diff --git a/mmpose/apis/train.py b/mmpose/apis/train.py
index 9ed087d0ce..2fd17713b2 100644
--- a/mmpose/apis/train.py
+++ b/mmpose/apis/train.py
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
 # Copyright (c) OpenMMLab. All rights reserved.
 import warnings
 
+import mmcv
 import numpy as np
 import torch
 import torch.distributed as dist
 from mmcv.parallel import MMDataParallel, MMDistributedDataParallel
 from mmcv.runner import (DistSamplerSeedHook, EpochBasedRunner, OptimizerHook,
                          get_dist_info)
+from mmcv.utils import digit_version
 
 from mmpose.core import DistEvalHook, EvalHook, build_optimizers
 from mmpose.core.distributed_wrapper import DistributedDataParallelWrapper
@@ -130,7 +132,14 @@ def train_model(model,
                 broadcast_buffers=False,
                 find_unused_parameters=find_unused_parameters)
     else:
-        model = MMDataParallel(model, device_ids=cfg.gpu_ids)
+        if digit_version(mmcv.__version__) >= digit_version(
+                '1.4.4') or torch.cuda.is_available():
+            model = MMDataParallel(model, device_ids=cfg.gpu_ids)
+        else:
+            warnings.warn(
+                'We recommend to use MMCV >= 1.4.4 for CPU training. '
+                'See https://github.com/open-mmlab/mmpose/pull/1157 for '
+                'details.')
 
     # build runner
     optimizer = build_optimizers(model, cfg.optimizer)