Extra Practice

[nick464464]

I am currently a freshman in highschool at a rowing club. My 2k time is 7:32 and I weigh 132 lbs or 59 kg. I have about 20-30 minutes after practice were I can workout. I am at my club during this time so I have access to ergs and everything else. I have been erging 20min everyday after practice with steady improvement on both those pieces and my 2k. However I have not been improving nearly as much as I used to from piece to piece. I think I have hit a plateau. I was thinking of doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) during this time instead of 20 minutes now to break the routine and keep improving but I am not sure what is a good workout. Does anyone do this too? What HIIT workout do you do or any other workout? (Doesn't have to be an erg.)

[brianh]

I have previous done Tabata intervals on the rowing machine. They are the definitive HIIT. You can get a Gymboss or phone app to time it for you. Twenty seconds of all-out effort, 10 seconds rest; repeat for a total of 8 work intervals. If you look up videos of what a Tabata is, they're almost all doing it wrong, it should be absolutely unchecked effort, literally as hard as you can pull the handle every time. You should be deep into oxygen deprivation by the end of the third work interval, and by the fifth work interval it feels like death would be preferable. It's more pain and misery then a 2k time trial, crammed into a shorter time period. But, never has my fitness level shot up so fast as when I did it. I'd do it every now and again now, but I honestly haven't been able to work up the courage since I bought my own machine a year ago.

Do a VERY good warmup before starting, including a few pulls here and there at maximum strength. Set the drag factor low so that the 8 starts from a dead stop don't overstrain your lower back. Make sure you don't let your form fall apart, or you risk injury. When it's finished, resist the urge to go into a hyperventilating fetal position and cry, and do a proper cooldown instead.

[Ted209]

Hardest workout I've ever done on the erg is 8x2m30s pieces with rest time=work time. The pieces are done at slightly above 2k pace. Speaking strictly in terms of pain, I never want to do these again, whereas I would happily do tabata intervals again.