Moving your workout indoors after nice weather is over is always challenging. Instead of the great outdoors, you now have to create a workout routine that fits within your four walls. 

While you can certainly have great workouts with no fitness machine, having one simply makes it all so much easier. If yours happens to be a rowing machine, you’ve come to the right place. 

If you’re just starting to train on your rowing machine after some time of inactivity, or if you’re moving to the rowing machine from an actual boat, you might be confused as to where to start. 

That’s why today, we’re coming to your with suggestions for three rowing workouts that you should try when you transition to the indoor season.

Start with endurance training

Start easy, get the feel of the rowing machine. 

When you haven’t been active in a long time, or if you’re used to rowing in the boat, you might risk injuries if you try to go as hard as possible right away. 

Why not try endurance training?

Endurance training will help you determine your current level of fitness, and it will give you the opportunity to get used to the feel of the rowing machine. 

Sit on your rowing machine, set your own pace, and see how long you can go. 

HOLOFIT RECOMMENDATION:

If you’re on HOLOFIT, for this we recommend our Explore mode. Simply choose one of our worlds, set your own pace, and try to collect as many hidden trophies as you can find. You’ll be so distracted that you’ll very likely end up working out for much longer than you had anticipated!

Don’t miss out on the HIIT benefits

As soon as you are used to your rowing machine, it’s the perfect time to push yourself. Enter HIIT!

HIIT is one of the most efficient types of workout that you could do, and your rowing machine is perfect for it. If you aren’t familiar with HIIT, it basically refers to alternating short periods of high intensity with longer recovery periods. 

A 30-minute HIIT workout burns 20-30% more calories than other types of workouts, making it perfect for people with busy schedules. Moreover, it increases your metabolic rate so that you are losing calories hours after your workout has finished! Isn’t that great?! 

HOLOFIT RECOMMENDATION:

HOLOFIT comes with a 15-minute HIIT workout that’s sure to get your blood pumping. You get to choose the level of difficulty and the world you want to do it in, and you’re good to go. 

Monitor your progress with “Time attack” workouts

One of the easiest ways to monitor your progress is by implementing occasional time attack workouts into your indoor rowing routine. 

To set this up, you’ll have to set up control workouts. Pick several distances, for example, 500, 1000, and 2000 m, and then try and complete them in the shortest possible time. 

After you’ve set up your control workouts, you can go back every two weeks and try to beat your previous best time. In this way, you’ll easily be able to notice your progress on the rower. 

HOLOFIT RECOMMENDATION: 

One of the game modes available on HOLOFIT is called Time Attack, and this is precisely what it is for. Simply set your control workouts, HOLOFIT will remember them and you’ll even be racing a blue ghost of your past performance. Fun! 

That would be all for today! Just remember to listen to your body and not overwork it, and try to make it fun for yourself. Indoor workouts don’t have to be boring! 

Finally, to make sure you’re getting the most out of your indoor rowing workouts, download our free Indoor Rowing Form Checklist. Simply go through it and make sure that you check all the boxes.