Welcome back to the RowAlong Club! Grab a seat and Row With Me for today's low-intensity session as we tackle a 5k with a 1k tagged on at the end.

We'll be holding a nice, easy pace of around 20 strokes a minute for the entire row. I'll guide you through setting up your drag factor, seat position, foot stretchers, and handle grip to make sure you're perfectly comfortable before we kick off.

Once we get moving on the 1.3-kilometer EXR course , I'll share some tips on technique, focusing on forward tilt, engaging your quads on the drive, and keeping your chain height level into your sternum.

After that, we just chat! I'll tell you the story of how I started making YouTube videos in a friend's gym , the magic of green screens , and my journey getting back into the Welsh and Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships after a nasty hand injury.

Don't Row Alone—let's get those heart rates up gently and enjoy the paddle!

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The session that quietly does more for your rowing than almost anything else — 25 minutes, low intensity, any machine, any pace.

Today's technique goes deep on over-compression — what it actually is, why heels coming up is usually a posture problem rather than an ankle flexibility one, and what the chain height on your machine tells you about your handle path. Two viewer videos this week showed the same fault from opposite ends of the world: dropping the handle going forward, then pulling early to lift it back up. If any of that sounds familiar, this one's worth paying attention to.

The backstory jumps forward. After the 100km world record in France, 2018 brings a hideous winter flu that wipes out a trip to the World Championships in Virginia — sweating through an edit suite, money lost on a flight, and a race that never happened.

What followed is the story of how RowAlong actually came to exist: a knife sharpening incident, tendon surgery under local anaesthetic with a heart rate of 34, eight weeks of wiggling one finger on the train, a conversation with Shane from Dark Horse, that led to RowAlong.

📋 To watch the videos: find them in the playlist and bookmark it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUil

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.

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25 minutes of easy rowing you can do on any machine, any pace — because the sessions that don't feel like much are often the ones that add up the most.

Most mornings I stumble out of bed, make a coffee, and get on the machine. Today was different — the car needed an MOT, the garage is 2.4k away, and running back at 4:48/km first thing felt like a reasonable warm-up. The legs held up better than expected for three days post-Hyrox.

There's technique in here too. I'm uploading a separate short video today about using a piece of tape on the rail as a way to stop over-compression without the brute force approach of a resistance band — look out for that on the main channel later.

The backstory moves to France, 2017. Jean-Sébastien invites me to join a small lightweight team at a French army training centre to attempt the 100km world record — 8 people, 20 seconds on, 2 minutes 20 off, for five hours. I trained for it watching Mission Impossible films in 20-second bursts, flew Glasgow to Amsterdam to a tiny 18-seater to Rennes, and somehow ended up getting into a stranger's car with no plan. We got the record in 5 hours 7 minutes. It might still stand.

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25 minutes of low intensity rowing you can do on any machine, any pace. This is Tuesday's row. If you want to watch the video, find it here and bookmark it: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUil

There's a reason these easy sessions matter more than you think — and it has nothing to do with how fast you go. Whether you're chasing a sub-7 two-K or just trying to keep up with your kids, showing up consistently at low intensity is where the real fitness gets built. That's what this series is about.

Today's technique focuses on the recovery — why it's not a sequence of separate steps but one fluid motion, and the common habit of dropping the handle on the way forward that quietly wrecks everything that follows.

The backstory reaches Boston 2017. After a British record and a weekend as world champion, I arrive at the World Championships with a squad of teammates for the first time — and promptly have the worst race of my competitive life. What happened in the conversation afterwards is the moment things started to unravel.

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25-minute low intensity follow along rowing workout — any rower, any machine. Row with me while I share technique tips, my Hyrox Glasgow race story, and a full cool-down stretch.

🔗 Full Daily Row Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUil

This is Week 1 of the new RowAlong Daily Row format — Monday's row is public, and Tuesday to Friday rows are available in the playlist above. Same daily commitment, just a smarter upload rhythm. Bookmark that playlist so you never miss a row!

🚣 What's inside this row:

00:00 Welcome & Format Update

01:17 Workout Intro — Low Intensity Plan

03:17 Let's Row — Warm Up & First Strokes

09:17 Technique Deep Dive: Posture, Footplate & Grip

15:30 Hyrox Glasgow Race Story

22:00 Why Leg Drive Matters (Hyrox Rowing Fail Edition)

30:40 Cool Down Stretch — Hamstrings & Hips

36:50 Quad Stretch & Final Chat

41:00 Wrap Up & What's Next

⏱️ Bail out options: Stop at 15 or 25 minutes — the stretching is a bonus.

📩 Got a question about your rowing technique? Drop a comment below.

