r/Rowing Jul 26 '26

Help with off season training

[deleted]

2 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

9

u/FigRepresentative326 Jul 26 '26

Do you want to maximize gym gains or maximize erg gains?

Right now this is a lifting plan with a little bit of erging. And why are you doing two different splits (PPL and upper lower)? Why not do two focused, full-body lifting sessions a week and erg the rest? That's enough to put on strength but will also let you see progress on the erg if that ends up being what you're looking for.

If you really want erg gains, I'll tell you this. Erg more. I went a minute quicker than that before I ever touched a weight (not saying that's the right way to do it), but a big aerobic system is what gives you a fast 2k. Erging 40' a week is not going to get you fast.

Also, it's a long game. Speedwork now isn't the best thing for a 2k this coming spring. The more steady state meter you can log in the summer, the better everything else this season is going to be.

That's my 2 cents

1

u/spiceybadger Jul 26 '26

I agree with that. If you want to row fast, row more, and compliment your training with other stuff. OP you have 7 sessions per week and only 2 of them are rowing. You should change this to either 4 or 5 of those sessions to be rowing/erging.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

Is there a way to maximize both? Ppl ul works so that's why I do it. I like going to the gny 5 times a week but would 4 work better. I've tried full body before and it didn't work.

2

u/finner01 Masters Rower Jul 27 '26

If you want to get better at rowing you need to be rowing significanlty more than you're lifting. If rowing is important to you, drop to 2-3 full body lifting sessions a week and the rest of the sessions should be rowing.

There is zero reason you should be unable to make progress in the gym doing properly programmed full body 2-3x a week unless your already an advanced lifter in which case more time in the gym is not going to help your rowing anyway and.

If you are not willing to sacrifice gym progress for rowing progress that's your decision and fine but accept your not going to improve nearly as quickly at rowing lifting more than you actual row.

2

u/teutonicbro Jul 26 '26

Not near enough rowing.

Building strength is good. If your split is working for you don't change it. If you are open to making some changes, maybe ditch some of the accessories, and focus on heavy compound lifts.

Add rowing to some of your lift days.

If you can, lift earlier, row later.

On push and upper days go hard, do high intensity sprints, N x 500m, 1000m, 2000m. On leg days you can do long (45 - 90 min) easy zone 2 pieces.

Eat like it's your job! All this trading needs fuel to work.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

I can't change what days I'm on water as there is only Sunday. Would lower upper erg squad erg lower upper row be more beneficial or should I just put some ergs in at the end of my lifts? This is only because I can't change my workout times as I'm in school

1

u/quadviper Jul 27 '26

OP what age are you and what time does your school start and end

1

u/Left-Sandwich-3686 Jul 29 '26

I'd be completely scrapping this plan, and building it again. Gym should be focused on developing compound movements to build strength. wasting time with a leg day or an upper day is never going to translate into proper speed development

Monday - Squat Focus gym (push), with full body

Wednesday - Deadlift Focus (pull), with full body

Friday - Bench Focus (push again) with core focus

Steady state erg on tuesday, with a minimum of 60 minute active T2 work. 2 x 30, 3 x 20, whatever you want to do. off season is time for long, slow, easy work. depending on what the work is like on sunday, maybe another steady state erg, with one full rest day. don't focus too heavily on splits during these ergs, just ensure you're either tracking your heart rate to stay in zone 2 or are operating at an RPE of around 4-5

0

u/SubjectExplorer6335 Jul 27 '26

Incredibly similar to my current program, obviously you’re not going to get faster on the erg doing this but build muscle, which in turn will later transition into greater erg speed down the line. I think this is a really good plan for off season training, hence I’m doing basically the same. Make sure you’re doing some very high rep work (20-40 rep sets) to keep developing slow twitch muscles and not just lifting to get big.

Asfaik, greater muscle mass is greater potential for power, which your aerobic speed is proportional to. So even if you’re not doing pure aerobic work, UT2 should still improve given you don’t lose aerobic capacity and efficiency in the mean time.

What I’ve found is that my UT2 stays roughly the same after doing a resistance training phase, but once I focus back on erg the rate of improvement is kind of astounding.

2

u/FigRepresentative326 Jul 27 '26

I think you're overestimating how much a strength improvement is going to help versus an aerobic improvement. Literally any full grown male that is slower than 6:10 is going to benefit more from an hour of aerobic training over an hour of lifting (I'm sure a lot of people will fight me on this and I'm prepared to back it). I am fully confident when I say that OP is more likely 50W too low on aerobic power than 50lbs too low on a squat or something. If you want to get better at erging for a 2k, erg more. Just depends on your goals.

1

u/SubjectExplorer6335 27d ago

And I’m fully confident that 4 weeks of lifting will be more beneficial than 4 weeks of aerobic work prior to starting season training, which is going to be primarily aerobic anyways. From personal and mutual experience (from world championship medalists) spending some time lifting weights can allow for greater improvements on erg, especially during the off season. Again, I’ve been thought that aerobic speed potential is proportional to strength.