RowAlong – Indoor Rowing Machine Workouts

Mar 27: 25 Min Easy Rowing Workout — Strapless, the RowAlong Origin Story & Why I'm the Problem | RowAlong

It's Friday — last one of the week for me, whenever you happen to be watching this. Today I'm rowing the whole session with my feet out of the straps, which is a lot more revealing than it sounds. We get into why strapless rowing is such a useful technique tool, what it actually forces your body to do, and what it exposes when your stroke has gremlins hiding in it.There's a proper technique thread running through the row today — sequencing legs and back, why doing both at once is less efficient than you'd think, how to use these low-intensity sessions to hardwire good habits so they show up automatically when you're going flat out.And then there's the story. Today the backstory arc arrives at the moment RowAlong actually became RowAlong — the name, the team, and a pattern I've started to notice about myself and the friendships that come and go around the chapters of my life. It's an honest one.Finishing up with a full stretch routine and a heads-up: I'm live on the EXR app Sunday morning at 9am GMT — remember the clocks change.Please consult your doctor or healthcare professional before beginning any new exercise programme, particularly if you have any existing health conditions or injuries. Listen to your body and work at a pace that's right for you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 26: 25 Min Easy Rowing Workout — Why You Show Up on a Thursday | RowAlong

Pull on a shell, get on the machine — it's a cold one in Scotland today. This session is a straightforward low intensity 5K row followed by a gentler 1K cool-down, and it's exactly the kind of workout you can do every single day without burning out. If anything, showing up when you don't quite feel like it is the whole point.There's a proper technique deep-dive today — we're looking at handle height and the catch: where it should land on the drive, what goes wrong when you scoop or drop at the last moment, and why keeping the chain level matters more than the angle. I also get into the arm-bending debate: elite water rowers do it, so why are we all taught to keep straight arms? There's an actual answer to that, and it's more interesting than it sounds.But the conversation that anchors the session is about Thursday. Why Thursday specifically? And what keeps you coming back when your body's already told you it's had enough this week? I've been rowing every weekday since December, and I talk honestly about what's made that possible — including the part you play in it.Tuesday to Friday episodes are unlisted on YouTube if you want to watch them rather than listen — bookmark the playlist so you don't lose them: ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUilPlease consult your doctor or healthcare professional before beginning any new exercise programme, particularly if you have any existing health conditions or injuries. Listen to your body and work at a pace that's right for you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 25: 25 Min Low Intensity Row — The Chain Height Debate | RowAlong

Join this 25 minute easy rowing workout — low intensity, any machine, any pace, any fitness level. Row along at your own pace while I talk you through technique, tell you a story or two, and generally keep you company for 27 minutes.Today's technique is built around the chain height debate — and it starts with a confession. I made a short video recently that was essentially a rebuttal to a clip Austin from JustRow put out about handle path and chain height. No shade at all — he rows beautifully — but I disagreed with the approach, and I realised after posting it that a 60-second short probably wasn't the best place to make a nuanced argument. So I'm unpacking it properly here.The short version: lowering the handle on the recovery is a useful cue if you're someone who bends their knees too early. But in my experience, nine times out of ten, the rower who does it then opens their hips to lift the handle back up — which is exactly the problem we were trying to fix. Sternum height, relaxed shoulders, straight line in and out. That's still where I land.Along the way I also cover body rock and core bracing, the connection between feet and hands through the stroke, and the feet-out-of-straps drill — which is one of the most honest ways to find out whether your momentum is actually going into the flywheel.And there's a story from the racing years that I skipped a few weeks back — soda doping, a 1K race in Aberdeen, and what happens when you get the dosage slightly wrong with about ten minutes to go before the start. It doesn't end well. Mostly.📋 Find the rest of this week's rows as video RowAlongs here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUil (Thursday and Friday sessions are unlisted — bookmark the playlist so you don't lose them)Please consult your doctor or healthcare professional before beginning any new exercise programme, particularly if you have any existing health conditions or injuries. Listen to your body and work at a pace that's right for you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 24: Easy Rowing Workout — Build Better Habits With Every Stroke | RowAlong

27 minutes of low intensity rowing that sets you up for the day — any machine, any pace, row how you want. Technique today goes deep on foot plate height and what it actually does to your body position — why too high squashes everything up as you come into the catch, why too low opens the angle the wrong way, and the relationship between your shin angle and how much your upper body has to compensate. There's also a useful cue around keeping your knees inside the box formed by your arms and handle, and what happens to your posture when they poke out the top.The backstory picks up the RowAlong origin story from where we left off — from the knife accident and rehab rows through to COVID, lockdown, rowing machines flying off shelves, and why that moment of people suddenly working out at home changed everything. Plus some honest thinking about where the channel goes next, plans vs daily workouts, and what the rest of 2025 might look like.📋 Tuesday to Friday rows are unlisted on YouTube — find them in the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUilPlease consult your doctor or healthcare professional before beginning any new exercise programme, particularly if you have any existing health conditions or injuries. Listen to your body and work at a pace that's right for you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 23: 25 Min Easy Rowing Workout — Start the Week Without Overthinking It | RowAlong

The session that does more for your fitness than it feels like it should — 27 minutes, low intensity, any machine, any pace.Technique today covers flat wrists and elbow position — why dropping your elbows shifts the work onto your delts and forearms when your lats and back could be doing the job instead. There's also a useful cue for engaging your lats at the catch with a slight outward arm rotation that's genuinely worth trying. Plus handle height, sternum vs belly button vs upper chest, and why sternum is the target.Back on the day job today — a new series of This Farming Life starts in the edit, which means slightly leaner output this week. The workouts still happen every morning, but the green screen is now running live rather than in post. That's the plan, anyway.The backstory is on pause while the week gets going again — but the story of where RowAlong came from, and where it's heading next, picks back up from Tuesday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.