3 Tips To Improve Your Row Form

The Orangetheory workout consists of 3 main components; the treadmill, the rower, and the weights. Taking your first class at OTF may seem intimidating if you have never used a water rower before. No need to worry, today I will be sharing 3 tips from Orangetheory coaches to help you become a crew expert.

Tip #1: Learn The Movement

Let's go over the two primary movements when it comes to rowing. These phases are called the stroke and the recovery.

1. The Stroke

This is the movement where your legs are pushing and your core/arms are pulling. Your arms should still be fully EXTENDED at this point.

2. The Recovery

This is the movement where your arms, core, and legs begin moving forward to prepare for the next stroke.

Tip #2: Remember L.C.A. for the Stroke

L.C.A stands for Legs, Core and Arms. These are the 3 muscles you will be activating in your Stroke in that exact order.

We’ll begin our stroke using our Legs

• (L)egs - When starting your row, your legs are the first to go. begin your stroke by pushing and extending your legs, moving yourself backward on the rower.

Next we will activate our Core

• (C)ore - After your legs are fully extended, your core moves backward, moving from a 10 o’clock position to a 2 o’clock position with your torso.

We’ll finish our stroke using our Arms

• (A)rms – after your core is moved backwards, your arms pull back with the rower handle to finish off the stroke.

Tip #3: Remember A.C.L. for the Recovery

For the Recovery portion of your row, the roles are reversed and we follow A.C.L.: Arms, Core and Legs

We’ll start our recovery using our Arms this time

• (A)rms – your arms should fully extend BEFORE your core and legs move at all.

Next we will pull back our Core

• (C)ore – Once your arms are fully extended, you should begin to move your core from the 2 o’clock position back to the 10 o’clock position.

We’ll Finish our recovery and our row with our Legs

• (L)egs – once your core and arms have moved back to their original positions, then begin to slide forward with your legs to complete your row.

Once you put these tips together, your row should look like this

These are our 3 row tips for today. With some practice, anyone can be a crew expert. Hope these tips are useful, we’ll see you on the rowers!