How to Use a Rowing Machine After an Injury

To use a rowing machine after an injury, get clearance from a GP or physio first, then start with short, easy blocks and add time before you add effort. Rowing is low impact, but it is not a treatment for any injury, and it does not suit every injury at every stage.

This is general information. If your clinician’s advice differs from anything here, follow theirs, and stop if pain increases.

What to ask before your first session

Rowing loads the legs, hips, back, shoulders and arms together, and it repeats that load fast. Ten minutes at 18 strokes a minute is 180 strokes. Take these questions to your appointment:

1. Is rowing suitable for this injury at this stage?
2. Which movements, range or effort levels should I avoid?
3. How long, and how many times a week?
4. Which signs mean I should stop and come back to you?
5. Do I need to do specific exercises before I try the machine?

It helps to describe the stroke: legs push, the body swings back from the hips, then the arms draw the handle to the chest. Your clinician can then say which parts to avoid. Never use the machine to test whether an injury has healed.

Set up the machine for low load

• Damper: Concept2 suggests starting between 3 and 5 for most rowing, and 3 or below reduces fatigue over longer distances. Stay at the low end of that range.
• Pressure: press, do not heave. The hardest pulls put the most load through the body.
• Rate: 18 to 20 strokes a minute gives you time to control each stroke.
• Warm-up: spend at least 5 minutes on easy movement. Our rowing warm-up gives a routine to adapt.
• Technique: run through the basics in how to use a rowing machine before you add any time. Clean form spreads the work.

A sample way to build back

Your clinician’s plan comes first. As a rule of thumb, many people cleared for easy rowing do better with short blocks than one continuous piece. This table shows the pattern, not a prescription.

Stage	Session	Total rowing	Rate	Move on when
1	3 x 3 minutes, 2 minutes rest	9 minutes	18	Two sessions with no flare-up next morning
2	3 x 5 minutes, 2 minutes rest	15 minutes	18	Two sessions with no flare-up
3	2 x 10 minutes, 3 minutes rest	20 minutes	18 to 20	Two sessions with no flare-up
4	20 to 25 minutes continuous	20 to 25 minutes	18 to 20	Your clinician agrees you can add effort

Two or three sessions a week, with a day between them, leaves room to see how you react. If a stage causes a flare-up, drop back one stage. Only raise the effort once the time is comfortable.

Leeds Community Healthcare’s return-to-sport advice suggests starting your sport at 50% effort and adding no more than 10% a week. The same sum works for time. If you used to row 30 minutes, 50% is 15 minutes. Adding 10% a week gives roughly 16.5, 18, then 20 minutes. That is a slow build, and it should be, because the same advice puts tissue repair at about 1 to 6 weeks, and remodelling at 6 weeks to several months.

How to judge pain during a session

A number is easier to act on than a feeling. A physiotherapy leaflet from Kingston and Richmond NHS uses a 0 to 10 scale, and describes it as just a guide:

Pain score	Zone	What to do on the erg
Under 3	Green	Carry on at this effort
4 to 6	Amber	Make it easier: shorter slide, lighter pressure, or a short rest
Above 7	Red	Stop the session

Your clinician may set a different limit. A low score that keeps rising is still a reason to stop.

After each session, write down four things: how long you rowed, your highest pain score, how the area felt that evening, and how it felt the next morning. Three weeks of notes tells your physio far more than “it feels about the same”.

Common mistakes

• Rowing through rising pain because the first 5 minutes felt fine. Fix: stop at the agreed score.
• Going back to an old workout. Fix: use your old session as the base for the sum above, not as the target for this week.
• Adding time and effort together. Fix: change one thing at a time, so you know what caused any flare-up.
• Skipping rehab exercises because you have rowed. Fix: rowing does not replace the exercises your physio set.
• Doing part-strokes unprompted. Some people are told to use the legs only, or the upper body only, at first. Do that only if a professional has told you to.

Where rowing may suit you, and where it may not

The seat slides and your feet are strapped in, so rowing avoids the impact of running or jumping. That can make it a reasonable option for some people. It does involve loaded bending and pulling, so some injuries of the back, shoulders, ribs and knees need specific advice. See our pages on rowing with lower back pain, rowing with bad knees, rowing with bad shoulders and returning to rowing after time off from injury.

Our guide to the most common rowing injuries sets out what to watch for when you are back to regular training. Many share the same causes: too much too soon, poor technique and too little rest.

If rowing is off the table for now, ask what you can still do around the injury. Cross-training for rowers gives ideas to discuss with your clinician.

When to stop and get help

Stop and get advice if you have sharp or worsening pain, numbness or tingling, returning swelling, lost movement or strength, or pain that continues at rest or overnight. If you have chest pain, dizziness or a sudden severe pain, stop at once and get medical help.