Does Rowing Help Cyclists? Your Guide to Cross-Training

While cycling offers an excellent blend of anaerobic and aerobic exercise, it also demands balance—whether you're targeting underutilized muscles or fine-tuning your strength to elevate your performance. If you’re exploring cross-training options, you might be wondering exactly how rowing can enhance your cycling game. 

Whether you thrive in spin classes or love the open road, discover why rowing is the perfect complement to cycling—and how to maximize the benefits of cross-training with both exercises.

How cross-training with rowing and cycling can enhance your performance

1. Rowing improves endurance and aerobic capacity

Cycling for long distances or at high intensities relies on aerobic energy to maintain consistent performance without getting tired. When you have a higher aerobic capacity, your body can more efficiently deliver oxygen to your muscles, improving both your stroke efficiency and overall speed.

As a full-body workout, rowing seriously taxes your aerobic system, increasing your heart rate and oxygen demand and improving your cardiovascular fitness over time. By further developing your aerobic system, rowing will benefit your cycling performance by increasing your heart’s ability to pump blood and enhancing your endurance. 

2. Rowing strengthens your leg muscles

As a cyclist, you know that strong legs are essential for generating power, pedaling efficiently, conquering hills, and sustaining endurance over long rides. Incorporating rowing into your routine helps maintain that leg-focused training, targeting your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves as you drive your legs back against the footplate of your indoor rower.

3. Rowing strengthens your core

Cyclists require a strong core to maintain proper posture, ensure stability, and more efficiently transfer power from your legs through the pedals. As you take each rowing stroke, your core engages to connect your upper and lower body, helping you to develop the strong core you need on your bike. 

4. Rowing encourages more balanced strength 

Rowing engages 86% of your body’s muscles, delivering a full-body workout with every stroke. This means you're not only building the key muscles essential for cycling performance but also creating more balanced strength by activating upper-body muscles that are often overlooked in cycling routines.

5. Rowing is low-impact and joint-friendly 

As any cyclist knows, low-impact workouts are an excellent way to achieve high-intensity training without the injury risks associated with high-impact activities like running. Incorporating rowing into your low-impact routine helps you build strength, stability, and flexibility while minimizing joint strain, ensuring you stay injury-free and ready to perform at your best on the bike.

6. Rowing enhances breathing control and lung capacity

Incorporating rowing into your routine regularly challenges your lungs to operate at higher capacities, especially during intense intervals, increasing your overall lung volume. Rowing also strengthens respiratory muscles, making it easier to maintain deep, controlled breathing during both workouts and daily activities.

Strengthening your lungs will help you fuel your muscles during intense rides, as well as enhance your endurance.

Tips for cross-training with rowing and cycling

To maximize the benefits of rowing, we recommend mixing up your rowing routine with a variety of interval and endurance workouts. 

• Steady-state cardio: Steady-state rowing workouts help improve cardiovascular endurance, allowing you to stay energized longer without getting fatigued.

• Interval training: High-intensity interval training (HIIT) rowing workouts entail short sprints followed by rest, helping you boost your power and endurance and sustain higher-intensity efforts for longer periods of time without getting tired.

Another great thing about rowing is that you don’t need to log an hour on your machine to experience the benefits. Even just 20 minutes a day can help you on your way toward improving your fitness! 

Related blog: The 15 Best Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

Start cross-training with a Hydrow rowing machine

Cross-training with an indoor rowing workout program is the perfect choice for cyclists, whether you’re a casual biker or a competitive racer. If you are looking to invest in a rowing machine for your home, be sure to check out Hydrow. Our state-of-the-art rowing machines are the perfect addition to any home gym, giving you an immersive and total-body workout in just 20 minutes a day. 

Hydrow’s extensive library of workout content is led by our team of world-class and Olympic Athletes and filmed in stunning locations around the world. Whether you’re looking to do a rowing workout or do additional cross-training with yoga, Pilates, circuit training, or mobility training, you’ll be transported to gorgeous global destinations that keep you motivated to come back again and again. 

Learn more about the benefits of a Hydrow rowing machine today!