Many people ask how long they should row on a rowing machine and have the desire to know when their rowing workout is most effective. These types of questions are not easy to answer but one thing is this for sure: there is no definitive right or wrong answer to these questions. This is due to the fact that different individuals have different goals for rowing (high-intensity stroke rate or moderate workout),the individual’s rowing technique or approach (target muscle groups or improve endurance), different time frames, and a different training plan. It is of paramount importance to also know that everyone loses weight differently. For instance, it is easier for someone who is out of shape to lose weight than another who is fit and engages in a cardio workout a few times a week. These factors have a lot to play in how long one should rowor how intense they should engage in rowing.

Factors about How Long You Should Row

There are different questions you need to answer by yourself in order to help you establish how long to row or how much energy to use. Some of the factors include:

What Are Your Goals for Rowing?

Thinking about your indoor rowing machine goals is a very important factor in knowing how long to row. It is good to have goals before you embark on rowing, otherwise what is the point in doing it? From your goals, you will know how your rowing plan will be—and the duration. An example of a rowing machine goal is “I want to lose 18 lbs. in three months. I will lose 3 lbs. every week and check my weight every Saturday morning.”

How Much Weight Do You Wish to Lose?

This is another question you must answer to have a good rowing plan. If you have a particular about of fat you wish to lose or you wish to improve your fitness and heart rate, this can assist you back into a time each day to spend on the rower. Having knowledge of this will help you to row better and longer or not. It will also help you to switch your meals, eating well and so on.Using an indoor rower regularly can help boost your metabolism leading to burning more calories throughout the day. Having the goal of losing weight and working backward will help you know how long you need to use a rowing machine each day.

What Cardiovascular Benefits Do You Want?

There are many benefits to why people choose to row. While some might be interested in losing weight, others may be interested in building muscles or having better cardiovascular health. So, knowing how long to row also depends on the type of cardiovascular results that you want. You can use a rower for both fast and short aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

Rowing Machine for Anaerobic

If your aim for rowing is to improve your anaerobic conditioning, you do not need to row often. Anaerobic exercises involve rowing for 5–20-minute spells. Anaerobic conditioning is best achieved through high-intensity interval training and sprints.

Rowing Machine for Aerobic

Conversely, if you want to row with the aim of improving your aerobic conditioning, you may need to spend about 45–90 minutes on a rower.

Do You Want to Build Muscle While Rowing?

This is another important factor that determines how long you need to spend on a rowing machine. Rowing has more to do in cardio than in strength building. If you want to build muscle, you should go for weight training more than rowing. However, you can use a rowing machine if you wish to build a lean muscle. To end up with lean muscle, you should perform high-intensity interval training. This type of training is intense but short. Through this training exercise, your muscle fibers will endure micro tears which ultimately leads to the growth of the muscles. Good rowing high-intensity interval training can be for 20 seconds. It should be hard training which is followed by 20 seconds of rest. You can do this continually until you are exhausted. The total time of each workout should be 10 minutes or slightly less. You can do exercises like pull-ups, sit-ups and more before and after the high-intensity interval training on the rower.

What Is the Time Frame for Your Rowing Goals?

When you have different time frames for rowing machine goals, it will affect the time you need to spend rowing—especially if losing weight is your ultimate goal. Your rowing time on the rower each day will change if you increase the time frame.It is very important to give yourself enough time to achieve your rowing machine goals. The longer the time, the less the stress on your muscles and the easier it is to make adjustments to your workout plan.

How Much Time Can You Spend Exercising?

It might be easy to give an answer to this question but everyone’s schedules are different—and most are full. Figuring out how much time you can spend in a day for exercise will be helpful in your workout plan. You can remove some activities from your daily schedule if you have a little time to exercise each day. You can look into the time you spend on emails, Facebook, Television, reading and so on when removing some of these activities. Anything that has no impact on your family, your health or your job can be removed, leaving you more time to exercise. You can even watch your favorite program while rowing as long as your rowing machine does not give out loud noise. You will surely have time to exercise if you make it a priority. Exercising daily can help you meet your workout goals.

What Is the Least Amount of Time You Can Row?

This has to do with the least amount of time you can row on a rowing machine. You should not consider this before starting to exercise. Instead of looking for an easy way, you should have a goal and figure out the amount of time you can use to achieve the goal. You can row for 20–25 minutes every day and begin to see the results in a few weeks. Rowing daily at this time interval can help you lose about 0.5 lbs. every week. However, this depends on your current health status. As earlier stated, you tend to lose weight faster and easier when you are out of shape. Eating a healthy meal with 25 minutes of rowing daily should yield amazing results.

How Long Should I Row For?

From the aforementioned questions and explanations, you should, by now, have a better understanding of your rowing time on a rower. The time you should spend on a rowing machine largely depends on your goals and the time frame required to achieve your goals.

Rowing Goals and Time to Achieve Them

Rowing Machine 15 Minutes Per Day

If you are rowing for 15 minutes every day and you want to lose weight, you need to have a longer time frame to achieve your weight loss goal. Using a rower for 15 minutes daily can burn up to 300 calories. However, this is possibly based on the level of intensity. This simply means that you stand the chance of losing 0.5 lbs. every week without dieting. To make this a reality, you should row every day for five months. It is important to know that you can also lose more than 0.5 lbs. in a week as a change in your metabolism. Increasing your metabolism will result in burning more calories. When you eat healthier food, you can lose an additional pound or so per week. An intense rowing workout for 15 minutes every day will build lean muscle and improve anaerobic conditioning.

Rowing Machine 30 Minutes Per Day

You can lose 1 lb. every week when you row daily for 30 minutes—even when you are overweight. Using a rower for 30 minutes each day improves both the anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. This rowing will leave a visible result in the form of lean muscle development in the chest, the back, the core, the arms, and the legs.

Rowing Machine 90 Minutes Per Day

People who are driven to lose weight can make use of a rowing machine for up to 90 minutes every day. More than 1000 calories can be burned in each session. It could also result in losing 2 lbs. a week just from the rowing machine alone. Rowing for 90 minutes also improves metabolism. It is a good aerobic exercise and people who engage in such rowing will some become lean. There is a faster result in this rowing time frame.

Overview

It is not easy to figure out how long you are expected to row. You need to specify your rowing goals and set out a time frame to achieve your goals. From your goals and timelines, you can decide to row every day or a few days a week. It is good to have more time set aside for rowing so that you can achieve your goals make certain adjustments if need be. Happy rowing!