1. Don't Be a Rowing Fanatic
Rowing is a great way to get into shape, since it works so many muscles of the body. However, this water sport takes some time to get used to. If your body isn't used to rowing, you're more likely to in cure knee and other injuries, which are quite common. So be sure to limit your rowing time, especially until your body gets acclimated to the activity. But even if you're experienced, you should watch your time carefully. Excessive rowing can cause so-called overuse knee injuries, among others.
2. Be in Reasonable Shape Before You Begin
Proper technique is important to preventing knee injuries while rowing. But it's very difficult to maintain the right technique if you're in poor shape. Inflexible and weak muscles slip, strain and provide little support for your legs, which can put unnecessary stress on your knees. Develop enough strength in your core muscles, legs, arms and cardiovascular system before you begin rowing.
3. Especially Keep the Thigh Muscles Strong
Knee pain is caused when the knee joint moves. In medical terms, this condition is called a subluxing kneecap. To prevent this from happening, it's important to keep the thigh muscles strong, especially the inner thighs. Pilates exercises for your inside thigh muscles include the inner-thigh lift and inner-thigh squeeze, both of which are performed with an exercise ball. Some thigh exercises can be done with weights, like the cable abduction, standing hip rotation, 4-way hip abduction, slideboard skate, machine outer thigh and machine inner thigh.
4. Do Lower Body Stretches
If the muscles in your legs are flexible, it's less likely you'll sustain a leg injury that will leave your kneecap with inadequate support. So it's important to regularly stretch the muscles in your lower body and legs. Suggested flexibility exercises you should do regularly include the abductor stretch, glute stretch, single-leg hamstring stretch, standing calf stretch and standing quadricep stretch.
5. Stop If You Feel Knee Pain
If you feel any type of pain in your knee, especially the type the gets worse as you increase the time or intensity of your rowing, then stop rowing immediately. If you push yourself, you could injure your knee so badly that the only way to fix it would be through surgery. After you stop your rowing training, see a physiotherapist or doctor as soon as possible. A specialist can usually help you deal with a minor knee injury and prevent it from becoming a much more serious one.
