside is the one you bring on yourself: getting hurt in the gym chasing a lift you didn't need, and losing time on the water and the erg. Both come back to the same thing. Look after your body so you can keep rowing.

Common mistakes

• Training for how you look, not for how the boat goes.
• Piling weight on the bar before you've built up to it.
• Skipping mobility and core work because it's boring.
• Going heavy in the weights room straight after a long row without warming up.
• Ignoring the physios.

If you're a big, strong rower who isn't a natural, you're probably a Meataxe rower, and this is written for you. There's more on gym work and power in the strength and power topic, and the mistakes I made along the way are in common rowing mistakes.

"Get strong but don't get bloody injured."