Fitness Training
Top 5 rowing workouts for runners
Boost your running performance with rowing workouts. Learn effective rowing exercises for runners to enhance endurance, strength, and overall fitness.
As a runner, you likely have your routine. You lace up your sneakers and hit the road or treadmill at your favorite time of day, feeling strong and capable as you traverse your path. Runners tend to practice often and are great at what they do because of it, but you may not realize that there are workouts you can do to activate certain muscles and go even further in your abilities. Here are five rowing exercises and their benefits.
Top 5 rowing workouts for runners
Rowing Workouts for Runners
If you're a runner who is looking to incorporate rowing into your normal workout routine and benefit from a full-body workout, hop on a rowing machine and try these exercises:
1. Long Sprints
When engaging in a long-sprints rowing exercise, perform eight sprints of rowing at 45 seconds each. Take a small break in between, anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds. Long sprints help with your endurance.
2. Stroke Rate Ladder
In this exercise, perform a total of 20 minutes of rowing, broken down into four increments lasting five minutes each. Break each of those five-minute sessions down into one-minute increments with a focus on the number of strokes you're performing in each, or your stroke rate.
3. 500 Meter Repeats
This rowing exercise involves performing the correct rowing exercise in four rowing clusters of 500 meters, each with a two-minute break in between. This rowing workout helps incrementally increase your speed, which you can later transfer to runs.
4. The Time Ladder
The Time Ladder involves 10 minutes of nonstop rowing, varying in intensity during certain timeframes: four minutes, three minutes, two minutes, and one minute.
5. Pyramid Power
In this exercise, you'll build up to a four-minute row before climbing back down. Start at a one-minute row followed by a one-minute rest. Then, do the same for two minutes, followed by three minutes, then four. After your four-minute row and four-minute rest period, go back to a three-minute row and rest, then a two-minute row and rest and, finally, a one-minute row and rest. This is an intermediate exercise that will help you increase endurance.
Benefits of Rowing for Runners
There is a seemingly endless list of benefits for doing rowing exercises as a runner. Here are just some of them:
- Posture: Having proper posture is crucial if you want to activate certain muscles to help you run and avoid injury or strains. Through the practice of rowing, your movements will force a straight back and shoulders, help you sit up tall, and bring your arms to the center of your core.
- Flexibility: During a run, the muscles you are activating most often are the smaller ones, but the larger muscles deserve some care, too. Through rowing, you'll be able to activate these muscles, and this activation should allow for their use on subsequent runs.
- Power: Just as rowing helps activate certain muscles and gives them more flexibility to improve your run, rowing also adds power to those same muscles. You may even find that rowing is providing power to muscles that you've never used before, increasing your overall upper body strength.
- Stability: The more stable you are during a run, the more output you can give, maximizing your running performance. Stability also helps you maintain an appropriate center of gravity and keep you upright when you run.
- Alternative training: While you may normally skip training when you're injured, consider rowing exercises instead. Rowing is a no-impact exercise that is generally safe to do even if you're recovering, although you should ask your doctor first.
Proper Rowing Technique
Having proper technique is important for all forms of exercise, including running and rowing. Here are some tips to perfecting your rowing techniques to get the most out of your cross-training methods:
- Perfect your grip. A proper rowing grip includes curling your hands around the handles, allowing your wrists to become flexible depending on if you're pulling or pushing the bar.
- Secure your feet. Make sure your feet are secure in the footrests by strapping them snug with the toe strap over the top of your shoelaces.
- Retain good posture. Start with your shins vertical and your upper body at a slight lean forward, shoulders over your hips. This will be your starting posture so you can activate a solid push-off from your feet. As you're pushing your legs out straight, pull the handle toward the base of your sternum in a fluid movement. Bend your knees and straighten your arms as your slide forward again.
Incorporating rowing into your workout routine as a runner will give you the strength you need to continue to succeed at your craft and establish yourself as a running expert.
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