I bought an indoor rowing machine a few weeks ago to keep my aerobic fitness going through winter. We took delivery on Dec 24th and I did a short 10 minute workout to test it out. Since then I have used it 10 more days and so far have rowed over 100,000 meters or 100km, also known as over 62 miles.
I am still trying to take it easy and the longest single distance rowed was today at 15km. I broke it up into four 3750meter segments with a 3 minute easy break between each one. Breaking it up like that is something I learned from a 12 week training program I am going to start after my vacation.
One might think that rowing in a room would be really boring and it could be. To keep things more interesting I have been listening to audiobooks during the workouts. So far I have listening to Sid Meier’s Memoir, which if you have played any Sid Meier games is a fun listen. Now I am listening to Range by David Epstein, which is a really fascinating review of how humans have changed due to the modern world.
This is a change from my initial use of Apple Fitness+ workouts, but I found that those workouts were not as helpful as more traditional rowing workouts. In the Apple workouts you watch the video to match the instructors strokes per minute. That works fine but from reading about rowing workouts the stroke rate they are using around 26 to 30 strokes per minute is pretty high.
The training program I am using now has my long easy workouts at 18 to 20 strokes per minute. This is a lot slower stroke rate which allows me to focus on my form much more. It also keeps my heart rate in a zone 2 area which is best for improving aerobic fitness. There are also more difficult interval workouts that use higher stroke rates to work on my strength and speed.
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