Can someone point me to sprinting or shorter intense programs?

[35mmPrime]

Hey all. I'm a relatively new rower, just got a C2 back in August of this year. I really love using the machine and I row nearly every day. I've discovered that I prefer shorter workout sessions and I'd love to find if there are programs based on shorter sessions. I really dislike sessions that go beyond 15 minutes, I don't have any physical limitations to working out longer, I just prefer my sessions to be shorter, but also more frequent.

Are there any programs out there that might fit what I'm looking for? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Tony Cook]

Hi there, welcome to the forum.
I have never seen any programme with such a short workout time. Whilst anyone is free to row 15 mins straight, either constant speed, or with varying intensities I can’t see that you will improve in either sprints or distance work - in 15 mins you will never get to a 5k so you are limited to 2k and less. It may be that you are not interested in getting quicker times, I which case just do what you enjoy in your 15 mins.
Personally all of my sessions take a lot longer than 15 mins. For endurance work it’s 60 mins plus of steady state. For speed/ sprint sessions whilst the intervals are short - 45 seconds up to a couple of minutes - I need a 20 minute warm up to be ready for the intensity - then 8-10 mins cool down on the rower. Not that everyone feels the need to warm up.

[jamesg]

All you need do is 4x4' or 3x5' intervals, or similar, plus 10' warmup tacked on at the start. Rest 2 minutes or less. The strokes must all be full length and full force, so you'll need ergdata to see what you're actually doing. The Watt-Rating ratio can help too, keep it high. Ratings need not be high, it's the stroke that counts.

British Rowing has similar plans on three levels.
https://www.britishrowing.org/indoor-ro ... ing-plans/

For something more extreme, there once was a Fast Track Interactive set of programs. The typical FT part included three sets of 6 8 or 10 blocks of 10 strokes each, pulled flat out; one day a week.
Total strokes from: 3 x 6 x 10 = 180 to 3 x 10 x 10 = 300. So at rating 30, up to 10 minutes plus rest, plus the initial warmup .

The other FT days looked more or less like the taper phase of a 2k Interactive but as also the Weight Loss schedules, these programs were short.

Whatever you do, make sure you've learnt to row using the standard legs-swing-arms pull and arms-swing-slide recovery sequences. Otherwise you will not be rowing at all; and risk injury.

[CaseyClarke]

I have never seen any programme with such a short workout time. Whilst anyone is free to row 15 mins straight, either constant speed, or with varying intensities I can’t see that you will improve in either sprints or distance work

Baffled by this reply?! 15 minutes is more than enough for most sprint interval sessions, which will boost anaerobic capacity and improve times from 2km downwards.

Pete Plan Sprint / HIIT has a couple of workouts if you're after pure sprint training.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/sprint-hiit/

Regular Pete Plan has workouts like 8 x 500m and the Pete Pyramid which will be beneficial in the lead up to a 2km race / TT.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/the-pete-plan/

Lots of others out there if you spend a little time looking.

[Tony Cook]

I have never seen any programme with such a short workout time. Whilst anyone is free to row 15 mins straight, either constant speed, or with varying intensities I can’t see that you will improve in either sprints or distance work

Baffled by this reply?! 15 minutes is more than enough for most sprint interval sessions, which will boost anaerobic capacity and improve times from 2km downwards.

Pete Plan Sprint / HIIT has a couple of workouts if you're after pure sprint training.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/sprint-hiit/

Regular Pete Plan has workouts like 8 x 500m and the Pete Pyramid which will be beneficial in the lead up to a 2km race / TT.

https://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/the-pete-plan/

Lots of others out there if you spend a little time looking.

