Strength Training for Rowers
Listen to the conversation: #45 Insights into Strength & Conditioning for Rowing - Jack Dillon
#54 Strength & Conditioning for Masters Rowers - Jack Dillon
Strength training for rowing should improve what you can do in the boat. That includes producing force, controlling your body and coping with the demands of training and handling equipment.
In two Complete Rowing conversations, Jack Dillon explains why a useful gym programme starts with the athlete in front of the coach. A new rower learning how to move and an experienced racer seeking more power do not necessarily need the same session.
Start with movement you can control
Jack's masters discussion includes the role of strength work in developing movement awareness. Rowing asks athletes to connect pressure through the legs, trunk and arms while holding useful positions. That coordination cannot be assumed simply because someone is enthusiastic or aerobically fit.
Learning a hinge, squat or controlled pulling movement can give a coach information about how an athlete moves. Jack also describes how gym exercises can reveal differences in mobility or strength.
The first goal is to understand the movement and perform it reliably. Add load and complexity with appropriate coaching. A technically demanding exercise is not automatically the best starting point.
Choose exercises for a reason
In the earlier conversation, Jack discusses squats, different rowing movements, core work and Olympic-lifting variations. He also explains his reservations about using deadlifts indiscriminately with rowers.
These are his coaching choices, not a universal list of compulsory exercises. An exercise that suits one athlete may need adapting or replacing for another. Injury history, experience, available equipment and the rest of the training week all matter.
Hear Jack's explanation of exercise selection before turning a few exercise names into a programme. The reasoning is more useful than copying a session without its context.
Connect the gym to the rowing week
A strength session has to sit alongside water training and erging. If an athlete is consistently too fatigued to execute the week's key rowing sessions, the whole programme needs reviewing.
That does not mean gym work should never feel demanding. It means its timing and dose need a purpose. Talk with the rowing coach and strength coach about which sessions matter most, how much training is already being done and how the athlete responds.
Keep a simple record of exercises, load and repetitions, together with any effect on subsequent rowing. Progress is easier to judge when the record includes movement quality and consistency, not just the heaviest weight lifted.
Masters beginners and experienced racers
For a beginner, a useful improvement may be feeling more stable at the catch or more confident helping to carry a boat. For an experienced racer, it may be maintaining effective force through a demanding piece.
Both are legitimate goals. The programme should reflect what the rower needs now rather than what they remember doing at university or have seen another athlete perform.
Jack's masters-specific conversation is particularly useful for clubs building support around adult beginners as well as established competitors.
A practical starting conversation
Before adding another gym session, ask your coach: which movement or capacity are we trying to improve, how will we practise it, and how will we know it is helping?
Clear answers make the gym part of rowing development. They also make it easier to adjust the plan when work, recovery or other training changes.
Hear the full conversations
#45 Insights into Strength & Conditioning for Rowing - Jack Dillon
#54 Strength & Conditioning for Masters Rowers - Jack Dillon
