Chest Supported vs. Bent Over Rowing 1/5, We can put rowing in two categories: chest supported or unsupported. Unsupported, or bent over rowing would imply forcing yourself to utilize your core and spine to keep your torso in place while pulling through your lats,traps and/rear delts. Advantages to this are the sheer demand to execute the movement and the stimuli you’re providing your spinal erectors to stay rigid. For most people, their spine mechanics are the first to give out, way before anyt

In rowing you want to use your LEGS first! But it doesn’t work if you just “press your legs down”. If the seat moves back, but the handle doesn’t move and your body collapses forward, you’re doing what we call in the rowing world as “shooting the slide”, which results in ZERO leg power!! In order to TRULY use your legs first, you have to make sure that “every inch the seat moves, the handle moves”! This means your torso does NOT collapse down, and you feel strong tension in your legs as you PUSH

Rowing world champions do 1 thing you probably don’t do enough of… And that’s LEAN FORWARD!! Most of us know to lean back when we row, but we can get so focused on bending our legs to get up to the front of each stroke that we overcompress our legs and don’t get enough torso lean! The torso lean forward aka shoulders in front of the hips is CRUCIAL for maximum efficiency and power in your rowing stroke. It allows you to push with your legs, and then SWING with your torso and hips! It’s that swin