Indoor rowing is by far one of the most effective ways to target fitness improvements and focus on specific areas of your fitness training.

With no external influences, sessions can be delivered very accurately, pinpointing the most effective wattages and efforts for the biggest improvements in fitness and conditioning. Time spent on an indoor rower can also be tailored to different areas of training, allowing for practical, efficient and worthwhile workouts, and removing possible junk meters from the equation.

With that being said, this week here are 3 great workouts to help you work on your weaknesses and get a great workout in under 60mins. Enjoy!!!

1. Improver Workout

Indoor Rowing allows you to focus on training from start to finish that means you can really dial in and ensure you are learning the metrics as well as the movement patterns as you spend time on the machine.

One of the benchmark distances in indoor rowing is the 5000m. Although most 5000m sessions don’t require hour-long training sessions, working on improving your 5km translates very well to overall health and fitness.

There are different ways to target improvements in the 5km distance, but aiming to row at ‘sweet spot’ intensity is a time-efficient session and a good starting point for most. To see noticeable improvements, it should be repeated 2-3 times a week. It can also be supplemented by a longer weekend row at zone 2, (60-70%MHR), and this is an ideal way to improve aerobic endurance.

15mins warm up with the gradual increase in effort
Main session.
3rounds of:
8mins @ 26spm
4mins recovery @ 18spm
The aim is to keep the pressure consistent for those 8mins and not let the metrics alter as you get deeper into the workout. Be consistent.

10mins cool down

2. Power crusher

Improving the efficiency of each stroke will play a part in overall endurance performance and reduce fatigue. A smooth stroke generates power throughout your movement, as opposed to stomping on the pressure, which results in more fatigue and far less efficiency.

Generally, 18-22SPM is considered low, and 30+SPM is high stroke rates. High SPM sessions aren’t about revving out at max sprint speed (unless you are training for 500m for example), but to improve efforts over 30SPM.

Low cadence sessions (spinning at 18-22) have their benefits too though and can be used as a form of strength training on the erg.

If your power is an area that you need to improve, this session can be done once a week in combination with other sessions, or as a focussed block 2-3 times a week.

10mins warm up with gradual build in intensity
Main session.
4 rounds of:
5mins @ 30SPM
3mins @ 18SPM

The aim is to try and put more effort into your lower SPM pieces and then sit back and use the higher SPM as active recovery, to do this you must learn to move fast but not apply lots of pressure to the stroke.
5mins cool down

3. Endurance builder

Endurance is obviously a key component to long events and rows and will determine success by the very fact you can continue to perform for sustained periods of time.

Generally, the longer the row, the more aerobic it is – requiring your body to utilise carbohydrate and fat as fuels and deliver energy in a sustainable way for hours.

Training for a long row doesn’t have to mean sitting on the erg for hours on end though, and one method is to use a polarised approach – spending 80 percent of your rowing time in a fully aerobic zone (70-80% max) and then 20% of your time performing high-intensityhigh intensity intervals. Short, sharp efforts for the 20% of training volume are very effectively trained indoors and form hard-but-short sessions.
These sessions can be done once or twice a week when balanced with longer, easier effort rides.

Endurance indoor training workout
15mins warm up, building effort gradually
Main session.
Ten rounds of:
30secs very hard effort (30+SPM)
15secs recovery (<20SPM)

5mins cool down

There you have it 3 great ways to work on your weaknesses this week! Take a photo and tag us @Darkhorserowing on social media and let us see those workouts.

Yours in fitness, education and 3 great new sessions.
Coach John.

 

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash