A rowing machine gets boring when every session looks the same: same duration, same pace, same resistance. You get variety as soon as you adjust one or more settings: pace, length, resistance, technique, music or movement. Here are seven ideas that add variety.
1. Intervals instead of steady-state
Two minutes at a brisk pace, one minute easy, six times. Or 500 meters fast, 500 meters easy. Intervals make the time feel shorter and give your session structure. If you like, build a pyramid: 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 minutes.
2. Change your stroke rate on purpose
Row for three minutes at 18 strokes per minute with a powerful pull, then for three minutes at 26. Your stroke length stays the same. The two sections feel completely different, and you find out which stroke rate suits you.
3. Change the resistance
On the Concept2 you set the resistance with the damper, which takes seconds. Try one session with low resistance and a high stroke rate, then one with high resistance and a lower stroke rate. It's like riding downhill and uphill on a bike. On the WaterRower, the water level determines the resistance. You don't change it during a workout, so instead you vary how fast you pull: the faster you pull, the more resistance you generate, just like in a boat.
4. Technique drills
Ten strokes with arms only, ten with arms and body, ten at half slide, then full slide. Or: pause at the end of each stroke and hold still for one second. Drills like these move your attention from the monitor to the movement.
5. Music with a beat
Rowing has a rhythm, and so does music. Divide a song's beats per minute by the beats per stroke and you have your stroke rate: a song at 88 BPM gives you a stroke rate of 22 at four beats per stroke, and a song at 128 BPM gives you a stroke rate of 32. At the FlowRow Studio we row to playlists every week, and with the right beat the hour flies by. I also show you exercises there that use eight beats per repetition, such as the overhead swing at a rate of 16.
6. Row with a partner or a group
Side by side, at the same stroke rate, with one person setting the pace. Online, you can do this with live classes or videos in which a coach calls the pace.
7. Change the movement itself: balance
All the ideas so far change how you row. The movement stays the same: back and forth on the rail.
On the water there's also a sideways movement: the boat tips slightly with every stroke, and you balance it out with your core. That's the part of rowing that's missing on the machine.
The FlowRow Board brings it back: two boards under the feet of your rowing machine, on which it sways from side to side like a boat. Every stroke becomes a small balance challenge, and the same session feels new. Six balance levels let you control the difficulty. 9 out of 10 customers start between levels 2 and 4.
→ FlowRow Boards for WaterRower, Concept2 and other rowing machines
The simplest trick
Don't do everything at once. Changing one setting a week is enough to stop your training feeling like a chore.
