Rowing is essentially a strength-endurance activity requiring periods of activity in competition of anything from a few seconds (in the Oxbridge-style 'bumps') to half an hour (in the longer Winter head of the river races). Body movements are unlike anything encountered in normal life, and therefore newcomers to rowing, properly trained, can expect to achieve large fitness gains in the early stages. It requires a lot of technique to efficiently transfer power to the forward movement of a racing boat, and my belief is that time on the water is best spent developing that technique. Fitness training is best conducted in a controlled and supervised environment, where gains can be measured, recorded, and built upon.
Rowing ergos can be used to great effect as they can combine cardiovascular training with an activity closely resembling rowing. Here, aspects of technique may also be taught, and the better the technique the more beneficial the exercise. For optimum strength and endurance gains, an ergo session should end with a sprint finish, to provide the maximum training stimulus. For optimum cardiovascular benefit, the ergo should be for at least 10 minutes, and send the pulse rate into the calculated training range. Ergo training for an hour will have negligible effect upon your ability to row a ten minute race - see endurance training below. Distance, time, and date should be noted after each ergo session.
It is well worth remembering the rudiments of good rowing technique while on the ergo:
See also the ergo pace vs power and weight-adjusted, on-water performance prediction charts.
Callisthenics are exercises using your own body weight to provide resistance, most commonly in a form of circuit training. For any given exercise, if the range of movement is total, and temporary muscle failure occurs after around 8 to 10 repetitions then the exercise is efficient. If more repetitions are required, then more work is done to achieve less (a certain proportion of high-strength muscle fibres will not have been recruited). If temporary muscle failure does not occur, then the optimum training effect will not have been stimulated. Finally if further repetitions are performed after temporary muscle failure, then there is a good chance of a net performance loss. Callisthenics have only a limited useful life - performance gains result in a greater number of repetitions required to bring about fatigue, gradually reducing the effectiveness of the exercise while increasing the total energy expended - 'the law of diminishing returns'.
Unless people know how to exercise, the training effects will at best be questionable. Specificity of training should also be remembered when designing callisthenics - correctly performed press-ups will train for press-ups (or an activity that closely resembles press-ups) and nothing else.
Fitness training over and above ergo training is probably best done with weights. That is not to say that weight training does not have as many poor regimes as any other form of training. The advantage of weight training is that machines have been designed specifically for the task of targeting muscle groups and providing a means of controlled, safe, and measured loading. Weights can be selected to provide the most efficient overloading of any or every major muscle group in the body.
A weight training session would ideally be done immediately after the ergo while the muscles are still warm and the pulse rate is still in the training range, but in any case on the same day so as to combine the recovery periods. Suitable exercises for rowing would target the buttocks, thighs, lower back, chest, and arms. Around 10 exercises in all, alternating extensions with curls to overlap rest periods for secondary muscle groups and to maintain the aerobic workout, preceded by a 5 or 10 minute ergo, should take no more than around 40 minutes.
Much is made of so called 'endurance' training, i.e. low rate exercise over a long period. It is perfectly legitimate to target aerobic rowing fitness, but the objective of training to win a race should come first. Each body is best at targeting its own weak links over a given target distance. The optimally efficient training distance is never going to be more than the event distance, and in most cases considerably less. (E.g. marathon runners don't train by running 4 marathons a week). Training at a higher load and shorter time may not result in the same increase in aerobic fitness, but it will result an improvement in overall fitness for the target event that is at least as good. The question to ask is: are you training to improve your aerobic fitness, or are you training to win a race ? These are differently aligned objectives which require different fitness training regimes. It should be remembered that if aerobic fitness is the ultimate fitness goal, then such a low rate session should still end in exhaustion to stimulate the desired training effect. Moreover, the club objective is to win a race, and the fitness training regime should support this directly and not entertain abstract objectives.
The most important tool in fitness training has to be a motivation system. Here a simple fitness training log with three blanks per week to fill with training scores provides confirmation that it has all been worth while, and more importantly, well worth continuing.
Exercise is a highly personal discipline - we all have different bodies, different weaknesses and different objectives. One can only rely upon the motivation of others to produce worthwhile returns to a very limited extent. Train as a team by all means, but do not expect any two persons' exercise regimes to be the same. If they are, at least one is not training optimally. Monitor your own progress religiously - some record of achievement forms the ultimate motivation once the initial novelty and pain of exercise has faded.
Exercise does damage which is unpleasant. Beneficial recovery is the objective of exercise. Minimise the unpleasantness by training optimally, and maximise the benefits by allowing your body to fully recover - rest, food, and glorious sleep.
