Why coastal rowing is hard on the body

A Cornish pilot gig is a wonderful thing to row: six oars, a fixed wooden seat, and a coxswain calling the rate as you head out into whatever the sea offers. But the very features that make gig rowing so enjoyable also make it demanding. With no sliding seat, you cannot share the load between legs and trunk in the way a sculler does. Your back, shoulders, arms and hands do most of the work, stroke after stroke, often for an hour or more.

Add a winter of land training, a rush of spring races, and the lively, tidal conditions around the coast, and it is no surprise that the same complaints turn up in club changing rooms each season: lower back ache, sore wrists, blistered palms and the occasional stubborn shoulder. Most of these are predictable, and therefore largely preventable.

Sort the stroke before you add the power

Almost every overuse injury in rowing begins as a small technique fault repeated a few thousand times. Before you worry about pulling harder, make sure the basics are sound.

• Sit tall and stack your ribs over your pelvis. Slouching at the catch compresses the lower back and restricts your breathing.
• Avoid over-reaching. Stretching too far forward at the catch loads your lumbar spine instead of your powerful hip and thigh muscles.
• Hinge from the hips, not the waist. Think of tipping your whole torso forward as one unit rather than curling your spine.
• Drive with the legs against the stretcher, even in a fixed seat. A little leg drive stabilises you and takes strain off the back.
• Relax on the recovery. Loosen your grip, let your shoulders drop, and give your forearms a moment of rest between strokes.

Ask your cox or a more experienced clubmate to watch you for a few minutes from the shore. A single session of feedback is often worth more than weeks of stretching.

Look after your hands

Blistered palms are the badge of honour nobody actually wants. Saltwater softens the skin, wooden handles are unforgiving, and long training rows will test even well-used hands.

• Build up gradually. Short, frequent rows toughen skin better than one marathon session each week.
• Keep hands dry where you can. Dry the handles, and carry a small towel in the boat.
• Tape hotspots early. The moment a patch feels warm or tender, cover it, before it becomes an open blister.
• Rinse and moisturise after rowing. Wash off the salt, dry thoroughly, and use a simple unscented cream to keep skin supple.
• Do not pop blisters. If one bursts, keep it clean and covered, and give it a day or two.

Protecting your back

Lower back pain is the most common complaint in fixed-seat rowing, and it usually reflects a mix of technique, strength and training load. Land training should build a back that can tolerate the work: dead-bug and bird-dog patterns, glute bridges, single-leg work and plenty of hip mobility. Two short sessions a week beat one long, exhausting one.

On the water, warm up before you launch. A few minutes of gentle rowing, gradually building the rate, prepares the tissues far better than starting cold and sprinting. If your back aches during a row, check whether you are slumping or over-reaching. If pain persists for more than a week or two, or wakes you at night, see a physiotherapist rather than rowing through it, and sharp, one-sided pain deserves proper assessment.

Wrists, forearms and shoulders

Wrist pain in gig rowing almost always traces back to grip. Over-gripping loads the tendons around the elbow and sends tension down into the wrist. Hold the handle like a bird you don't want to escape, not like a hammer, and let the fingers open slightly on the recovery.

Keep the wrist in line with the forearm rather than cocked back, and avoid flicking the blade with a snap of the wrist at the finish. Let the body and arms do the work. Shoulder niggles often come from reaching too far forward or rowing with the shoulders shrugged towards the ears. Check your posture at the catch and let the shoulder blades glide rather than pinch.

Load, recovery and the long season

Most injuries arrive not from one bad session but from a sudden jump in volume. If you normally row twice a week, do not double your training in the fortnight before a race. Increase distance or intensity by roughly ten per cent a week where you can, and plan a lighter week every fourth week.

Recovery matters as much as training. Sleep, food, hydration and a rest day are not indulgences; they are how tendons and skin adapt. Vary your sessions, as a steady row, a technical row and a shorter, harder piece all place different demands on the body. Finally, listen to what your body tells you. A dull ache you can row through is one thing; pain that changes how you move is a signal to ease off, get it checked, and come back stronger for the next race.