I was a bit lazy with my reply.
Of course some people will improve on just 15 min sessions but those will be ‘newbie gains’ or gains from a slow starting point. Anyone doing such sessions will get quicker by technique and getting used to the machine and will soon plateau.
The sessions you mention cannot be done in 15 mins. 8 x 500 at 1:40 per rep takes 13:20 with no rest. Even if you take short rests, for that session, of 2 mins then that’s another 14 mins - so no warmup and on the machine and off with no cool down will take over 27 minutes.
15 x 100m / 80sec rest - thats 20 minutes of rest without the time for the sprints. Say you could do an amazing time of 15 secs for 15 reps there’s another 5 mins of rowing. And Pete says 15 reps is a starting point with more to be added.
2k racing/TT is reckoned to be 80% aerobic and to improve your aerobic base you need a minimum of 3 x 20 mins in the right zone per week. As you get fitter you need longer.
Some people can get by with little/no warmup but it is really not recommended. The faster/sharper the reps in the session the longer you should warmup. Jumping on an erg cold and pulling a max effort 1 minute or 500m is likely to result in injury, as well as less than optimum times.

[Dutch]

Hey all. I'm a relatively new rower, just got a C2 back in August of this year. I really love using the machine and I row nearly every day. I've discovered that I prefer shorter workout sessions and I'd love to find if there are programs based on shorter sessions. I really dislike sessions that go beyond 15 minutes, I don't have any physical limitations to working out longer, I just prefer my sessions to be shorter, but also more frequent.

Are there any programs out there that might fit what I'm looking for? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I have been rowing for about 2 and a half years now and up until the beginning of this year I had only rowed 2k about 4 times in the previous year and a half, I just hated longer sessions. 10 mins was my training time, roughly. That included warm ups, 3 times a week.
I would do 8x20 secs with 10 sec rest or sometimes with a 20 sec rest.
6x200 meters with a 30 sec rest.
If I was going for a distance of say 1k I would take my current pb and aim to beat it by 2 secs by starting at 600 meters and doing 2 sessions at say 1.45 secs then next time out do 2x 650m for 1.45 pace with a 2 min rest and so on up to 900 m then the next attempt was a tt at 1k.
Each build up to a tt could take 3 weeks or so.
Very rarely I would venture to a mile and pick my pace and each session aim to hold the pace I wanted to do the mile tt in. So I would start at 800 meters but only do a 1 off session, so the next session was 900 meters training like this I could do 4 to 5 days a week. I found the intensity was my stimulus.

[Marc Miccio]

Welcome to the rowing community. When my schedule gets busy (I have busy months and quieter months) I have been doing this short workout in the mornings before work:

Warm up for 0-1000m
Then do 5 strokes as fast as you can every 250m (1000, 1250, 1500, 1750) and after the 5 strokes recover until the next interval time arrives
Then do 10 strokes as fast as you can every 250mg (2000, 2250, etc) and recover
Then do 15 strokes as fast as you can
Then cool down.

This workout takes me about 20 minutes and I do it in the morning before going to work. Getting your speed up is important in short workouts. This helps me keep my strength when workout time is limited

When you have more time you can lengthen the workout (20 strokes, 25, 30, etc) if needed.
Let us know how it goes.

[Tsnor]

The Concept2 workout of the day has 3 workout lengths. The shortest is longer than you wanted, but not hard to stop early.

https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/wod (also look at the alternatives link below the short workout)

Suggest also you read a bit about "rest days and recovery" and "value of long/slow workouts". The TL;DR version is only do 2-3 intense workouts a week max, and get a rest day after a hard workout. At 20 minutes max per workout you are likely going pretty hard to work up a sweat and you do not want to do that every day. You will get a lot stronger doing 20 minute workouts 2-3 times per week, much better than doing nothing at all.

[Rick]

Check out Shane Farmer and Dark Horse Rowing on YouTube. Shane has workouts of all lengths, and specifically sprint intervals at 20 minutes. You could alter them to 15, but the 20s really fly by. He has both time and distance intervals, as well.

Shane also does new rower workouts that focus on form and proper technique that were a big help to me early on (yes, I was doing it wrong). Good attitude, doesn’t take himself too seriously, and lots of options. He has a paid option available, but his YT stuff is all free.

Here are two to get you started:

https://youtu.be/JCdzCXyc_ms
https://youtu.be/2EriI_QCyGc