(recovery out of bow, not recovery out of pain!)

Background: 40 , coming back to sport via erg after long break since college (yes, have had good rowers critique my basic form!)

After about a year in, I've noticed a difference (just one?? ha!) between me then and me now: I have in the last few years been doing pilates-type things and am much more "core aware" as such. So I'm finding myself trying to think (or over-think) the order of muscle engagement after my arms are out of bow. Do I start with a hip pivot, then using my core to pull my upper body forward? Or do I lift from the mid/upper shoulders as my arms come forward, then pulling my core forward from the top? (Hope you can picture what I'm talking about. Both feel "different" in my stroke, but I can't tell if one is "right".

Or is this kinda like trying to decide if I breathe in or I breathe out during my golf backswing...