Master the Row: Stroke Efficiency and Smart Pacing for CrossFit and HYROX
Learn how to fix common rowing mistakes, improve efficiency, and dial in pacing for 2km tests, CrossFit workouts, and HYROX races. Row smarter, not harder.
Learn how to fix common rowing mistakes, improve efficiency, and dial in pacing for 2km tests, CrossFit workouts, and HYROX races. Row smarter, not harder.
Rowing seems simple. Sit down and pull hard, right?
In theory, yes, but anyone who has spent time on the ergometer knows how quickly things can get derailed.
Poor technique leads to wasted energy, early fatigue, and a stroke that feels harder than it should. And on the pacing side, going out too hot is a classic mistake and quickly leads to what the rowing world calls flying and dying.
The good news is, with a little guidance, it’s fairly easy to make your stroke more efficient and dial in your pace to maximize your performance.
Food for thought: When done correctly, rowing should feel powerful, controlled, and repeatable so that it doesn’t spike your heart rate or trash your legs for whatever comes next.
Three Common Rowing Mistakes
1. Pulling Too Early
One of the most common technical errors we see is athletes pulling with their arms too early in the stroke.
A powerful rowing stroke starts at the catch (your starting position). At the catch, you should be:
From there, the stroke follows a clear sequence: legs first, then the back opens, and finishes with the pulling of the arms.
The legs are your biggest power source. So when you bend your arms early and begin to pull—similar to pulling too soon in a clean—you completely bypass that lower-body power. The result? A weaker stroke that feels harder than it should.
Think about driving the machine away with your legs first, then layering in the rest of the stroke.
Check out this video for more.
2. Pulling Too High at the Finish
The end of the stroke is called the finish. Here, you should be:
A common mistake is pulling the handle up toward the neck or under the chin, thinking it creates a longer stroke. In reality, this breaks efficiency.
You want to maintain a straight, linear line between your hands and where the cable attaches to the machine. Pulling too high shortens that line, wastes energy, and adds unnecessary strain to the shoulders and arms.
3. Gripping Too Hard
Rowing isn’t fingertip control, but it’s also not a death grip.
A tight grip creates tension in the forearms, shoulders, and upper body, which:
Aim for a loose, relaxed grip so your arms and shoulders can stay calm while your legs do the heavy lifting.
Dial in Your Pacing
Your ideal pace depends entirely on what the workout demands. A 2-kilometer stand alone rowing test, for example, is very different from rowing in a long multi-modal CrossFit workout, or a HYROX race.
Let’s break it down:
1. Stand Alone Row Test
If the row is the workout—a 2km row, a 5km row or a 500-meter sprint—then yes, it should hurt.
That being said, it shouldn’t hurt too early in the race.
One of the biggest mistakes inexperienced rowers make is going out too hard, as they don’t know what a challenging, but consistent and sustainable pace is for them for each distance.
Consider this: If you were to run a mile run, you wouldn’t sprint the first 200 meters. You would run at the same speed throughout the run, all the while leaving a little bit in the tank for a sprint finish.
In terms of finding your pace for rowing, it might take a little trial and error.
In a perfect world, a 2-km row begins with 10 to 15 very hard strokes to get the flywheel going. (You will be going much faster here than the rest of the race). After those first 10-15 strokes, you should settle into your pre-determined pace immediately and keep it there until the very end, where you can empty the tank in the last 100 to 150 meters.
Though it might sound challenging, you should aim to keep your pace within one to two splits the entire 2 km (minus the start and finish). This means, if your goal is 8 minutes, then you should be sitting at 2:00/500 meter for the duration of the 2 km with as little deviations from there as possible.
2. Multi-Modal CrossFit Workouts
Here’s the reality for rowing in a broader CrossFit workout: You rarely win the workout on the rower, and it’s usually better to aim for a conservative row as the amount of effort required to go just 10 seconds faster usually isn’t worth it.
Let’s say the workout is three rounds for time of:
Though you will be spending a decent amount of time rowing, you need to consider the workout at large before determining your pace.
The goal for the row should be for it to keep your heart rate in a place where you can push the other three movements, and almost use the row to bring your heart rate back down again.
Pro Tip: Row at a pace that’s 10-15 splits off your 2-km row.
3. HYROX Racing Strategy
The same principle applies to HYROX as multi-modal CrossFit workouts. Ultimately, the juice simply isn’t worth the squeeze to crush the row.
If you go all-out and gain 10–20 seconds, you’ll likely give that time right back on the next run. Further, the 1,000-meter row comes late in a HYROX race, when fatigue is already high.
The 1,000 meter row is also:
Similar to the previous example, if your best 2 km time is 7:20 (an average split of 1:50/500 meters), consider rowing at: 2:00 to 2:05/500 meters. This might sound slow, and might make you feel like you’re losing time, but you’ll come off feeling composed, controlled and ready to push, and with ample opportunity to make up more time than you would have gained from going 20 seconds faster on the row.
One More Thing: Stroke Rate
Stroke rate matters just as much as pace.
Standalone rows: Elite rowers often race 2 km rows at 30–36 strokes per minute. That may be high for newer, inexperienced rowers, but higher rates can make sense when rowing is the only task.
CrossFit and HYROX: Lower is better. Generally speaking, aim for 24–28 strokes per minute so you can:
Final Thoughts
Better rowing isn’t about muscling through more pain; it’s about clean technique, smart pacing, and understanding the context of the workout.
Fix the common mistakes, respect the purpose of the row, and choose a pace that sets you up for success beyond the machine.
Emily Beers is a fitness writer and journalist with more than 15 years of experience in the industry, including six years as a senior writer for the Morning Chalk Up, a position she still holds. Emily also spent a decade-and-a-half coaching CrossFit, and competed at the CrossFit Games twice with a team and once as an individual.