Don't Row Alone, RowAlong.

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It's Friday the 13th, and the day is: this row, then a 2K on a £40 Bluefin rowing machine that I can lift with one arm, then edit 12 Aviron videos, then make the spare room up because my pal Martin is coming for a pre-Hyrox sleepover, then cook spaghetti bolognese, then go and watch Martin race in the morning before Julie and I race in the evening. Busy.

Technique-wise today it's about angles and arm sequencing. The back swing should mirror the forward tilt — one o'clock to eleven o'clock — and going deeper than that costs more in recovery energy than the extra centimetre of length is worth. There's also a proper look at keeping the arms straight on the drive: if you can still see your elbows in your peripheral vision, they should be straight. The moment they disappear is the moment you pull them in.

Then we get to Manchester, 2016. Five rowing machines in Dave's back garden, a staggered 1K race, and me arriving having trained hard enough to be doing 3:08 in training with more left to give.

Have a good weekend. Sunday is a rest day. Monday's row will be late. Keep an eye on socials for the Hyrox result.

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.

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Back on the Concept 2 this morning — With a Hyrox race in two days I'm keeping things easy. Later today I'm filming a 2K on a Bluefin rowing machine I picked up for £40 off Facebook Marketplace. It can be bicep-curled. Make of that what you will.

Technique-wise, we get into handle height — aim for the sternum, not the belly button, not the neck — and the return sequence that most people get backwards. Arms away first, then sit up, then tilt forwards. A viewer sends a video of someone they're coaching and it turns into a useful case study: feet set too high in the foot plates, an on-water habit of dumping the handle, and a posture that collapses before the drive even starts. The fix is simple. Whether it gets made is another thing.

Then the British Indoor Rowing Championships, 2016. I know Tim is there, so I've already made my peace with no gold.

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.

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25 minutes. Easy pace. On the Aviron today — don't panic, the Concept 2 is back tomorrow. Watch the full playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8ookhrQKwvKEfSfOxp73vX02j8LrtUil

I'm filming Aviron workouts for another series this week, so it was either swap machines or just crack on. I cracked on. And actually, it turns out there's something worth talking about here — because rowing on a different machine tells you things about your technique that your regular machine quietly hides from you.

There's also a cake. Sort of. A genuinely useful way of thinking about how low, moderate, and high intensity sessions fit together in your training — and why 25 minutes at easy pace five days a week is actually doing more for you than you might think.

The backstory rolls forward too. It's 2016, I'm now racing under the Fitness Matters banner, and for the first time I walk into a championship and there's a table full of people who know my name. The English champs. 20 lightweight 40-to-49s. And for possibly the only time in my career, I line up quietly thinking: I've got this.

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.

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It's half seven in the morning and my lower back is not happy about it. But that's fine — because rowing through it gave me probably my favourite description yet of what a proper warm-up feels like. Think thin ice on a puddle on a cold day. You'll know what I mean when I get there.

I cover setup and technique early on — posture, drag factor, the idea of "row flow" and why I want your movement to feel like water rather than a series of speed bumps. Then we pick up the backstory from where I left it. It's early 2015, I've just come fourth in Boston, I'm throwing everything at training, and a coach called Sam Blythe does something really smart that pulls me away from the comfortable world of Free Spirits and into something a lot more competitive. It feels like a small moment. It isn't.

The back half goes a bit off-road — posture at Wagamama, a squash lesson I was too self-conscious as a teenager to properly take on board, and something I feel pretty strongly about when it comes to people who worry about being judged at the gym. I think you'll agree with me on that one.

Please consult your doctor or healthcare professional before beginning any new exercise programme, particularly if you have any existing health conditions or injuries.

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Join me for an easy, low-intensity 25-minute rowing machine workout designed for all levels and any rowing machine. Perfect for beginners, experienced rowers, and racers looking to move without pressure.

In this session from the 25 by 5 (25x5) series — row 25 minutes a day, 5 days a week — focus on gentle movement, technique, and a relaxed pace. I’ll guide you through setup, rowing, and stretching, all wrapped up in under 40 minutes.

This workout is part of my taper week before racing Hyrox mixed doubles with my wife, so it’s deliberately easy. I also share stories from recent races, including my 4th place finish at the World Rowing Championships, and why good posture is key to protecting your lower back and maximizing power.

What you’ll get:

• Step-by-step machine setup
• Low-pressure rowing session
• Technique tips on posture and core engagement
• Stretching to finish
• Personal insights from my rowing journey and upcoming goals

⚠️ Always consult a healthcare professional before starting any exercise program. Stop if you feel pain or discomfort.

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