How to Build Strength in Your Legs for Rowing

Legs produce most of the power in the rowing stroke, so stronger legs give you more force with every drive. A simple strength session a week or two can make a difference when it sits alongside your rowing.

Two principles

Specificity (the SAID principle). SAID stands for specific adaptation to imposed demand: your body adapts specifically to the demands you place on it. To get better at rowing you must row, and strength work supports it rather than replaces it. Lifting also builds a different quality from endurance training. Strength work uses heavier loads and fewer reps, while endurance work uses lighter effort for longer.

Progressive overload. Gradually increasing load, reps or difficulty gives your body a reason to adapt. Do it slowly to avoid injury. If a lift feels the same for weeks, make a small change.

Sets, reps and load

A rep is one complete movement, and a set is a group of reps. For strength, lower rep ranges of roughly 3 to 6 with heavier weights and longer rests are typical. For general conditioning and muscle size, 8 to 12 reps is common. As a rule of thumb, a load that you can lift for about six clean reps is somewhere around 80 per cent of your one-rep maximum, though this varies between people and lifts.

If you are new, begin with lighter loads and higher reps while you learn the movements.

A leg session

Warm up first with easy rowing and bodyweight squats. Then:

Exercise	Sets x reps	Rest	Notes
Barbell squat	3 to 5 x 5 to 6	2 to 3 minutes	Brace your trunk, chest up, squat to at least parallel if mobility allows
Stiff-leg or Romanian deadlift	3 x 6 to 10	2 minutes	Hinge at the hips with a flat back and feel the hamstrings load
Leg press or hack squat	3 x 8 to 12	90 seconds	Adds leg volume with less demand on your back
Squat jumps	3 x 5 to 8	90 seconds	Land softly. They train quick force production

Choose weights that leave a rep or two in reserve at first. The old pattern of five sets of six on each of the first three lifts is a lot for most people; start with three sets and add only when you recover well.

The squat

Set your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned out slightly, and rest the bar across your upper back. Descend under control and drive up through the whole foot. Keep the knees tracking over the toes.

The stiff-leg deadlift

Soften the knees slightly and keep them there. Push the hips back, lower the weight along your legs until you feel a stretch in the hamstrings, then drive the hips forward. This builds the hamstrings, glutes and muscles along the spine, which help you hold posture in the boat.

Technique and safety

Get good coaching on barbell lifts, because mistakes under load cost you. Never round your back during deadlifts. Use safety bars or a spotter on heavy squats. Stop if you feel sharp pain, and see a GP or physio if you have a knee or back problem. Our guides to can squatting help you row faster and weightlifting for rowers add context.

Without a gym

You can build a base at home. Bodyweight squats, split squats, step-ups onto a sturdy bench, single-leg glute bridges and jump squats all work. Slow the lowering phase to make them harder, or add a loaded backpack. See bodyweight exercises to help you row better.

Fitting it around rowing

Do legs on a day with an easy row or none, and keep a rest day before hard tests such as the 2k erg test. Once a week is enough to begin with. Combine with glute exercises and core work. More on the overall approach is in strength training for rowing.