Pre-Season Profiling
With the summer now a fading memory, schools and clubs are back in action, kicking off the 2025/26 rowing season. Whether you raced all the way to Henley Royal Regatta or ventured into national and international competitions, I hope you’ve had time to rest and recharge. Now, as we dive into winter training (those miles that bring summer smiles!), it’s the perfect moment to check in with your body.
Understanding Injury Risk: A Quick Recap
In my previous article, I explored the risk factors that can lead to injury:
- Intrinsic Factors: These originate within the body – some are non-modifiable like age, gender, and past injuries, while others, such as mobility and strength, can be improved.
- Extrinsic Factors: These come from outside the body – non-modifiable ones include environmental conditions, while modifiable ones include your equipment and training programme.
Now, let’s build on that foundation and introduce a simple way to assess your own mobility and strength— a process known as profiling.
What Is Profiling and Why Does It Matter?
Profiling is a tool to help you understand your body better. It can identify imbalances in strength and mobility, allowing you to tailor your training to your needs. It provides a baseline to track progress and can highlight areas that might increase your risk of injury – especially if you notice differences between sides of your body or movements that feel awkward.
For younger athletes, profiling can even help monitor growth and development. Globally, profiling methods vary, but this article offers a straightforward starting point you can use consistently to test then re-test later in the season.
When and How to Profile…
You can begin your assessment from head to toe or vice versa – what matters most is consistency. Aim to profile yourself when you’re fresh, ideally at the start of a training week rather than after a heavy session.
As for frequency, every six weeks is a good minimum to spot meaningful changes. Aligning it with the start of each school term works well. If you’re recovering from an injury, profiling early in rehabilitation (if safe to do so) then again as rehabilitation progresses can guide your return to rowing.
Do You Need Equipment?
Not necessarily! The basic profiling methods outlined below require no equipment. However, for those seeking more precise data, practitioners may use tools like:
- VALD Force Decks: To measure lower body force and asymmetries.
- Handheld Dynamometers: To assess joint range of motion and strength.
Can you achieve the ‘T’ position?
- Stand with your heels, buttocks and upper back against the wall
- Lift your arms so your elbows are in line with your shoulders
- Rotate the arms up taking the back of your wrists towards the wall
- Rotate your arms down taking the palms towards the wall (internal rotation)
Your lower back should be close to, but not pushed into the wall maintaining a natural arch
Why is the “T” position important?
Not only does this test look at shoulder rotation but it can identify if your thoracic spine is restricted into extension. Both these movements are linked; if you slump forward you can’t lift your arms overhead as high as you can if you were in an upright posture.
In the rowing boat
Sitting tall with the chest up allows for efficient transfer of power from the footplate through the hips to the oar = speed!
Slumped posture and over-reaching through the shoulders can lead to injury particularly around the chest wall i.e your ribs!
In the gym
A powerful back squat or deadlift requires a neutral spine that follows a natural curve which puts our trunk muscles including gluteal muscles in the optimal position to produce power.
Can you sit and twist?
- Sitting on a sturdy chair (desk or dining room) with feet on the floor hip width apart and a foam roller between your knees
EITHER
- Cross your hands over your chest OR place a broom handle across your shoulders
- Twist to the left then twist to the right keeping your hips still and bottom on the chair
Why is rotation important?
In the rowing boat
Sweep oar requires repetitive rotation to one side which could lead to muscle and load imbalances in the developing athlete
Our back extensors (like strong columns up the sides of our spine) dominate the rowing stroke. Restriction could lead to changes in load through the spine, ribs, shoulder and pelvis leading to injury
In the gym
Symmetrical range through the muscles ensures equal and optimal muscle length to generate equal and optimal power.
Can you touch your toes whilst standing?
- Stand with feet hip width apart
- Bend forwards to reach your fingertips to the floor
- Keep your head down with eyes looking to the floor in front of your toes
*There should be no pain through the lower back, no pins and needles in the legs or feet and the motion should not be forced*
Why does touching your toes matter?
Touching our toes relies on the mobility of our posterior chain, made up of posterior (at the back) trunk muscles, glutes, hamstrings and calf.
In the rowing boat
- The rock over relies on mobility through our posterior chain, if tight, your knees would pop up as you rock over, or you might slump to achieve your full reach
- This could lead to injury due to load placed on certain structures
In the gym
- Restriction through our posterior chain can reduce our ability to squat to our full depth and produce maximum power
- Tightness especially through glute and hamstring may impact our position to hinge in an RDL
Can you achieve the ‘Pigeon’ pose?
- Start on hands and knees on the floor with knees directly under your hips and toes pointed
- Bring one knee forward keeping it in line with your hip then turn the lower leg inwards so the shin is on the floor
- Slide the back leg back and point your toes, your heel is pointing up to the ceiling
- Keep the head and chest up looking forwards and your pelvis square (avoid twisting)
In the rowing boat
Research has shown with fatigue that rowers increased motion through the spine and decrease movement through their pelvis and hips – keeping the pelvis and hips mobile could reduce load through the spine reducing injury risk
Pigeon pose highlights our hip external rotation like a sweep oar catch position
In the gym
Symmetrical range through the hips and pelvis ensures equal and optimal muscle length to generate equal and optimal power
Can you touch your knee to the wall whilst keeping your heel down?
- Stand facing a wall with one foot flat on the ground, toes pointing toward the wall
- Bend your knee forward to try and touch the wall without lifting your heel
- Gradually move your foot back until your knee can just barely reach the wall while keeping the heel down
- Measure the distance from your big toe to the wall (in cm or finger widths) then repeat and compare to the other side
Why does ankle mobility matter…?
Reaching our knee to the wall relies on the mobility of our ankle joint calf muscles to achieve dorsiflexion.
In the rowing boat
Ankle and calf mobility allow us to achieve an effective catch position with heels down on the footplate and shins vertical. If ankle dorsi-flexion is restricted it may result in the drive phase being initiated from the ball of the foot resulting in a less powerful drive.
In the gym
Olympic lifts including squat, RDL and a clean require sufficient ankle mobility to maximise position and power by driving through the posterior chain
Tracking and interpreting the results
Create a simple log with:
- Date that the profile was completed
- Notes on each test (e.g., “Left shoulder felt tighter than right”)
- Scores (e.g., knee to wall distance)
- Any pain or discomfort
This log becomes your baseline. Over time, you’ll spot improvements, asymmetries, or areas needing attention.
The Payoff: Better Technique, Greater Power
By understanding and improving your mobility and strength, you’ll be better equipped to achieve optimal rowing positions. That translates to cleaner technique and more efficient power transfer – key ingredients for peak performance.
