Rowing beginners should focus on form before building muscle or cardiovascular endurance to avoid injury. Steady-state training builds endurance and lactic acid threshold, while interval training improves performance. High-intensity training mimics race conditions for runners.
Anyone new to rowing machine workouts should start with easy exercises that focus on form rather than muscle building or cardiovascular benefit. Rowing with incorrect form can lead to injury and may prevent you from getting any real benefit from this strenuous exercise. Once you’ve developed proper form, you can start trying other more difficult rowing machine workouts that will build cardiovascular and muscular endurance. Start with steady state training and then try something a little more challenging like interval training. High intensity training is ideal for rowers participating in races or other competitions.
Steady-state rowing machine workouts are rowing workouts that don’t fluctuate in speed or intensity. Basically, you’ll be rowing at a constant speed for a long period of time, training your muscles to withstand the strenuous movement and building cardiovascular endurance. This workout is also good for lactic acid threshold training; Lactic acid is a byproduct of burned glycogen, which is the body’s preferred fuel source during physical activity. Lactic acid buildup can make muscles stiff and tired, so a lactic acid threshold workout will allow you to increase the amount of time your muscles can function with lactic acid buildup in them.
An even better lactic acid threshold workout is interval training. Interval rowing machine workouts involve starting at a steady pace and eventually dramatically increasing the intensity of the workout for a set period of time, then back down to a steady pace. The high intensity portion of the workout should be done at 80% to 90% max effort for a short period of time. The rest period at a slower pace should be a bit longer. Repeating this process several times will help build muscular and cardiovascular performance. You can also do pyramid interval training, with periods of high intensity that get longer each time they are repeated.
High-intensity rowing machine workouts involve going as hard as possible for a shorter period of time. Runners will often perform these rowing machine workouts in preparation for a race, as the body will mimic the intensity and duration of the pace and length of the race. These workouts can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as 45 minutes, and the rower will row as hard as possible while maintaining good form. The muscles will get used to this type of tension in time for a race that will place these conditions on the body.
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