Any exercise guide will emphasise the important of a good warm up before starting a workout. It will prevent injury as well as preparing your body for the workout. A good warm up will involve the entire body going through a good range of motion at a low intensity. My favourite warm up is done using a rowing machine. It involves the entire body, working arms, legs and core as well as cardio. The intensity starts low and gradually builds up preparing the body for whatever exercise I’ll be doing afterwards, whether rowing or not. This is how I do it, the exact pace and distance can be adjusted to the individual depending on experience and fitness level.
I start by setting up the rower, ensuring the damper setting is correct before getting comfortable with the correct foot size. Next I want to row 2000m so set up the PM to count down from 2000m. For me this is going to take 8:30 to complete the warm up, which is a decent enough amount of time to get my body ready for exercise. Depending on your pace you could set a different distance if that suits.
I start by rowing at a fairly slow pace, 2:30 per 500m and increase the pace as follows:
- 2000-1500m: 2:30 per 500
- 1500-1250m: 2:20 per 500
- 1250-1000m: 2:10 per 500
- 1000-750m: 2:05 per 500
- 750-500:m 2:00 per 500
- 500-250m: 1:55 per 500
- 250-0m: 1:50 per 500
So after the first 500m the pace increases by 10 seconds per 500m every 250m followed by 5 seconds every 250m for the second half of the distance. This warm up is highly adaptable to the individual, the starting pace and the rate at which it increases can be adjusted to suit various levels of fitness, this is just the one that works for me. The important thing is that the pace gradually increases from a fairly low rate of activity to an intense level over the space of 8-10 mins.
I use this warm up all the time. I do have other warm ups that I use from time to time but this one is my favourite. I will always use this one if I intend to do a rowing workout. After completing it I might do a little bit of light stretching before moving on to the workout itself.
According to the Strength and Conditioning Journal the warm up allows bodily systems to adapt to an increased level of activity and decreases abnormal electrocardiogram responses due to increased blood supply to the heart. It also speeds up nerve impulses increasing muscle contraction and reaction times.