Whether you have hung up your running shoes, or are simply looking for a low-impact way to improve your cardio, rowing delivers some serious bang for your buck when it comes to building endurance and power. That’s part of the reason it has become increasingly popular among people in their 40s, 50s and beyond.
According to rowing coach Austin Hendrickson, the real benefit of rowing is its potential to support long-term health and mobility. In a recent YouTube video, Hendrickson explains that ‘hardly anyone talks about how to train for the next 10, 20, 30 years so that your body still holds up and you’re feeling good later in life.’
Why Rowing for Longevity?
For Hendrickson, the rowing machine is ‘one of the best tools we have for fitness longevity if we use it right’. He describes longevity training as balancing performance, recovery, joint health, and consistency over the years, adding that ‘the goal with longevity training isn’t to survive workouts. It’s to accumulate years of training safely.’
A major reason for that, he says, is rowing’s low-impact nature. ‘It’s one of the most low impact exercises that you can do. You’re not going to get the pounding on your joints that you can experience from other forms of similar cardio like running.’ He notes that rowing works a significant amount of muscle mass, making it ‘such a bang for your buck’ exercise despite being easy on the joints.
The coach says rowing can also help preserve lean muscle mass and metabolic health as we age. ‘One of the best predictors for longevity is an individual’s VO2 max,’ he explains, adding that steady-state rowing and aerobic training are ‘like anti-ageing medicine.’
But Hendrickson also warns against going all out in every session, ‘Most people who pick up rowing as an exercise do not stick with it long term,’ he says. ‘One of the biggest reasons is because they’re going too hard too fast too often.’
‘If we want to row for longevity, we have to let our ego die down and we have to stop racing every row we do.’ He also stresses the importance of strength work alongside cardio, arguing that ‘if rowing preserves our endurance, strength training preserves our structure’.
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Weekly Routine for Longevity
If you want to include rowing in your routine, Hendrickson recommends the following plan for long-term fitness and sustainability:
- 2-3 aerobic rowing sessions per week: Aim for rows lasting 20 minutes or longer at a low-to-moderate intensity, maintaining a conversational pace throughout.
- 2 strength training sessions per week: Include simple resistance exercises alongside rowing to help support muscle mass, bone density and long-term daily function.
- 1 high-intensity rowing workout per week: Hendrickson recommends simple intervals such as: 1 minute on, 1 minute off; or 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off.
- Don’t go hard every session: High-intensity workouts are more taxing on the body, which is why he advises limiting them to once per week to allow for adequate recovery.
- Prioritise technique over intensity: Focus on rowing well rather than simply rowing harder, especially as fatigue sets in.
- Take regular recovery weeks: Build training gradually for around three weeks before taking an easier ‘deload‘ week to recover.
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Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.