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Stroke Rate on a Rowing Machine: What Three Studies of Rowers Show About Power, Technique and Foot-Stretcher Position

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The monitor on a rowing machine shows stroke rate, usually as strokes per minute (spm), next to power and pace. Buyers comparing machines often ask what rate to row at, and whether adjusting the foot-stretcher (the footplate) changes the stroke. This article summarises the abstracts of three studies on ergometer rowing. All three involved trained rowers, so they say little about beginners, and none tested a particular brand or model.

Study one: stroke rate and intensity in 12 competitive rowers

Ettema and colleagues studied twelve competitive male rowers on an ergometer, in a paper published in Sports Biomechanics in 2025. Each rowed at three intensities and three stroke rates, including a self-chosen rate, while force and movement were recorded and used to estimate joint powers. The abstract reports strong effects of intensity and stroke rate on most measures, including drive length, drive time, drive velocity, recovery time and work per stroke. These effects were hardly reduced when only the preferred combinations of rate and intensity were considered.

The authors found that stroke rate was mostly regulated by changing recovery time, while drive time and its forces were mostly affected by intensity. They concluded that with a fixed resistance, work rate is mostly steered through stroke rate: work per stroke is set for a given power requirement, and any further large change in rate is made mainly by modifying the recovery. The forces during the drive were largely independent of intensity and stroke rate, although that resemblance was strongest at the rower’s preferred rate.

Study two: 20, 28 and 34 strokes per minute in 24 rowers

Duchene and colleagues studied 24 high-level rowers, also in Sports Biomechanics in 2025. They performed maximal-intensity one-minute bouts at 20, 28 and 34 spm on a RowPerfect3 ergometer, with power measured at the handle, legs, trunk and arms, and trunk movement and muscle activation recorded.

  • Power at the handle was higher at higher stroke rates in the first half of the drive, because of higher power at each body segment.
  • The higher trunk power came before a delayed trunk extension, but without a significant increase in the activation of the erector spinae (back muscles), which the authors interpret as underlining the role of core stability in transferring force at a higher rate.
  • The authors suggest that rowing at a low stroke rate can be a strategy to work on earlier trunk extension, while training at a higher rate produces a technique closer to competition with greater neuromuscular activation and maximal power.

Study three: foot-stretcher position in 11 college rowers

Engstrom and colleagues, in PLOS ONE in 2023, noted that the effect of equipment set-up on the rowing stroke has received limited attention. They modified an ergometer so that the height and angle of the foot-stretcher could be adjusted, and tested seven foot-stretcher positions at 22, 26 and 32 spm in eleven college-level rowers. Movement patterns at each major joint were compared between conditions.

Stroke rate was found to affect the movement patterns of all joints, and the timing of events during the stroke. The effect of foot-stretcher position was limited to the ankle and hip, and it did not affect timing. The authors concluded that while some limited changes to technique can be caused by altering the foot-stretcher, the changes were largely compensated for by the rowers and are generally smaller than the differences between stroke rates.

What the three have in common

  • Stroke rate changes the stroke more than the foot-stretcher position did in the third study.
  • At a set resistance, the first study found that the recovery time is what mostly changes when stroke rate changes.
  • Higher rates raised power in the first half of the drive in the second study, at maximal effort.

What the studies cannot show

All three used competitive, high-level or college rowers. Nothing in the abstracts tests casual exercisers, and no study ranked ergometers against each other. The studies did not measure calories, fitness gains over time or how the readings on different consoles compare, so they cannot say which stroke rate is best for a general fitness goal. Damper and resistance choices are covered in this site’s guides to rowing machine damper settings and choosing a rowing machine.

What this means when comparing machines

For a buyer, the practical points are modest. A monitor that displays stroke rate alongside power is showing a variable that these studies treat as central to how the stroke is performed. A machine with an adjustable foot-stretcher offers a set-up option, but the third study suggests that rowers largely adapt to changes, so fine adjustment is unlikely to transform the stroke. Comfort and ease of adjustment are practical considerations rather than findings of these studies.

Frequently asked questions

Does a higher stroke rate always mean more power?

Not on this evidence. In the second study, handle power was higher at higher rates in the first half of the drive in maximal one-minute bouts by high-level rowers, but that does not describe every rower or every effort.

Does foot-stretcher position change the stroke a lot?

In the third study, its effect was limited to the ankle and hip, did not alter timing, and was largely compensated for by the rowers.

The bottom line

Three studies of trained rowers found that stroke rate has larger effects on technique than foot-stretcher position does, that a rower at a fixed resistance changes rate mainly by altering recovery time, and that higher rates raise handle power early in the drive at maximal effort. They do not show which rate suits a beginner or which machine is better.

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