1. 30-40 minutes steady piece at a moderate to hard intensity, focusing on effective technique.
2. Three 10-minute pieces with 2-3 minutes rest. Your total meters rowing should end up being more than the meters you row in a single 30-minute iece.
3. Four to six 5-minute pieces with 2-3 minutes rest. Make these pieces more intense than the 10-minute pieces.
4. Four 1000-meter pieces with 3-4 minutes rest, at about the pace you might row a 2000 meter race.
5. Six 500-meter pieces with 3-4 minutes rest, at a pace 2-3 seconds faster than your pace for the 1000 meter piece

Sample Winter Erg Workouts!

Now there's no excuse for showing up at practice in the spring fat and lazy.  :)  Have fun with these, and if you are currently pretty out of shape (like me) start slow and increase the intensity and/or duration of the workouts over time.

Some vocab you might need to know:

Rate: your stroke rate in strokes per minute is displayed in the upper right corner of the erg display

AR: Active rest, stay on the erg rowing at the paddle to keep the lactic acid from building up

Paddle: Rowing lightly, don’t let your form go and keep some pressure

Split: Your projected 500m time if you keep pulling that hard.  This is what should be displayed as the big number on your erg screen.   If it’s not then hit the large button on the  right until it is.  Don’t display the cal/ hr you’re burning, that’s for people at Balleys who don’t know what rowing is.

 Workout #1

**          stretch

            7-10 min warm-up of your choice

            set the erg to resistance 10

            rate: 28 spm whole time

            5x ( 30sec full pressure followed by 20

 sec pressure off but keep the rate up)

            10 min AR

            5x 30sec on / 20 sec off

            stretch

 Workout #2

**          stretch

            7-10 min warm-up of your choice

            resistance 4-5

            3/4 pressure

            3x 13 min pyramids:

                            18spm 2min

                         20spm 2min

                        22spm 2min

                        24spm 1min

                        22spm 2min

                        20spm 2min

                        18spm 2min

                 3min rest

            stretch

Workout #3

**          stretch

               7-10 min warm-up of your choice

            resistance 4-5

            rate: 26

            3x 3km  with 5min AR

            stretch

Workout #4 

**          stretch

            7-10 min warm-up of your choice

            resistance 4-5

            rate: 26

            3x 3km  with 5min AR

            stretch

 Worko ut #5

**          stretch

run 30min (if you can’t run erg steady state at 1/2 pressure)

           3 x weight circuits, light weight go for as many reps as you can do in 1 min at each station

                 jumpies (squat down to touch

the floor outside your   feet, jump, repeat)

                 bench pulls

                 inclined situps

                 curls

                 wall sits

                 pull to chin

                 military press

            stretch

 Workout #6

**          stretch

            7-10 min warm-up of your choice

            set the erg to resistance 10

            rate: 28 spm whole time

            5x ( 30 sec full pressure followed by 20 seconds pressure off but keep the rate up)

            10 min AR

            5x 30sec on /  20 sec off

            stretch

Workout #7

**          stretch

            7-10 min warm-up of your choice

            resistance 4-5

            3/4 pressure

            3x 13 min pyramids:

                            20spm 2min

                         22spm 2min

                        24spm 2min

                        26spm 1min

                        24spm 2min

                        22spm 2min

                        20spm 2min

                 3min rest

            stretch