Why Rowing Is a Great Low-Impact Sport

Rowing is a great low-impact sport because the seat takes your bodyweight and your feet never land, yet you can still work as hard as you like. Runners take repeated jolts from the ground, while rowers load their muscles through a smooth push and pull they control.

If you have an injury or health condition, check with a GP or physio first. Low impact doesn’t mean low effort or risk-free.

Why rowing is low impact

In running, each stride sends a force through the foot, ankle, knee, hip and spine as you land. In rowing, the seat supports you and your feet push against a footplate that stays put. The force comes from your muscles working against resistance, and you set how much.

	Rowing	Running	Stair climber
Landing forces	None	On every stride	Small, but full bodyweight on each step
Bodyweight carried	By the seat	By your legs	By your legs
Force set by	Your effort and the drag	Your weight and speed	Your weight and speed
Stopping mid-session	Stop pulling	Slow to a walk	Slow the machine

“Low impact” isn’t the same as “low load”. At rate 20, a 30-minute row is 600 strokes, and each one loads your legs, hips and back. That’s why technique and gradual progress still matter. Our page on whether rowing machines are safe covers the main checks.

What you still get

Cardio fitness. You can row gently at 3 out of 10 or hard enough to leave you breathless. The 2024 Compendium of Physical Activities lists erg rowing from 5.0 METs under 100 watts to 14.0 METs at 200 watts or more, which is a wide range for one machine.

Muscle use. The legs, glutes, back, core and arms all work. Rowing builds muscular endurance well, and strength training alongside it supports strength too. Our guide to rowing muscles breaks this down.

Trunk control. The stroke needs an upright trunk and a hip hinge, so most rowers learn better control of their posture. It won’t fix every posture problem.

Range of movement. Moving from a compressed catch to an extended finish takes the hips, knees and ankles through a good range, provided your technique is sound.

Scalable effort. A beginner can row 10 minutes at rate 18 on the same machine an athlete uses for a 2k test. Our stroke rate guide explains how to pick the right rate.

Who it suits

• Beginners who want to start exercising without high-impact stress.
• People returning from a break or injury, if their clinician agrees.
• Older adults, because effort and session length can be set low.
• People carrying extra weight, who may find running uncomfortable.
• Runners who want a cross-training day with no landing.
• Adaptive athletes, because rowing has its own adaptive branch.

Where care is needed

Low impact solves one problem, not all of them.

Area	Why it matters	What to do
Lower back	Rounding at the catch loads it	Hinge from the hips, and read our guide to rowing with lower back pain
Knees and hips	Deep compression	Try a shorter slide, as in rowing with bad knees
Ribs and shoulders	Overuse, especially after sudden jumps in volume	Add time in small steps
Hands	Blisters and calluses	Use a relaxed grip
Bones	Rowing gives less impact loading than walking or running	Ask your GP if you have osteoporosis, and consider adding walking or strength work
Heart conditions	Hard effort raises heart rate and blood pressure	Speak to your doctor before hard exercise

A four-week start

Learn the sequence first: legs, body, arms on the drive, then arms, body, legs on the recovery. Then build up slowly. Keep the damper at 3 to 5 as Concept2 suggests, or the equivalent light to moderate setting on another machine.

Week	Sessions	Each session	Effort
1	2	10 minutes	3 out of 10, rate 18
2	3	12 to 15 minutes	3 to 4 out of 10, rate 18 to 20
3	3	15 to 20 minutes	4 out of 10, rate 18 to 20
4	3	20 minutes	4 out of 10, rate 18 to 22

Warm up with 2 minutes of very easy strokes, and cool down the same way. Sharp or building pain means stop and ask for advice. When this feels routine, move on to our first month on the erg plan.

The honest verdict

Rowing is one of the better choices if you want hard exercise with no landing. It’s a weaker choice if your main problem is a stiff, painful catch position, or if you specifically want bone-loading impact, where walking or strength work does more. Everyone else can start with 10 easy minutes and see how it feels the next morning.